Note note 21, p. 214 — BOOK VI. (continued 2)

[Pg 214][21] This is given in the German translation as kobelt. The kobelt (or cobaltum of Agricola) was probably arsenical-cobalt, a mineral common in the Saxon mines. The origin of the application of the word cobalt to a mineral appears to lie in the German word for the gnomes and goblins (kobelts) so universal to Saxon miners' imaginations,—this word in turn probably being derived from the Greek cobali (mimes). The suffering described above seems to have been associated with the malevolence of demons, and later the word for these demons was attached to this disagreeable ore. A quaint series of mining "sermons," by Johann Mathesius, entitled Sarepta oder Bergpostill, Nürnberg, 1562, contains the following passage (p. 154) which bears out this view. We retain the original and varied spelling of cobalt and also add another view of Mathesius, involving an experience of Solomon and Hiram of Tyre with some mines containing cobalt.

"Sometimes, however, from dry hard veins a certain black, greenish, grey or ash-coloured earth is dug out, often containing good ore, and this mineral being burnt gives strong fumes and is extracted like 'tutty.' It is called cadmia fossilis. You miners call it cobelt. Germans call the Black Devil and the old Devil's furies, old and black cobel, who injure people and their cattle with their witchcrafts. Now the Devil is a wicked, malicious spirit, who shoots his poisoned darts into the hearts of men, as sorcerers and witches shoot at the limbs of cattle and men, and work much evil and mischief with cobalt or hipomane or horses' poison. After quicksilver and rotgültigen ore, are cobalt and wismuth fumes; these are the most poisonous of the metals, and with them one can kill flies, mice, cattle, birds, and men. So, fresh cobalt and kisswasser (vitriol?) devour the hands and feet of miners, and the dust and fumes of cobalt kill many mining people and workpeople who do much work among the fumes of the smelters. Whether or not the Devil and his hellish crew gave their name to cobelt, or kobelt, nevertheless, cobelt is a poisonous and injurious metal even if it contains silver. I find in I. Kings 9, the word Cabul. When Solomon presented twenty towns in Galilee to the King of Tyre, Hiram visited them first, and would not have them, and said the land was well named Cabul as Joshua had christened it. It is certain from Joshua that these [Pg 215]twenty towns lay in the Kingdom of Aser, not far from our Sarepta, and that there had been iron and copper mines there, as Moses says in another place. Inasmuch, then, as these twenty places were mining towns, and cobelt is a metal, it appears quite likely that the mineral took its name from the land of Cabul. History and circumstances bear out the theory that Hiram was an excellent and experienced miner, who obtained much gold from Ophir, with which he honoured Solomon. Therefore, the Great King wished to show his gratitude to his good neighbour by honouring a miner with mining towns. But because the King of Tyre was skilled in mines, he first inspected the new mines, and saw that they only produced poor metal and much wild cobelt ore, therefore he preferred to find his gold by digging the gold and silver in India rather than by getting it by the cobelt veins and ore. For truly, cobelt ores are injurious, and are usually so embedded in other ore that they rob them in the fire and consume (madtet und frist) much lead before the silver is extracted, and when this happens it is especially speysig. Therefore Hiram made a good reckoning as to the mines and would not undertake all the expense of working and smelting, and so returned Solomon the twenty towns."