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Onyx, Nicolo

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ONYX.                                    233
is another very curious passage in Pliny, in the same chapter, bearing directly upon the use of honey in the treatment of gems :—" The Cochlides,* now a very common gem, is rather an artificial than a natural production. It is said to be found in Arabia in large masses ; and after a boiling of seven days and nights continuously in honey, in order to purge away the earthy dross, the residuum is arranged, according to the fancy of the artist, in veins, lines, and spots of various colours, in the manner most like!}' to attract purchasers. Of such a size have these gems been produced as to serve for frontlets for the horses of Eastern kings, and for pendants to their trappings." What variegated mineral substance is meant by this de­scription it is impossible even to conjecture. It may after all be merely a jeweller's story coined to account for the whimsical conformation of the veins and shades in the Agate ; or still more in the wonderfully beautiful streaky pastes created by the Alexandrian glass-workers. The name " Cochlides " indeed signifies " snail-shell stone ;" and such is the literal meaning of the Italian Lumachella, a dusky marble full of fragments of nautilus-shells, flame coloured and glowing as if actually in a blaze. It is there­fore possible that both terms, the ancient and the modern, apply to the same substance, which from its beauty as well as singularity must ever have been admired as soon as known.
It is true that certain species of the antique gems, such as the best Sards and frequent examples of the Onyx and Sardonyx, are incomparably superior to anything of the kind that is to be met with in nature at the present day ; but it would be presumptuous to ascribe this excellence to any artificial treatment of the subject-matter by the ancient
* This stone formed, says Trebellius Pollio, the clasp of Zenobia's zone.
Onyx, Nicolo Page of 384 Onyx, Nicolo
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