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JASPIS.
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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
L 2
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