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On stones and metals. On the dusts and clods of the earth. 'Pulvis' (dust) is so called because it is driven by the force (vi) of the wind. For it is lifted by its blast and neither resists nor knows how to stand still, as the prophet says (Psalm 1:4): 'Like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth.' 'Limus' (slime) is so called because it is soft (lenis). 'Caenum' (mire) is a whirlpool of mud. 'Cinis' (ash) is named from a burning (incendium), for it comes from that. 'Favilla' (embers) is so called because it is produced by fire; for 'phos' means fire. 'Gleba' (clod) is so called because it is a globe (globus); for it is compacted by the gathering of dust and united into a single ball. Now bound earth is a clod, loosened earth is dust. 'Labina' (landslip) is so called because it causes a slip (lapsus) to those walking, named by derivation from 'labes' (a fall). Some think 'lutum' (mud) is called by antiphrasis, because it is not clean (mundum); for everything washed (lotum) is clean.
'Volutabra' (wallowing-places) are so called because boars wallow (volutentur) there. 'Uligo' is the filth of slime or water. 'Sabulum' (sand) is the lightest kind of earth. 'Argilla' (clay) is named from Argos, among whom vessels were first made from it. 'Creta' (chalk) is named from the island of Crete, where it is better. Cimolian chalk is white, named from Cimea, an island of Italy; of these two, the one softens the precious colours of garments and, with a certain sulphurous brightness, enlivens those that have grown dull; the other gives lustre to gems. Silversmith's chalk, also white, is so called because it restores lustre to silver. Samian earth is named from the island of Samos; it is glutinous and white and smooth to the tongue, useful for medicines and for little vessels.
Puteolan dust is gathered on the Puteolan hills of Italy, and it is set as a barrier to hold back the seas and break the waves. For, plunged in the waters, it at once becomes stone, and, made daily stronger by the waves, it is changed into rock; just as clay is turned into stone by fire. 'Sulphur' (brimstone) is so called because it is kindled by fire; for 'pyr' means fire. For its power is felt even in boiling waters, and no other thing is kindled more easily. It is produced in the Aeolian islands between Sicily and Italy, which they say are burning. It is also found dug up in other places. There are four kinds of it. The 'living' kind, which is dug out, is translucent and green, and it alone of all the kinds do physicians use. The second, which they call 'gleba' (lump), is suited only to the uses of fullers.
The third is a liquid; its use is for fumigating wool, since it gives whiteness and softness. The fourth is chiefly fitted for making lamp-wicks. So great is the power of sulphur that it detects epileptics by its smell when it is placed on fires and kindled to burning. Carried around in a cup of wine with a live coal set beneath, by the reflected glow of its blazing it spreads a dreadful pallor as of the dead. On the clods that come from water. Bitumen rises up in the Asphaltite lake of Judaea, and the sailors, drawing near in their boats, gather the lumps of it floating on the surface. But in Syria there is a slime seething up here and there from the ground. Both, however, thicken and coalesce by their density, and both the Greeks call 'pissasphaltos' (pitch-bitumen).
Its nature is burning and akin to fire, and it is broken neither by water nor by iron, but only by the impurities of women; it is useful for the joints of ships. 'Alumen' (alum) is named from 'lumen' (light), because it gives light to the colours that are to be dyed. It is a kind of salty exudation of the earth, and it is produced in winter from water and slime, and ripened by the summer suns. There are two species of it: liquid and thick. Some think 'sal' (salt) is so called because it leaps up (exiliat) in fire. For it flees fire, since it is fiery, but it follows its own nature, because fire and water are always enemies to one another. Others think 'sal' is named from 'salum' (the deep) and 'sol' (the sun); for it is produced of itself by the waters of the sea, foam left behind on the outermost shores or on the rocks and boiled down by the sun. There are also lakes and rivers and wells from which it is drawn.
