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Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems

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JASPIS.
147
scythe of Saturn. It continued to declare its true nature, for if steeped in water it again resolved itself into blood. It was a sovereign medicine for the eyes, because " that primeval god (Heaven) from whose veins it had flowed could not endure that mankind should, through loss of sight, be deprived of the view of his desirable countenance." Pliny's notice of the gem Haematitis is unmistakably a con­densation of this part of the Orphic poem, although quoted as the book dedicated by Zachalias the Babylonian to king Mitluidates; for that writer, besides the foregoing medi­cinal properties, " had extolled its mighty influence in en­suring success in petitions to princes and in all disputes:" the mystic poet having sung how " Dolon, aided by it, the gift of Helenus, had obtained the good graces both of Priam and of Hector ; " and how " Ajax, had he not spurned the soothsayer's proffer of the stone, had certainly gained even Minerva's vote against her favourite Ulysses in the contest for the armour of Achilles." Pliny adds a bright yellow variety, " e fulvo candicans," the Indian name of which was Menui—an evidence that he is here speaking of a gem : although it is equally evident throughout the notice that he had no actual experience of either sort as then employed by Roman jewellers or engravers.
There was, however, very good reason why the later Ronians should have become so fond of the Oriental Red Jasper as soon as it was introduced plentifully amongst them. The colour is a pure vermilion, both taking and well retaining the highest polish, in consequence of the fineness of its texture, sometimes traversed with parallel black hair-like lines ; another, and a rarer variety, deepens into the richest crimson. The source of this fine stone has been lost : it was probably Arabia. Red Jasper is, indeed, still found abundantly in Sicily ; but this kind is coarse-grained, and its tint is clouded, and verges more
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