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ONYX.
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217
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reason
why the Greeks should have adopted it for their signets, above all
others, although its deeply-coloured and contrasted bands completely
prevent the intaglio sunk in them from producing any effect to the eye.
The signet, however, in those early ages was designed for use, not
ornament.
No
better definition of the Onyx can be given than in the words of Hill
('Translation of Theophrastus') : " The zones are laid with, perfect
regularity, and do not, in the judgment of the nicest distinguishers of
the present times, exclude it from the Onyx class, of whatsoever colour
they are except red ; in which case it takes the name of Sardonyx. The
colour of the ground and the regularity of the zones are therefore the
distinguishing characteristics of this stone ; and in the last
particularity it differs from the Agate, which often has the same
colours, but placed in irregular clouds, veins, or spots."
Köhler,
however, who has treated this question more fully than any other writer
in his ' Untersuchung über den Sard, den Onyx, und den Sardonyx,'
basing his explanation upon the numerous and conflicting definitions of
the Onyx, extracted by Pliny from various Grecian authorities, has
arrived at a conclusion differing very widely from Hill's : " The
question, how is the Onyx to be distinguished from the Sardonyx, is now
easily to be answered out of Pliny. As far as regards the substance and
the colours, both are one and the same stone. It is called the Onyx, when
the red, brown, or yellow ground is covered by white veins irregularly
and capriciously disposed. If therefore these veins formed sometimes
stripes, sometimes spots, sometimes eyes, then was the stone the Onyx.
But if the various colours of the stone lay in regular strata one over
the other, then it became the Sardonyx." That the concentric arrangement of the veins was the peculiar distinction of the Onyx,
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