Thereupon, poured into salt-pans, it is dried by the sun; but rivers too thicken into salt, while the rest of the stream flows on beneath the ice. Elsewhere too, when the sands are drawn off, it is gathered, growing with the moon by night; for in Cyrenaica ammoniac salt is found beneath the sands. There are also mountains of native salt, in which it is cut with iron like stone, growing back greater: in some places of such hardness that they make walls and houses of masses of salt, as in Arabia. There are also differences in the nature of salt. For in one place it is mild, in another most salty: common salt crackles in the fire; the Tragasaean neither crackles in the fire nor leaps up; the Agrigentine of Sicily, enduring flames, leaps up in water, and flows in fire, contrary to nature. There are also differences of colour. The Memphitic is reddish;
in a certain part of Sicily, where Etna is, it is purple; likewise in the same Sicily, at Pachynus, so bright and shining that it gives back images; in Cappadocia a saffron-coloured salt is dug up. The nature of salt is necessary for every kind of food. For it gives flavour to dishes, stirs up appetite, and creates a craving in all foods. Indeed from it comes all the delight of nourishment and the highest cheerfulness. Hence 'salus' (health) is thought to have received its name; for nothing is more useful than salt and sun: in short, we see the horny bodies of sailors. Nay, even flocks, herds and beasts of burden are chiefly enticed to pasture by salt, yielding milk far more plentifully and cheeses of far more pleasing quality. Salt also constricts bodies, dries them, and binds them together. It even preserves the dead from the corruption of decay, so that they may endure.
'Nitrum' (natron) took its name from a place; for it is produced in the town or region of Egypt called Nitria, from which both medicines are made and the filth of bodies and garments is washed away. Its nature does not differ much from salt; for it has the virtue of salt and arises in like manner, on shores whitening with dryness. 'Aphronitrum' in Greek is in Latin the foam of natron. Of which one says (Martial 14.58): 'Are you a countryman? You do not know by what Greek name I am called: I am named the foam of natron. Are you a Greek? aphronitrum.' It is gathered in Asia, dripping in caves, and thereupon dried by the sun. It is thought best if it be very light and most friable, of an almost purple colour. 'Chalcanthum' (vitriol) is so called because 'chalcitis' is 'thymon,' that is, a flower; whence among the Latins too it is called the flower of copper (aeris flos).
It is now made in many regions; formerly it was made in Spain, in wells or pools that had this kind of water, which they boiled down and poured into wooden basins, hanging over them cords stretched out with little stones, to which the slime adhered in the likeness of glassy grapes; and thus, taken out, it was dried for thirty days. But now it is made elsewhere in caves, where, gathered in liquid form and then spread out, it solidifies into certain clusters: it is also made in hollowed-out pits, from whose sides the falling drops coalesce: it is also made, after the manner of salt, from the most blazing sun. And it is of so constricting a power that, sprinkled into the mouths of lions and bears, it has so great a force of binding that they cannot bite. On common stones.
A 'lapis' (stone) is distinguished even by the common folk from earth as being denser. And 'lapis' is so called because it hurts (laedat) the foot (pedem). Stone is soft and scattered; 'saxa' (rocks) cling fast and are cut out of mountains; 'petra' is Greek; 'silex' (flint) is a hard stone, so called because fire leaps out (exiliat) from it. A 'scopulus' (crag) is named from a projecting rock, as it were from looking out (speculando); or from the sheltering of ships, from the Greek 'apo tou skepein' (from covering). 'Spelaia' in Greek are 'speluncae' (caves) in Latin. And it is a hollowed-out cliff. A 'crepido' is the broken-off edge of a rock; whence it is called 'crepido' because it is the height of a broken rock, as 'foot clings close to foot' (Virgil, Aeneid 10.361); whence too it is named. 'Cautes' are rough rocks in the sea, named from taking care (cavendo), as it were 'cautae.' 'Murices' are rocks on the shore like living murex-shells, very sharp and destructive to ships.
