magnet held underneath. We are told by other writers that images
of the gods and goddesses were suspended in the air by lodestone
in the ceilings of the temples of Diana of Ephesus, of Serapis at
Alexandria, and others. It is surprising, however, that neither
the Greeks nor Romans, with all their philosophy, would seem to
have discovered its directive property.

During the dark ages pieces of Lodestone mounted as magnets were
employed in the "black arts." A small natural magnet of this kind
is shown in figure 25, where L is the stone shod with two iron
"pole-pieces," which are joined by a "keeper" A or separable
bridge of iron carrying a hook for supporting weights.

Apparently it was not until the twelfth century that the compass
found its way into Europe from the East. In the Landnammabok of
Ari Frode, the Norse historian, we read that Flocke Vildergersen,
a renowned viking, sailed from Norway to discover Iceland in the
year 868, and took with him two ravens as guides, for in those
days the "seamen had no lodestone (that is, no lidar stein, or
leading stone) in the northern countries." The Bible, a poem of
Guiot de Provins, minstrel at the court of Barbarossa, which was
written in or about the year 890, contains the first mention of
the magnet in the West. Guiot relates how mariners have an "art
which cannot deceive" of finding the position of the polestar,
that does not move. After touching a needle with the magnet, "an
ugly brown stone which draws iron to itself," he says they put the
needle on a straw and float it on water so that its point turns to
the hidden star, and enables them to keep their course. Arab
traders had probably borrowed the floating needle from the
Chinese, for Bailak Kibdjaki, author of the Merchant's Treasure,