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Opalus, Opal

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242                 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
according to report, the incredible sum of 50,000Z. lias been offered and refused.*
" Some," says Pliny, " have given to this stone, on account of its pre-eminent loveliness, the name of the Pœderos, or Cupid." Others made the Pasderos a distinct species, called Sangenon by the Indians ; but produced in many and different localities, Egypt, Arabia, most abun­dantly in Pontus, in Galatia, Thasos, and Cyprus. Of this the best sort presented somewhat of the beauty of the Opal, though seldom free from flaws (scaber) : but its colour was made up exclusively of purple and sky-blue (aëre), the emerald-green was entirely wanting. In this species, " to be overcharged with a wine-colour was preferable to the being too pale and watery "—terms, these, which show that by Pœderos was understood the bright Indian Amethyst, in parts almost colourless, in parts clouded with the richest purple, and often exhibiting a slight iridescence in the flaws to which its body is too subject. It was a stone so admired by the Romans, that, employing it always cut in a bossy cabochon, they placed but the most minute intaglio upon its centre, to detract as little as possible from the native beauty of the material. In fact, Pliny (40), after stating that the perfection of the Amethyst consisted in a rose-colour, as it were borrowed from the Ruby, shining mildly amidst the purple, and most striking when the gem is hold up against the light (in suspectu), a pro­perty very observable in the lighter Almandines, adds, " that such gems some prefer to designate as the Pœderos,
* Caire was convinced of the existence of the Indian Opal, having met with some indubitably Indian cut ; and which when tested on the wheel proved considerably harder than the Hungarian sort. The Turks, however, are fully persuaded that this beautiful gem is due to no earthly mine, but falls from heaven in the lightning, thus holding it for the veritable Ceraunia.
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