d "Non." There
appears to be no doubt that the origin of the word _Carabe_, or _Karabe_,
as assigned by Scaliger, is substantially correct. As shown in the
preceding note, Martin adopted this view. If any doubt should remain it
will be removed by the following notes which are due to Mr. A. Houtum
Schindler (member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers), of Terahan.

Reference is made to the magnetic and electric properties of stones in
three early Persian lapidaries. There are three stones only mentioned,
amber, loadstone, and garnet. The electric property of the diamond is not
mentioned. The following extracts are from the _Tansuk namah_, by Nasir ed
din Tusi, A.D. 1260. The two other treatises give the first extracts in the
same words.

"_Kahruba_, also _Kahraba_ [Amber],

"Is yellow and transparent, and has its name from the property, which it
possesses, of attracting small, dry pieces of straw or grass, after it has
been rubbed with cloth and become warm. [Note. In Persian, Kah = straw;
ruba = the robber, hence Kahruba = the straw-robber.] Some consider it a
mineral, and say that it is found in the Mediterranean and Caspian seas,
floating on the surface, but this is not correct. The truth is that Kahruba
{34} is the gum of a tree, called joz i rumi [_i.e._, roman nut; walnut?],
and that most of it is brought from Rum [here the Eastern Rome] and from
the confines of Sclavonia and Russia. On account of its bright colour and
transparency it is made into beads, rings, belt-buckles, &c. ... &c.

* * * * *

"The properties of attraction and repulsion are possessed by other
substances than loadstone, for instance, by amber and bijadah,^1 which
attract straws, feathers, etc., and of many other bodies, it can be said
that they possess the power of attraction. There is also a stone which
attracts gold; it has a pure yellow colour. There is also a stone which
attracts silver from distances of three or two yards. There are also the
stone which attracts tin, very hard, and smelling like asafoetida, the
stone attracting hair, the stone attracting meat, etc., but, latterly, no
one has seen these stones: no proof, however, that they do not exist."

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) gives the following under the heading of _Karabe_ (see
_Canona Medicinae_, Giunta edition, Venet., 1608, lib. ii., cap. 371, p.
336):

"Karabe quid est? Gumma sicut sandaraca, tendens ad citrinitatem, &
albedinem, & peruietat