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BOOK V
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101
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Myites, because
it is not striated, resembles a mouse. There are two species both
oblong and rounded like a scallop. One, colored gray, is found in Hesse
near the fortified city of Spangenberg associated with trochites and
in the quarries of Hildesheim, Saxony, as already mentioned. The other
species, sometimes gray sometimes light yellow, is found in the moat on
the north side of Hildesheim.
Onychites has an odor similar to finger-nails which the Greeks call onyx. It resembles them in both color and form and is found in the quarries near Hildesheim.
Ostracites (fossil ostrea shells) is a stone that takes its name from oslreum which
it resembles. There are two species, the larger found in the moat on
the north side of Hildesheim has a cleavage similar to selenite. The
smaller species is found not far from Hanover on a cliff near the
village of Linda in an unctuous light green earth.
Porphyroides with
a gray color and shaped like the pointed stinger of the purple fish is
found in the same moat of Hildesheim but it is not cone-shaped as is
the purple fish. A similar substance is found in this same place
without the point but having instead transverse striae.
Conchites is found in the same moat. It has curved ridges running back to the shoulder and decorated with armatura of
a golden color. It is commonly six inches long and three inches wide.
Marine shells, according to Paulanias, are scattered throughout the
stone at Megara and for that reason the stone is called conchites.
Since philogynos is also covered with armatura it has been called chry-sites. It
is found in Egypt, according to Pliny, and resembles the oyster of
Athens. Valerius Cordus, who recently suffered a most untimely death in
Rome, has brought me a very large number of stones from Hildesheim.
This young man not only made an intensive study of these natural
objects but also studied a great many herbs. But I have said enough
about this genus of stones and shall now take up the rest.
Stelechites has
the appearance of the trunk of a tree from which the branches have been
cut. It is found with a gray color in Hesse near the fortified city of
Spangenberg on the Cnorenberg hill. Belemnites has the shape of an arrow and for that reason the Saxons call it by a name compounded from ephialtis and sagitta. When
drunk it is said to cure nightmare and hallucinations and prevent
bewitchment. Certain physicians have and use this stone today instead
of lyncurium (amber). This is neither congealed urine of the
lynx nor any similar substance. The older writers have called amber by
this name as I have said because they believed it to be of this origin.
If anyone has seen the lyncurium of the Greeks at any time which was not amber I believe that he has seen belemnites. Some
has the color of Falernian amber and is transparent. Some will attract
chaff and other light objects as does amber. It is found in Germany in
many places, in Saxony in the west moat of Hildesheim and on the banks
of the Lanus river near Neustadt, a town about twelve miles from Han-
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