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Crystallus, Rock-crystal

Corallium, Coral Page of 384 Crystallus, Rock-crystal Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
104                   NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
CRYSTALLUS: Êñýóôáëëïò and "¾áëïò: Rock-Crystal.
The Crystal (Pure Silica) is reckoned by Theophrastus (30) amongst the gems used in rings, where he speaks of it in company with the Amethyst, adding " both are transpa­rent." Their joint mention shows his knowledge of the true nature of the latter, as being merely an accidentally coloured Kock-crystal. It is curious that, in spite of this inclusion of it in his list of ring-stones, intagli of the Greek, or indeed of the Roman period, upon Crystal, are unknown to collectors. Herodotus (iii. 24) mentions a stone by the name of valos, which, if there be any truth at the bottom of his story, must have been Rock-salt, judging from its magnitude and facility in working. " The corpse (of the defunct Ethiopian amongst the Macrobii), after having been dried, whether in the Egyptian or some other manner, is coated with plaster, and painted so as to imitate life, and then put inside of a hollow pillar of hyahs, which is dug up there in large quantities, and is easily worked ; and the corpse, being enclosed within the pillar, shows through it, without producing a stench or anything unpleasant, and wearing all the clothes he used in life."
Rock-crystal, however, was in enormous request amongst the luxurious Romans under the Empire for the purpose of making drinking-cups, valued as highly as the Murrhina, with which they are generally associated in the allusions of
Corallium, Coral Page of 384 Crystallus, Rock-crystal
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