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NAXIUM.
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193
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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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