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302 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
cording
to the same law that converted " Alfas " into "Elephas," "the big
stag," and "Septagen" into "Psit-tacus," " the big jay." *
Emeralds
were employed in preference to all other gems by the Persians for
adorning those jewelled goblets which owed their origin to their
luxurious pomp. Even Theo-phrastus (35) describes them (including
perhaps the Tur-quois) as the gems used for the
by
horsemen in the deserts ; which Pliny, going a little more into
details, informs us were the Bactrian sort. Such a mode of
ornamentation was long kept up in Persia. Ben Mansur says, " Several
bits of Emerald united together upon one surface, by means of mina, are called Astar." This form of extravagance flourished amongst the Romans : Pliny indignantly exclaims, " We weave cups out of Emeralds," i. e., the
stones were connected together into a continuous whole by means of a
gold skeleton frame, like the Byzantine imitations of the same in
translucent enamel ; and Martial talks of a single «up robbing many a
finger of its wonted decoration (xiv. 109) :—
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Hence
the tradition, mentioned by Procopius, that Solomon's sacred vessels
were of this character, which in its turn gave birth to the legend of
the Sacro Catino.
What
was the true nature of such " Prasini " vases may be guessed from
Dumersan's description of one descending from Roman times and preserved
in the Treasury of Saint Denys : " Une autre gondole (aut scaphium) de crysolite, très exquise, couleur de verd de mer, le pied et la bordure
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