color of water the same as their own, whereas others can turn what is placed on them entirely into stone; some have the power of attraction and others can test gold and silver, such as the stone called the Heraclean and the one called the Lydian.
But the greatest and most wonderful power, if this is true, is that of stones which give birth to young. But the power of those used in manual work is better known and is found in more varieties. For some can be carved, or turned on a lathe, or sawn; diere are some on which an iron tool cannot operate at all, and others on which it works badly and with difficulty. And there are several other differences in addition to these.
The differences that are due to color, hardness, softness, smoothness, and other such qualities, through which stones gain tlieir special excellence,2 are found in many varieties, and in some they occur in the whole of a district. And among such stones there are the Parian, the Pentelic, the Chian, and the Theban, and these stone quarries have become widely known. There is also the alabastrites,3 found at Thebes in Egypt—this, too, can be worked in large blocks—and the stone resembling ivory which is called chernites;* and they say that Darius was buried in a sarcophagus of this material. And there is the (variety of) poros,5 which is like Parian marble in color and density, but has only die lightness of (ordinary) poros; for this reason the Egyptians use it as a frieze in their elaborate buildings. And a dark stone is also found in the same place, which is translucent like the Chian stone, and there are several other kinds in other places. Such differences are common to many stones, as we have already said, but those tliat are due to the powers mentioned above are not found now in whole districts or in continuous or large masses of stone.
Some stones are quite rare and small, such as the smaragdos, the sardion* the anthrax,7 and die sappheiros,* and almost all those
2 See Commentary.
s In all probability, onyx marble.
4 Apparently a variety of onyx marble.
5 This could be travertine, but here it is probably a special kind of poros found in Egypt
β A red stone mentioned again in sec. 23 and described briefly in sec. 30. See Commentary, sec. 30, for its identification.
7 Another red stone which is described in sees. 18 and 19. See Commentary, sees. 18 and 19.
8 A blue stone which is described briefly in sees. 23 and 37. For its identification, see Commentary, sec. 37.
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