of the High Priest ; and as the Hebrew name is " yash-peh,"
which is strikingly similar to jasper, and almost all the translations
agree, there can be little doubt as to its identity.
Galen, among other sage advice, relates that if a jasper be hung about the neck, it will strengthen the stomach.
The Bloodstone or Heliotrope.
Bloodstone is another jasper-variety of quartz, of a dark-green colour, and having those minute blood-red specks disseminated throughout, which give its name.
The word heliotrope, from ήλιος, the sun, and τροπή, a
turning, is derived from the notion that, when immersed in water, it
changed the image of the sun into blood-red. Pliny relates that the sun
could be viewed in it as in a mirror, and that it made visible its
eclipses. Marbodus, in his poem on precious stones, thus speaks of it
under the name of heliotrope :—
"
Ex re nomen habens est heliotropia gemma, Quœ solis radiis in aqua
subjecto basilic, Sanguine reddit mutato lumine solem Eclipsemque novam
terris effondere cogit."
This
stone is found in large quantities in India, Bokhara, Siberia, and
Tartary, and also in the Isle of Rum in the Hebrides, occurring
generally in masses of considerable size. It is translucent, and
susceptible of a beautiful polish ; its commercial value, as in the
case of other stones, varies with the quality of the specimen.
