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Crystallus, Rock-crystal

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CRYSTALLUS.
107
which was too large for any man to drink off, " humanas potionis modum supergressum." But Mohammed Ben Mansur boldly adduces Teifashi telling of a merchant in Mauritania who possessed a basin made of two pieces of Crystal so large that four men could sit in it at once ; and with somewhat more probability, that in the treasury at Ghasna (Ghisneh), when captured, A.D. 1159, were found four Crystal vases, each of which would hold two skins of water.
That these vases were partly exported from India ready manufactured, partly carved into more graceful forms at Alexandria (the sole channel through which Indian pro­ductions flowed into Europe), appears from the passage in Martial (xii. 74) mentioning Crystal vessels as brought to Ostia by the corn-fleet of the Nile :—
That such " gemmas potorise " were wrought at Alexandria for the Roman market Martial again intimates (xi. 11) :—
He will have nothing to do with these costly fragile im­portations of the day, but calls back the old-fashioned orna­ments of the table, the plain silver cups worn by family
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