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Molochites, Malachite

Margarita, Pearl Page of 453 Molochites, Malachite Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
MOLOCHITES.
235
MOLOCHITES: Μολοχάs.
It is difficult to discover what stone Pliny designates by this name ; but that it was not our Malachite (Green Carbonate of Copper) is sufficiently evident from his words (xxxvii. 36) : " the Molochites is not transparent, being of a closer and coarser green than the Smaragdus (spissius virens et crassius), obtaining its name from its mallow-leaf colour ; praised for making good impressions of the seal, and used as an amulet for children, from the virtue innate therein against all the dangers to which they are liable. It is produced in Arabia." Our Malachite was his Smaragdus Medicus, "found of greater dimensions than any other of the sort, of a wavy pattern, representing poppies or birds' feathers, &c, and sometimes resembling the Lapis-lazuli." Now the descrip­tion of the Molochites as of a close deep-green colour, is entirely opposed to the notion of a stone where the surface is so curi­ously variegated as in the Malachite. Besides, the latter is much too friable a substance to serve for intagli,—nay, more, to be in request for that purpose, an inference to be drawn from the expression " laudata." But these characters apply admirably to a certain pale-green Jasper, perfectly opaque, and of a dead surface, in which admirable intagli sometimes occur, notably the famous Cleopatra (Marlborough). The reason why this species of the " Jaspis " is not classed under that head, but described by Pliny as a distinct mineral, is because a certain degree of translucency was essential to the ancient idea of that stone. Its Arabian origin also favours this attribution; at present that peculiar variety is found in India alone.
The same inference may be drawn from the obscure notice in Epiphanius (under " Sard") : "There is also another sort, the Sardonyx, which is called Molochas, and has the property of
Margarita, Pearl Page of 453 Molochites, Malachite
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