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142 DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
stones
are large and often have a cylindrical form. The Sicilian, Cretian,
Indian and Egyptian stones are a remedy for the sting of spiders and
scorpions. The Phrygian stones have no such power. Physicians make a
variety of touchstone from the Indian agates. These are used in
examining the eyes and when placed in the mouth will allay thirst.
Although similar to agate ostracias altera is
harder unless, as Pliny states, agate becomes more unctuous when
polished. This gem is transparent with a color that is green mixed
with black. Fragments of it are sometimes used to engrave other gems.62
The gem that some call thracia from the place where it occurs and others pontica from
a river of the same district I believe to be related to agate. These
gems contain likenesses of mountains and valleys. They have red and
dark lines running through them and are decorated with star-like drops
of the same color. They may be green or pale green and are
non-transparent. They are distinguished from heliotrope which has
blood-red veins and from prase which has blood-red drops similar to
stars. When they lack veins and drops they are distinguished from green
translucent jasper by their lighter green color.
Cepites is
white, according to Pliny, with knots joined together in such a fashion
as to give the appearance of veins. It reflects a dazzling white image.
Just as agates and ponticae contain images of various objects,
the gem the older writers call "the eye of Bel" portrays an eye. The
name is derived from Bel, a god of the Assyrians who was usually
portrayed as an eye. The younger writers call this stone belt oculus, a
corruption. They call the gem by this name because it is beautiful and
has a certain similarity to the eye. According to Pliny it is white
with a black pupil and in the center there is a golden tint.83 Lycophthalmos, although
it is brownish or blood-red, also has the appearance of a round white
eye with a dark pupil but lacks the golden tint. This name comes from
the gem's resemblance to the eye of a wolf. Aegophthalmos resembles the eye of a goat, hyophthalmos, the eye of a pig and triophthalmos is a name derived from three eyes of a man.
The stone the Greeks call encardia or cardisca has
the appearance of a heart. The former is black, the latter green. A
third variety is black but is surrounded with white. The stone bucardia derives its name from its resemblance to the heart of a beef just as sarcitis derives its name from its resemblance to the heart of a fish. Telicardios is the color of the heart and is found in Persia. It takes its name from the word for a spot. Nymph-arena resembles the teeth of a hippopotamus and takes its name from a
52 In Interpretatio the
German equivalent for this mineral is given as "luxsaphir." Lux
sapphire or leuco sapphire are modern equivalents of colorless
sapphire. Prior to the Middle Ages this name was given to our
sapphirine quartz and any form of pale blue to bluish gray
cryptocrystalline quartz. Agrioola appears to include both sapphire and
chalcedony under this name.
63
An eye-agate usually has a dark central portion surrounded by
concentric white, or lighter rings and often bears a close resemblance
to the eye.
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