minerals—in
river-gravels. According to the authorised version of the Old Testament
an Onyx formed the eleventh stone in the breast-plate of the High
Priest. But " it is more probable," says the Encyclopaedia Britannicu, "
that the said stone was a Beryl." The chief ornamental use of the Onyx
is for making " Camei," and " Intagli." The Onyx, consisting as it does
of layers of variegated chalcedony, arranged in bands, is one of the
Agates.
Concerning the Onyx, Marbodus puts it (Latine)
" Et collo suspensus Onyx, digitove ligatus, Insomnes lemures, et tristia corda repellit."
The
ancient Greeks said about this stone, that Cupid, with the sharp point
of his arrow, cut the nails of the sleeping Venus; clippings from which
fell into the Indus ; being celestial they sank, and became
metamorphosed into the Onyx. About the Sardonyx, Marbodus also tells :—
" Hie solus lapidum caelam convellere nescit;
Hie humilem, c*stumque facit, multumque pudicum."
During
the Middle Ages the Onyx bore a most unfavourable character. Thus,
Marbodus asserts that a wearer of this stone was exposed to the
assaults of demons, and to ugly visions by night; besides being plagued
with quarrels, and law-suits by day. The only efficacious preventive
was to wear also a " Sard " stone, which would completely neutralise
the mischievous influence of the Onyx. The Sard,—or " Oriental
Carnelian,"(" Sardius ; " not the Sardonyx) was reputed to be of virtue
for curing tumours ; and for healing all wounds not made by iron. It
was esteemed of old as a styptic ; particularly the flesh-coloured
stone, De Leet,