「石頭」（lapis）連平民也把它與土區分開，因為它較密實。「lapis」之所以如此稱呼，是因為它傷（laedat）腳（pedem）。「石」是柔軟而分散的；「岩」（saxa）緊附在一起、從山中鑿出；「petra」是希臘語；「燧石」（silex）是堅硬的石頭，之所以如此稱呼，是因為火從它裡面跳出（exiliat）。「峭壁」（scopulus）取名自突出的岩石，彷彿取自「瞭望」（speculando）；或取自船隻的遮蔽，源自希臘語「apo tou skepein」（源自遮蓋）。希臘語的「斯佩萊亞」（spelaia）即拉丁語的「洞穴」（speluncae）。它是被掏空的峭壁。「克瑞皮多」（crepido）是岩石斷裂的邊緣；因此稱為「crepido」，因為它是斷岩的高度，如同「腳緊貼著腳」（維吉爾《埃涅阿斯紀》10.361）；因此得名。「考特斯」（cautes）是海中粗糙的礁石，取名自「當心」（cavendo），彷彿「cautae」。「穆里克斯」（murices）是海岸邊像活骨螺（murex）殼一樣的岩石，極為尖銳，對船隻有害。
The 'icon' is a rock which, catching the sound of a human voice, even imitates the words of those speaking: 'icon' in Greek is called 'imago' (image) in Latin, because, answering to a voice, it becomes the image of another's speech; though this indeed comes about also from the nature of places, and most often of valleys. The 'calculus' (pebble) is a little stone mingled with the earth, round and very hard, and of the greatest smoothness in every part. And it is called 'calculus' because it can be trodden (calcetur) without trouble because of its smallness: contrary to it is the 'scrupus,' a tiny and rough little stone, which, if it falls into one's shoe, harms and is a trouble to the mind; whence too we call a trouble of mind a 'scruple' (scrupulum): hence too 'scrupea saxa,' that is, rough rocks. The 'cotis' (whetstone) received its name because it sharpens iron for cutting;
for 'cotis' in the Greek tongue is named from cutting (incisio). Of these, some are 'watery,' others need oil in the sharpening, but oil gives a smooth edge; waters give a very keen edge. 'Pumex' (pumice) is so called because it is formed by being congealed from the density of foam (spuma); and it is dry, of little whiteness, and has so great a nature of cooling that, put into a vessel, new wines cease to ferment. Craftsmen call 'rudus' pounded stones mixed with lime, which they spread over in making pavements; whence too they are called 'rudera.' 'Gypsum' (plaster) is akin to lime; and it is a Greek name. There are many kinds of it; but the best of all is for mirror-stone (i.e. plaster-work). For it is most pleasing for the figures and cornices of buildings.
'Quicklime' (calx viva) is so called because, though it is cold to the touch, within it contains hidden fire, whence too, when water is poured over it, the lurking fire at once bursts forth. Its nature does something marvellous. For after it has burned, it is set ablaze by waters, by which fire is wont to be extinguished; it is extinguished by oil, by which fire is wont to be kindled. Its use is necessary for the structures of building. For stone cannot cling to stone more strongly except when joined by lime. Lime from white and hard stone is better for structures; from soft stone it is useful for plasterwork. 'Arena' (sand) is named from dryness (ariditas), not from adhering in buildings, as some would have it. Its test is if, pressed by the hand, it creaks, or if, sprinkled on a white garment, it leaves no dirt. On more notable stones.
The magnet (magnes) is an Indian stone, named from its discoverer. For it was first found in India, clinging to the nails of shoes and to the point of a staff, when a certain man named Magnes was pasturing his herds; afterwards it was found in many places too. It is of an iron-rusty colour, but it is proved when, joined with iron, it makes its snatching. For it so grips iron that it makes a chain of rings: whence too the common people call it 'living iron.' It is believed to draw the liquid of glass as it does iron; and its power is so great that, as the most blessed Augustine relates (City of God 21.4), a certain man held this same magnet-stone beneath a silver dish, and placed iron upon the silver, and then, moving his hand underneath with the stone, the iron was moved swiftly across above.
Hence it came about that in a certain temple an image of iron was seen to hang in the air. There is indeed also another magnet in Ethiopia which drives away and rejects all iron. Now every magnet is so much the better as it is the more dark-blue (caeruleus). The 'gagates' stone was first found in Sicily, cast up by the flowing of the river Gagas; whence too it was named, although it is most abundant in Britain. It is black, flat, smooth, and burning when brought near fire. Things written upon it with clay are not effaced; when kindled, it puts serpents to flight, exposes those possessed by demons, and detects virginity; and, a marvel, it is set ablaze by water and extinguished by oil. 'Asbestos' is a stone of Arcadia, of an iron colour, having got its name from fire because, once kindled, it is never extinguished.
From this stone human art has contrived some mechanical device, which the heathen, caught up in sacrilege, marvelled at. In short, there was in a certain temple a shrine of Venus, and in it a candelabrum, and on it a lamp burning under the open sky in such a way that no storm, no shower could extinguish it. 'Pyrites' is a tawny Persian stone, imitating the quality of copper, in which there is much fire, since it easily emits sparks: this stone burns the hand of one holding it, if it be pressed too firmly, on account of which it received its name from fire. There is another common pyrites, which they call the 'living stone,' which, struck by iron or stone, emits sparks, which are caught in sulphur or other fungi or leaves, and quicker than word it yields fire. This the common people call the 'hearth-stone' (focaris petra).
