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JASPIS.
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149
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mingled
with the other components of some Egyptian breccias; perhaps the aetual
source whence the old engravers extracted the gem. The material
chiefly used for the Phœnician scarabei lately brought to light in
Sardinia, though greatly resembling this in appearance, is of a totally
different nature, yielding readily to the steel point, and being,
perhaps, only a fine Serpentine. This Sardinian species has all the
character of the Smaragdite, better known, by its Italian namo
of " Verde di Corsica." Either of these would be aptly described by the
comparison of their colour to verdigris, the way in which Theophrastus
defines his "Prasitis."
4.
A light-green, mottled with yellow after the manner of the Moss-agate,
only quite opaque, and extremely hard, also serves as the frequent
vehicle for Mithraic and Basili-dan talismans. This would seem to be
the Tree-agate of Orpheus (230), that insured plentiful crops if tied
round the ploughman's arm, or to the horns of the oxen breaking up the
field.
5.
A bright yellow opaque stone, exclusively appropriated for talismanic
engravings, astrological and Gnostic. This may represent Pliny's "
Cerachates," of which Solinus observes, " that such as are of the
colour of bees'-wax, being vulgarly plentiful, are despised." It is,
however, also possible that he is here alluding to the common European
Calcedony.
No
stone held so high a rank in the alexipharmaca of both ancient and
mediaeval physicians as did the Jasper. Pliny and Epiphanius have been
cited above in testimony to the virtues of the Grammatias. Even the
sober and practical Galen declares (' Simp. Med.' ix.) " The Green
Jasper benefits the chest and mouth of the stomach, if tied over them.
Some people set it in a ring and engrave upon it a serpent with radiated head, just as King Nechepsos pre-
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