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MOLOCHITES.
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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
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