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Smaragdus, Emerald

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SMARAGDUS,
323
lines before, " they are usually concave so as to concentrate the sight " (ut visum colligant). And Solinus actually describes them (xx.) as both convex and concave in form; and the test of their goodness : " if they be transparent, if when globose they colour neighbouring objects by the reflection of their lustre, or when concave image back the faces of those looking into them."8
Epiphanius informs us that even in his times (the close of the 4th century), the name Neronian was given to a kind of Emerald particularly austere and green in tint, transparent, and lustrous. This epithet arose from a discovery attributed either to Nero or Domitian, of a recipe for improving the colour of the gem, by macerating it in oil left standing in a copper vessel until it had imbibed sufficient verdigris to turn it green. By others, this method of tinging the stone was attributed to an ancient painter or gem-engraver, the namesake of the Em­peror.9
The Hindoos of every age have greatly admired the Emerald, especially when formed into a pear-drop, pierced at the small end and worn as a pendant in the ear. They also employ it much in bracelets ; and many a glorious gem of this species, as well as of the Sapphire, have they remorselessly ruined by drill­ing a hole through its centre for the purpose of stringing it as a bead. One of the finest ever found was to be seen thus mal­treated upon the arm of Eunjeet Singh : and the largest and finest Sapphire that has come under my own notice had been similarly disfigured. Such gems, in order to be used in European
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