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166 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
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engrave
; but the definition of its two distinctive colours, as purple and
crimson, (purpura-coccus), proves it indubitably the Spinel ('
Precious Stones,' p. 228). The former was reckoned by the Romans (at
least the yellow kind) amongst the Chrysolithi : a numerous genus,
including every yellow stone, from the Oriental Topaz to the humble
yellow Crystal, or Cairngorum. Some of the Indian Chrysolithi were
evidently Jacinths, and the notice of the defect in the Arabian that
they were cloudy and filled up as it were with their own filings or
dust, aptly expresses the peculiar porousness of this stone.
Modern
jewellers universally term Jacinth, a gem belong ing to a totally
different species, the Cinnamon-stone (Esso-nite), a reddish brown
Garnet, greatly resembling it in outward appearance. But the
Cinnamon-stone may readily be detected by its total want of
electricity, and also by the clearness or glassy nature of its
substance when held against the sun, so different from the porous
Jacinth. It possibly was Pliny's (44) Chryselectrus, " dyed with
saffron, and only to be distinguished from a paste by its coldness."
The Cinnamon-stone was engraved upon by the Romans and the later
Persians, but not to nearly the same exteut as the real Jacinth. The
Eenaissance artists, however, employed both very largely for works in
relief, principally the pale yellow kind, which alone was then at their
command. The ancients very rarely cut their camei in single-coloured
stones, except in the dark-red or the purple Morios fancied by them
appropriate to the subjects.
The
derivation of the name "Jacinth" is curious, and the following appear
to have been the steps by which it came to be transferred to the modern
gem from one of a totally different family and appearance, which
thereby has in its turn lost its original designation. "Jacinth," (the
French retain the original "Hyacinthe,") comes to us from
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