'Selenites,' which in Latin is interpreted 'lunar,' so called because they say its inner brightness waxes and wanes with the moon, is produced in Persia. 'Dionysius' is a dusky stone sprinkled with reddish marks. It is so called because, if it is ground up mixed with water, it smells of wine, and—what is marvellous about it—it resists drunkenness. The 'Thracian' is black and resonant; it is produced in a river whose name is Pontus in Equitia. The 'Phrygian' stone drew its name from a place; for it is produced in Phrygia, pale in colour, moderately heavy. And it is a pumice-like clod. It is burned, first soaked in wine and blown upon with bellows until it grows red, and again quenched with sweet wine three times over, useful only for dyeing garments.
The 'Syrian' stone is named from Syria, where it is found; this, when whole, is said to float, but when broken up, to sink. The 'Arabian' is like ivory without any blemish. This, rubbed against a whetstone, gives off a juice like saffron. The 'Judaic' stone is white and in the shape of an acorn, patterned in turn with markings, which the Greeks call 'grammai' (lines). The 'Samian' is named from the island of Samos, where it is found: and it is heavy and white, useful for polishing gold. The 'Memphite' is named from a place in Egypt; and it is of a gem-like nature. This, ground up and smeared on with vinegar over those parts that are to be burned and cut, so numbs the body that it does not feel the torment. The 'sarcophagus' stone is so called because bodies of the dead placed in it are consumed within forty days;
for 'soros' in Greek means a coffin, and 'phagein' to eat. It is produced in the Troad, and is split along a cleavable vein. There are also rocks of the same kind in the East, which erode even the bodies of the living when bound to them. But milder for preserving bodies and not consuming them is the stone called 'haematites,' because, dissolved by a whetstone, it comes into the colour of blood (haema). And it is quite livid; it is also iron-rusty. It is produced in the farthest part of Egypt, in Babylonia and in Spain. The 'androdamas' is black in colour, remarkable for weight and hardness, whence too it drew its name, and it is found chiefly in Africa. It is said to draw silver or copper into itself, and, when rubbed, like the haematites it is reduced to the colour of blood.
'Schistos' is found in the farthest part of Spain, like saffron, with a slight brilliance, easily crumbled. 'Amiantos' is so called by the ancients because, if a garment be woven from it, it resists fire and, placed on the fire, it does not burn, but, having taken on brilliance, it gleams; and it is like split alum, resisting all sorceries, especially those of the magi. 'Batrachites' is like the plates of a shell, splittable. 'Galactites' is ash-coloured, sweet to the taste; but it is so named because, when rubbed, it gives off something milky (lacteum) of itself. The 'obsian' (obsidian) stone is black, translucent, and has a likeness to glass. It is set in the mirrors of walls for giving back the shadows of images. Many make gems from it: it is produced in India and in Samnium of Italy.
The 'mithridax' stone of the Euphrates, struck by the sun, glitters with varied colours. 'Aetites' stones are found in the nests of eagles. They say two are found, a male and a female, and that without these the eagles do not bear young: of these the male is hard, like an oak-gall, somewhat reddish; but the female is small and soft. Bound on, they hasten childbirth, and they even bring away for some women something of the womb, unless they are quickly taken away from those giving birth. 'Phengites' is a stone of Cappadocia, of the hardness of marble, white and translucent; from which once a temple was built by a certain king with golden doors, so that, when these were shut, there was inside the brightness of daylight.
'Chemites' is like ivory, in which they say Darius was buried, and like Parian marble in whiteness and hardness, only less heavy, which is called 'porus.' 'Ostracites' is so called because it has the likeness of a shell (testa): its use is in place of pumice. The 'melanites' stone is so called because it gives off a honeyed (melleus) and sweet juice. 'Smyris' is a rough and untamable stone that wears away everything, and by this stone gems are ground. 'Chrysites,' in colour like ochre, is found in Egypt. 'Hammites,' like natron but harder, is produced in Egypt or Arabia. 'Thyites' is produced in Ethiopia as if green, but milky when it is dissolved, biting sharply. 'Coranus' is white and harder than Parian marble. 'Molotius,' as if green and heavy, is found in Egypt.
'Tusculanus,' named from a place in Italy, is said to burst apart in fire. 'Sabinus,' dusky, is said even to shine when oil is added. There is also a certain green stone that strongly resists fire. 'Siphnius' is soft and white; heated with oil it grows black and hard. There are also stones fit for the uses of medicinal mortars and of pigments: chief is the 'etesius,' and after it the 'chalazius'; also the 'Thebaicus' and the 'basanites' stones, which give off nothing of themselves. The 'specular' stone is so called because it is translucent after the manner of glass; it was first found in Hither Spain around the city of Segobrica. For it is found under the earth and, dug out, is cut and split into crusts as thin as one pleases. On marbles. After the kinds of stones we shall come to marbles.
