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Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones

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OMINOUS AND LUMINOUS STONES            145
2,000,000 sesterces ($80,000)."4 The stone was "as large as a hazel-nut."
This "opal of Nonius" would be the great historic opal if we had any assurance that it was really the stone to which we now give this name. As, however, the prin­cipal European source of supply in Hungary does not appear to have been available in classic times to the Romans, and as opals are not found in the places whence, according to Pliny, the opalus was derived, we are almost forced to the conclusion that he had some other stone in mind when he gave his eloquent description of the opalus. And yet, in spite of all this, Pliny's words so well describe the beauties of a fine opal that it is difficult to determine what other stone he could have meant. For it can well be said of opals that'' There is in them a softer fire than in the carbuncle, there is the brilliant purple of the amethyst; there is the sea-green of the emerald—all shining together in incredible union. Some by their re­fulgent splendor rival the colors of the painters, others the flame of burning sulphur or of fire quickened by oil."5 Possibly some brilliant varieties of iridescent quartz— "iris" quartz, possessing an internal fracture, displays with great brilliancy all the colors of the rainbow, spark­ling with wonderful clearness in its field of transparent mineral—might excite the admiration of one who had never seen an opal. Eeferring again to these quartz crystals, they are often cut so as to form a dome of quartz and are even used as distinct jewels. The fact that Pliny could praise the Indian imitations of the opalus in glass, and could state that this stone was more successfully imitated than any other, is an almost de-
'Plinii, "Naturalis historia," lib. xxxvii, cap. 6. "Plinii, 1. c. 10
Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones Page of 467 Ch. 5: Ominous Luminous Stones
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