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Obsidianum, Obsidian

Lapis Nephriticus Jade Page of 384 Obsidianum, Obsidian Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
OBSIDIANUM.
209
This substance, a vitreous lava, whence its old name, " lava-glass," was called after a certain Obsidius or Opsius, who first discovered it in Ethiopia (xxxvi. 67). " It is extremely black and sometimes translucent (in thin pieces), and, inlaid in chamber-walls in the form of mirrors, it reflects shadows instead of images." By a strange coinci­dence, the Peruvians, when first discovered, had Obsidian (Itzli) mirrors in general use. One of these Obsidian mirrors seems to have found its way to England, and to have been converted into the identical " black stone into which Dr. Dee did call his spirits :" for so it is described in the Peterborough Catalogue. It had been long, pro­bably since the conjuror's death, in the possession of the Mordaunts ; after other changes of owners, in Horace Wal-pole's ; and now is in the Londesborough Collection. The strange shape to which the stone is cut betokens an Aztec origin. This may dispute with the crystal sphere, already noticed, the honour of being the instrument used by Kelly, Dr. Dee's coadjutor ; whereof Butler :—
" Kelly did all his feats upon ,       The Devil's looking-glass, a stone ;
Where, playing with him at bopeep, He solved all problems ne'er so deep."
"Many persons (adds Pliny) make signet-stones out of it." This fashion does not seem to have lasted long, for antique intagli in Obsidian are extremely rare. There was, how-(g)
Lapis Nephriticus Jade Page of 384 Obsidianum, Obsidian
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