And Juvenal's ostentatious host Virro drinks from a bowl embossed with Amber reliefs and Beryl—
" Heliadum crustas et inœquales Beryllo Virro tenet phialas."
Inasmuch
as its chief value consisted in the length of the native crystals, the
Romans, according to I'liny, preferred to make " Cylindril' or pendants
out of them rather than ring-stones. Such were the costly presents
that, as Juvenal hints (ii. fil), would reward the bride for her
discreet silence—
" Tu nube atque tace, donant arcana cyliridros."
The
Indians cut this stone similarly into long cylindrical beads, and wore
them strung upon elephant's hair, believing that their lustre was
heightened by this perforation and the removal of the internal
substance, or " paler marrow." But the most perfect in colour were not
bored, but used fur decoration by having each end secured within a gold
boss.
This
nation had also the art of tinging the common Rock crystal so as to
make it pass for the Beryl : probably by plunging it when heated into
some menstruum saturated with oxide of copper ; as the Rubace of
the French is still produced by thus treating a piece of Crystal in a
spirituous solution of cochineal. Even now the Indians paint the back
of every coloured gem they set, so as to improve the fainter tinted ;
for which reason they never mount them in their jewelry without a
backing. From this deceptive practice of adding a fictitious beauty to
their gems, those in native Indian ornaments are rarely, when taken
out, found to be of much value : all of high intrinsic worth are
error, for the Blue Beryl, though much resembling the former, differs totally from it in hardness, lustre, and other characters, which the ancients knew well enough how to appreciate.
