On the Antiquities of Prussia

wore around their necks for a long age; [various kinds of water] near them infest the throat and the neighboring flesh. The equestrian forces of the Turks observe this today with their own horses. The experience of the moderns likewise finds that the white variety is effective for accelerating childbirth, a fact very well known to the women of Germany. Very many testify that stones of the bladder and kidneys are crushed and expelled by drinking it. It has been discovered that poisons and pestilential air are put to flight by its scent. Distillations are also checked, and it is beneficial for the wounded if they take it in a drink. For this reason, it is also taken for poultices. But this also ought to be made known: that amber can be dyed any color one pleases with the suet of kids and the root of alkanet, for they say that it can even be dyed with purple. Those pieces, however, which are translucent have a great resemblance to gems used for adulteration, and especially to amethysts. Amber is polished by being boiled in the fat of a suckling pig. Its shavings, with oil added, burn more brightly and for a longer time than the pith of flax. It is known to everyone that, when heated by the friction of the fingers, it attracts straw and dry leaves to itself, just as the magnet attracts iron. Some have reported that it has even attracted plates of copper and iron. I have seen a lump to which iron had adhered as if it had grown into it, which perhaps it had attracted by its own power. Many have attempted to make amber flexible and ductile, but it has resulted in nothing—which is strange, since it emerges with excessive moisture and sap, as we have indicated. Let these things be said hastily concerning amber, the riches of the Sudini, on account of which they were frequently sought by foreign nations <