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Alabastrites

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ALABASTRITES.
ALABASTRITES
This is the stone now known as the Oriental Alabaster (Carbon­ate of Lime), as appears from Pliny's description (xxxvi. 12) of the best sort, the Carmanian, " of a honey-colour, variegated with spiral spots (vortices) and not transparent ; for the colour of horn, or fatty white, or anything resembling glass in it, were considered blemishes." To this the name of Onyx was originally given from the resemblance of its layers and tints to the shades in the finger­nail of a " well-bred person," to quote Epiphanius. This last writer mentions an opinion of some, that its formation was due to the dropping of water : in which they were altogether in the right, for it is identical in constitution with Stalagmite. But this same ignorant transcriber concludes his article on the Onyx with a hopeless confusion between the marble and the gem of the same name. To avoid such ambiguity, the Romans restricted the term Onyx to the gem so called at present, one kind of which, the Agate-Onyx (made up of layers of opaque and transparent white), exactly resembles the regularly stratified varieties of this marble, the Albâtre-Onyx of the French. The latter stone now became the Alabastrites, from its being chiefly employed as the best material for the Alabastra, or perfume jars, shaped like minute amphorœ, but " without handles," as their Greek appellation signifies. Such alabastra were made in all materials—pottery, glass, the precious metals; but this stone was above all the most in use. Hence St. Mark's αλάβαστρον μύρου νάρΒον τηστική·;, and Horace's " Nardi parvus Onyx," meant one and the same thing, the latter retaining the ancient designation of the substance. The slender necks of these jars were readily broken off to come at their contents (perfumed oils), having been closely sealed down by the maker on leaving his laboratory. That their reputation for pre-
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