For there is a difference between stones and marbles. For 'marbles' are called excellent stones, which are prized for their spots and colours. 'Marmor' is a Greek word, named from greenness (viriditas), and although afterwards marbles of other colours too were found, they nevertheless retained their former name from greenness. The colours and kinds of marbles are innumerable. Yet not all are cut from cliffs, but many are scattered under the earth and of the most precious kind, such as the Lacedaemonian green, more cheerful than all the rest, first found among the Lacedaemonians, whence too it drew its name. 'Ophites' is like the spots of serpents, whence too it took its name. There are two kinds of it: the soft, white; the black, hard.
The 'Augusteum' and 'Tiberium' were first found in Egypt at the beginning of the principate of Augustus and Tiberius. Their difference from ophites is that, whereas the latter, as we said before, is like the spots of serpents, these gather their spots in a different manner. For the Augusteum is wavily curled into whorls; the Tiberium has scattered, not convoluted, whiteness. 'Porphyrites' is reddening in Egypt, with white points intervening. The reason for its name is that it reddens like purple (purpura). 'Basanites' is of an iron colour or hardness; whence too its name was given to it: it is found in Egypt and Ethiopia. 'Alabastrites' is a white stone, tinged throughout with various colours, from which was made that vessel of the Gospel ointment.
For they hollow this out into ointment vessels, since it is said to preserve them best uncorrupted. It is produced around Egyptian Thebes and Damascus of Syria, whiter than the rest, but the most approved is in India. The 'Parian' is of surpassing whiteness, with the surname 'lygdinus': this is produced near the island of Paros, whence too it is called Parian. Its size is such that it does not exceed dishes and mixing-bowls; and it too is fit for ointments. The 'coralliticus,' found in Asia, is of a measure not beyond two cubits, next to ivory in whiteness and with a certain likeness to it. On the other hand, the black 'Alabandicus,' named from its own land, is like the appearance of purple. This, in the East, is melted by fire and cast for the use of glass.
The 'Thebaicus,' speckled with golden drops, is found in a designated part of Egypt, suited by a certain natural utility to little touchstones for grinding eye-salves. The 'Syenites' is produced around Syene or Thebes. From it kings made beams. But there are marbles which are produced in quarries and cliffs: of which the 'Thasius' is marked with spots of diverse colour, whose first use the Cyclades islands provided. The 'Lesbius' is a little more livid than this, but it too has spots of diverse colour. The 'Corinthius' is like a drop of ammoniac with a variety of diverse colours. It was first found at Corinth. From it huge columns and thresholds and beams are made. The 'Caristeum' is green, the best; having its name from its appearance, because it is pleasing to those who carve gems;
for its greenness refreshes the eyes. Numidia sends Numidian marble: it gives off to the surface a juice like saffron, whence too it received its name; it is fit not for veneers but in the mass and for the use of thresholds. Lucullan marble is produced in the island of Melos; to which Lucullus the consul gave his name, who, delighted with it, first brought it to Rome; and this is almost the only marble that received its name from an admirer. There is also the Lunensian. 'Tephrias' is named from the colour of ash (cinis), and the binding-on of this stone is praised against serpents. 'Ebur' (ivory) is named from 'barrus,' that is, the elephant. Horace (Epodes 12.1): 'What do you want, woman, most worthy of black elephants?' On gems. After the kinds of marbles, gems follow, which lend much adornment to gold by the beauty of their colours.
Its beginnings are from the rock of Caucasus. Fables tell that Prometheus first enclosed a fragment of its rock in iron and set it around his finger, and that from these beginnings the ring and the gem took their origin. The kinds of gems are said to be handed down as innumerable, of which we have noted only those that are principal or best known. 'Gems' (gemmae) are so called because they are translucent after the manner of gum (gummi). 'Precious stones' (pretiosi lapides) are so called because they are worth a price (care valent), or so that they may be distinguished from cheap ones, or because they are rare. For everything that is rare is called great and precious; just as it is read in the book of Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1): 'And the word of the Lord was precious in Israel,' that is, rare. On the greener gems.
