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Naxium, Emery

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NAXIUM.
199
step. Ornaments whose chief importance, it may well be "conjectured, lay in their virtues as talismans, would neces­sarily be formed of the most costly materials at the com­mand of the individual intending to decorate and secure himself with the same appendages. The Mexicans were found by the invaders cutting the brittle Emerald and Amazon-stone, and the much more obdurate Jade, into curious and fantastic shapes with a skill that excited the admiration even of the accomplished Italian jewellers of that epoch. In this operation it is stated that bronze tools were used, but the true agent was the " silicious dust " also mentioned, unintelligently, by the same old Spanish his­torian. For this delicate style of work metal-points were required to enable the engraver to apply the cutting par­ticles with nice precision to every portion of his work : in other words, the Aztec gem-engraver, taught by long expe­rience, had furnished himself with exactly the same tools which had served the Etruscan and Archaic Greek artist in executing their finished works some two thousand years before. And the " silicious dust " must have been a powder either provided by nature, or artificially prepared from some form of the Corundum-stone ; for no mere silex in powder would be capable of acting upon such a material as Jade. With the same means the Mexican lapidaries are described as polishing and shaping the hard Obsidian into mirrors which answered their purpose with tolerable accu­racy, and also as carving Porphyry, Basalt, and Granite into elaborate figures. As a proof of the effective character of the instruments, as well as of the dexterity with which they were applied, lions in granite are known of Mexican work­manship holding in their mouths moveable rings carved out of the same block as the animals themselves. Of the most celebrated specimens of their proficiency in this art a full description will be found in ' Precious Stones,' p. 299.
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