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290 THE CURIOUS LORE OP PRECIOUS STONES
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garding the stones of the breastplate of the Second Temple, made perhaps in the fifth century b.c., should be sought in the early Greek and Latin versions of the Old Testament, and in the treatise on precious stones by
Theophrastus, who wrote
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about 300 b.c. The
Natural History of Pliny, that great storehouse of ancient knowledge,
and other early writers, may also be used with profit. I. Odern.
etymology
of this word clearly indicates that we have to do with a red stone,
most probably the carnelian. We know that in ancient Egypt hieroglyphic
texts from the Book of the Dead were engraved upon amulets made from
this stone, and it was also used for early Babylonian cylinders. Fine
specimens of carnelian were obtained from Arabia. The Greek Sep-tuagint and the Latin Vulgate, as well as Josephus, in the "Wars of the Jews" (V, 5, 7), and Epiphanius, all translate sardius, the ancient designation of carnelian ; in his "Antiquities, "however, Josephus renders odem by" sardonyx." The Egyptian word chenem was used to designate red stones, and seems to have been applied indiffer-
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