been dug up from the ruins of old Rome, and have also been found on Egyptian mummies.
Pliny
states that the Emerald stood high in the estimation of the Ancients,
and some confirmation of this is derived from an old Hebrew tradition
that if a serpent fixes its eyes on an Emerald it becomes blind. In the
Bible the rainbow is said to be " like unto an Emerald."
1
There can be no doubt that many ancient writers confounded under the general term Smaragdus several
distinct minerals of green colour, such as true Emeralds, green Jasper,
Malachite, Chrysocolla, green Fluor Spar, and perhaps even green glass.
According
to Pliny, the most celebrated Emerald mines in former times were in the
rocks near Coptos ; and the stones obtained from this region were
admired for their brillant colour. Mohammed Ben Mansur (13th century)
described the Emerald mines as being on the borders of the land of
negroes, and yet belonging to the kingdom of Egypt, the stones found
there being dug out of talc and red earth. De Laet thinks that the same
region supplied Emeralds as late as the 17th century.
The
tiara of Pope Julius II. contained an Emerald somewhat about an inch in
length and one-and-a-quarter thick. It was in the shape of a short
cylinder, rounded at one of its extremities. This was found probably in
Ethiopia, the modern Etbai.
Turning
to the Emeralds of the New World, we find Prescot, in his " Conquest of
Mexico," writing as follows (vol. i, p. 125):—" The age of iron has
followed that of brass, in fact as well as in fiction. They found a
substitute in an alloy of tin and copper, and, with tools made of this
bronze, could cut not only metals, but with the aid of a siliceous
dust, the hardest substances,
