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Naxium, Emery

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NAXIUM.
193
cases and in much the same manner, that is to say, as a file, not as now in powder applied by another mechanical con­trivance. Dioscorides prescribes (v. 167) " the dust rubbed off a Naxian whetstone by the steel sharpened upon it." Pliny, after stating (xxxvi. 10), "For polishing marble statues, and also for engraving and filing down gems, the Naxium long held the first rank ; thus are called the whet­stones (cotes) produced in the isle of Cyprus," and (xxxvii. 32) " the Peridot is the only precious stone that yields to the file, all the others are polished by means of Naxium and whetstones." After this, when he comes to treat (xxxvi. 47) of the whetstones used for tools, he repeats the same observations as to the Naxian, and the superiority of the Armenian. In another place (xviii. 67, § 5) he men­tions the ancient Italian mowers as knowing no other whetstones than those brought from Crete, and other places beyond the sea. For these oil was necessary, and there­fore the mower moved along with a horn full of oil tied to his leg. But Italy afterwards supplied whetstones which required water alone, and acted like a file upon the scythe.
For marble-sawing the best sand was imported from Ethiopia, the next quality from India, " peteretur etiam in Indos quo margaritas quoque peti severis moribus indignum erat" (xxxvi. 9). This so-called sand must have been Emery-powder; and in the fact of its being gotten in Ethiopia lies a very good reason for supposing its use known to the old Egyptians, and confirms Sir G. Wilkinson's explanation of the manner in which their primitive sculp­tors contrived to master the most obdurate materials. That country, in truth, seems to have given the name to the mineral, its export, for Zmiri in Ethiopia is often referred to as a gem-producing locality.                                           
Those primeval monuments of gem - engraving, the Assyrian cylinders in Loadstone, sufficiently explain Pliny's
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