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NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
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a
precious stone, so common in that region, so rare in Greece. In the '
Periplus of the Red Sea ' (written under Augustus), amongst the exports
from Ozene (Ougein) are enumerated " Onyx-stones and Murrhina."
Besides
their rarity, the Murrhina had another recommendation, precisely the
same that made the true Chinese porcelain so indispensable when
tea-drinking was first introduced into Europe,—it contained a scalding
liquid without itself becoming heated, and remained cool to the lips.
Now, as the Romans were extremely partial to very hot drinks, mixing
their strong thick wines with boiling water and honey,* this
peculiarity of the substance was invaluable. This we learn from Martial—
" Si calidum potas, ardenti Murrha Falerno
Convertit et melior fit sapor inde mero." (xiv. 13.)
Murrhina
continued to be in request down to the close of the Empire, and legal
writers are continually mentioning them as distinct things from vessels
of glass or of the precious metals. In the Middle Ages the name came to
signify a shape, not a material, in consequence, it would seem, of the
most usual make in which the antique substance appeared wrought up,
viz., the trulla. Thus a howl is termed peculiarly Murrens : old inventories have often the item " Murreus de argento."
When Chinese porcelain began to find its way into Europe,·]" the learned, not knowing how it was made, seem
* Hence the usual term for a tavern, Thermopodium. t
It was brought to Europe by the Spanish traders, who in the back voyage
from Peru doubled the Horn, and touched at the Phillippines and
Manilla. Of this an Elizabethan poet, T. Weckes (1597), avails himself
to produce this perfect specimen of the bathos, " The Andalusian
merchant that returns Laden with cutchmele and china-dishes Reports in
Spain how strangely Fogo burnes Amidst an ocean full of flying-fishes."
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