Of all green gems the emerald (smaragdus) holds the primacy, to which the ancients assign the third rank of dignity after pearls and single-stones. The emerald is named from its exceeding greenness; for everything sufficiently green is called 'amarus' (bitter/deep). For no gems or herbs have greater intensity than this; for it surpasses green herbs and foliage, tinting with greenness the air reflected around it. To those carving gems too there is no more pleasing refreshment of the eyes. If its body is spread out flat, it gives back images like a mirror. Indeed Nero Caesar used to watch the combats of gladiators in an emerald. Its kinds are twelve, but the nobler are the Scythian, which are found among the Scythian people. The second place is held by the Bactrian:
for they are gathered in the joints of rocks while the North Wind blows; for then, when the earth is uncovered, they glint here and there, because by these winds the sands are chiefly stirred. The third the Egyptians have. The rest are found in copper mines, but flawed; for they have markings like copper, or lead, or hair-fibres, or salt. But emeralds are improved by pure and green oil, although they are steeped in it by nature. 'Chalcosmaragdus' is so called because it is green and clouded with copper veins. This is produced in Egypt or the island of Cyprus. 'Prasius' is so called for its leek-green colour, but it is common. Another kind of it is spoiled by bloody points. A third is marked out with three white little stripes.
The beryl (beryllus) is produced in India, having its name from the winds in their own tongue, similar in greenness to the emerald but with a paleness. It is polished by the Indians into hexagonal shapes, so that the dullness of its colour may be roused by the reflection of the angles; polished otherwise it has no brilliance. Its kinds are nine. 'Chrysoberyllus' is so called because its pale greenness shines back into a golden colour. India sends this too. 'Chrysoprasus' is Indian, in colour recalling the juice of a leek, with golden drops intervening, whence too it received its name. Some have adjudged it to the kind of beryls. 'Iaspis' (jasper) is translated from Greek into Latin as a green gem; for 'ias' indeed means green, and 'pinasin' is called a gem. And it is somewhat like the emerald, but of a thick colour.
Its species are seventeen. Some, however, would have the jasper gem to be a source of favour and protection to those who wear it, which to believe is a matter not of faith but of superstition. 'Topazion' (topaz) is of the green kind and shines back with every colour, first found on an island of Arabia, on which the Trogodyte brigands, worn out by hunger and storm, when they were digging up the roots of herbs, dug it out. Which island, afterwards sought, was covered with mists and at last found by sailors. But for this reason the place and the gem received their name from the occasion; for 'topazein' in the tongue of the Trogodytes has the meaning of seeking. It is the largest of gems; the same alone of the noble gems feels the file. Its kinds are two. The 'Callaica' is of a green colour, but pale and too thick; nothing more pleasing than it that becomes gold;
whence too it is named. It is produced in India or Germany in icy rocks, bulging out like an eye. 'Molochites' is more densely green and thicker than the emerald, having received its name from the colour of the mallow (malva), praised for reproducing seal-impressions. It is produced in Arabia. 'Heliotropia' is of a green and clouded colour, sprinkled over with crimson stars along with bloody veins. The cause of its name is from the effect of the stone; for cast into bronze basins it changes the rays of the sun by a bloody reflection; but outside the water it receives the sun after the manner of a mirror, and it detects its eclipses, showing the moon passing under it. Of the shamelessness of the magi a most manifest example is in this too, since they say that, with the herb heliotrope mixed in and certain incantations added, the wearer cannot be seen.
It is produced in Cyprus and in Africa, but the better kind in Ethiopia. The sagda is a gem of a leek-green color found among the Chaldeans. So great is its power that it seeks out ships passing through the deep and clings so tenaciously to their hulls that it can scarcely be separated unless part of the timber is scraped away. The myrrhites is so called because the color of myrrh is in it; and when it is pressed until warm, it breathes forth the sweetness of nard. The aromatitis is found in Arabia or Egypt, of the color and odor of myrrh, whence also it takes its name. The melichros is two-colored, green on one side and honey-like on the other. The choaspitis is named from a river of the Persians, of a green with a golden brilliance. VIII. ON RED GEMS. The coral is produced in the sea, branching in form, green in color but especially red.
Its berries are white under the water and soft; but once drawn out they at once harden and grow red, and turn to stone as soon as they are touched. And so it is usually caught and torn out with nets, or cut off with a sharp iron tool, for which reason it is called coral. And as much as the Indian pearl is precious among us, so much is coral prized among the Indians. The magi affirm that it resists lightning, if one believes it. The sardius is so called because it was first found among the Sardians; it has a red color surpassing that of marbles, but it is the most worthless among gems. There are five kinds of it. The onyx is so named because it has mixed within it a whiteness resembling a human fingernail; for the Greeks call the nail 'onyx.' India or Arabia produces it, and they differ from one another;