|
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.
|
||
|
|
||