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Murrhina, China-Agate

Molochites, Malachite Page of 384 Murrhina, China-Agate Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
MURRHINA.
179
Although this substance is continually alluded to by the writers of Roman imperial times as the most prized ornament of the dinner-table, yet the only description they have left us of its appearance and nature is that to be found in Pliny (xxxvii. 8). " The East sends us the Murrhina. They are found in several places, all little known, and lying within the Parthian dominions, but the finest sort in Carmania.* They are supposed to be formed from a liquid hardened by subterraneous heat. In superficial extent the pieces never exceed that required for a small dish (abacus), and in thick­ness seldom suffice for a drinking-cup like that just men­tioned (of Annius). They have a lustre without any strength, or rather a polish (nitor) than a lustre. But their value lies in the variety of their colours, the spots (or patches) suddenly turning themselves around into purple and opaque-white, and a third made up of both ; the purple, as if by a transition of hue, becoming fiery, or the milk-white part turning red. Some principally admire the extreme parts in them (i. e. the edges of the vases), and a certain play of colours like that seen in the rainbow." Hence Martial makes his amateur cry for " maculosoe pocula murrhas " (÷. 80). " Others prefer the spots to be opaque and fatty (pingues) : any transparency or paleness is con­sidered a defect. So are marks like salt, and warts, which
Molochites, Malachite Page of 384 Murrhina, China-Agate
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