Chapter 402

3177Supposed to be yellow-white Hyacinth. See Chapter12of this Book.

3178“Electrum.”

3179See Chapter76of this Book.

3180See Chapter9of this Book.

3181Yellow quartz crystal probably, or False topaz.

3182“White gold stone.” It has not been identified.

3183“Smoke-stone.” A jasper has been so called in Chapter37.

3184“Honey gold stone.” Some are of opinion that this was the Honey-coloured Hyacinth. Others, again, identify it with the yellow, honey-coloured Topaz; an opinion with which Ajasson coincides.

3185“Xanthon” is another reading. See Chapter60of this Book.

3186“Lovely youth.” See Chapter22, where it has been already mentioned. He here reverts to the Opals.

3187See Chapter40, for example, where it is given to a variety of the Amethyst.

3188The Opal, which he is about to describe.

3189See Chapter18of this Book.

3190The vitreous Asteriated crystals of Sapphire are still called by this name. Ajasson, however, and Desfontaines, identify this gem with Girasol opal or fire opal. See Note3147.

3191Fromἀστερ, a star.

3192“Star-stone.” Ajasson identifies this stone with the Asteriated Sapphire or Corundum, mentioned in Note3190above.

3193See B. iv. cc. 10, 17.

3194“Lightning darting.”

3195“Star-like.” Ajasson thinks, that it is identical with the stone next mentioned.

3196“Planet-stricken.” It is not improbable that this was Cat’s-eye, a translucent Chalcedony, presenting a peculiar opalescence, or internal reflections, when cuten cabochon. The colour is either bright-greenish grey, or else yellow, red, or brownish.

3197See Note3194above. Parisot thinks that these must have been Aërolites or Meteorites.

3198Brotero thinks that these were petrified shells, to which the magicians imputed marvellous properties.

3199Brotero is of opinion that those were Belemnites, more commonly known as “thunderstones.” The reading “bætyli” is doubtful; but Parisot says, on what authority does not appear, that “Betylus” meant “Great father,” and that this name, as well as “Abaddir” of similar signification, was given by magicians to aërolites or meteorites used in their enchantments.

3200A meteoric stone or aërolite, evidently.

3201“Rainbow.” Opinion seems divided as to whether this is Hyalin quartz iridized internally, or prismatic crystals of Limpid quartz, which decompose the rays of the sun.

3202The reading and meaning of this passage are very doubtful.

3203The reading is doubtful, “zeros” and “erros” being given by some MSS. Ajasson hazards a conjecture that it may have been a variety of quartz, formed of a concretion of agates united by a cement of a similar nature.

3204A general name for Agate, and possibly some other stones not now included under the name.

3205“Jasper agate.”

3206“Wax agate.” The modern Orange agate, probably.

3207“Smaragdus agate.” Emerald-coloured agate.

3208“Blood agate.” Agate sprinkled with spots of red jasper.

3209“White agate.”

3210“Tree agate.” Moss agate or Mocha stone, coloured by oxide of iron.

3211Probably the reading should be “Stactachates,” “Myrrh agate.”

3212“Coralline agate.” See Chapter56.

3213Undulated agate.

3214Moss agate, probably. See Note3210above.

3215Sillig is of opinion that the reading here is corrupt.

3216“Coticulas.” Stones for grinding drugs.

3217“Refreshing” stone. Hardly any of these stones appear to be identified.

3218As to the “nitrum” of Pliny, see B. xxxi. c. 46.

3219Probably the same as the Alabastrites of B. xxxv. c.12.

3220From the Greek,ἀλέκτωρ, a “cock.”

3221See B. vii. c. 19.

3222“Man-subduing.” Identified by some with Marcasite, or White iron pyrites.

3223See Chapter15of this Book.

3224“Silver-subduing.”

3225“Counteracting-stone.”

3226Probably the stone mentioned in B. xxxvi. c.41.

3227“Aromatic stone.” Cæsalpinus is of opinion that this is grey or clouded amber.

3228“Reginis.”

3229See B. xix. c. 4, and B. xxxvi. c.31.

3230The reading is doubtful.

3231Called “melancoryphi” in Chapter33.

3232Ajasson thinks that the reading should be “Aeizoe,” from the Greekἀειζώη, “long lived.”

3233“Shining stone,” apparently.

3234See Chapter33of this Book.

3235The reading is doubtful.

3236See B. xxxiii. c.2: where a fossil Chrysocolla is also mentioned.

3237See B. xi. c. 36, and B. xxxiii. c.21.

3238“Gem of Aphrodite” or “Venus.” Thought by Dalechamps and Hardouin to have been a kind of agate.

3239“Which never grows cold.”

3240A kind of Onyx, Dalechamps thinks.

3241“Acorn stone.” Like an olive in appearance, and now known as “Jew stone,” probably, a fossil.

3242“Frog-stone.” Varieties of quartz, probably.

3243“Dipped stone.” Dalechamps says that it was amber stained with alkanet, but on what authority does not appear.

3244“Eye of Belus.” Supposed by Ajasson and Desfontaines to be Cat’s eye Chalcedony. See Chapter 50, Note3196.

3245Belus, the father of Ninus, the “Bel” of Scripture. See Chapter58.

3246A kind of Tecolithos, Dalechamps says. See B. xxxvi. c.35, and Chapter68of this Book.

3247“Grape-cluster stone.”

3248“Puniceus” seems to be a preferable reading to “pampineus,” “like a vine-tendril,” given by the Bamberg MS.

3249Possibly it may have been Datholite or Borate of lime, a variety of which is known as Botryolite.

3250“Hair-stone.” This was probably either Iron alum, known also as Alun de plume; Alunogen, known also as Feather Alum or hair salt; or Amianthus, also called satin Asbestus. See B. xxxvi. c.31.

3251“Ox-heart.” Supposed to be a sort of Turquois, Hardouin says.

3252“Thunder-stone.”

3253“Clod-stone.” It may possibly have been a kind of Geodes. See B. xxxvi. c.32. Dalechamps, however, identifies it with Crapaudine, Toad-stone, or Bufonite, supposed in former times to be produced by the toad, but in reality the fossil tooth of a fish.

3254See B. iii. c. 4.

3255See B. xxxiv. c.22, and Chapter65of this Book.

3256Identical, probably, with the Callaina of Chapter33, our Turquois.

3257Lapis lazuli.

3258“Smoke-stone.” Identical with the jasper called “capnias,” in Chapter37.

3259In Chapter37of this Book.

3260“Cappadocian stone.”

3261Like the “callaina” or “callais.”

3262See Chapter33of this Book.

3263“Attractive stone.” A large rocky stone, according to Solinus. Dalechamps thinks that it must have been a kind of amber or bitumen, an opinion with which Desfontaines coincides.

3264“Looking-glass stone,” or “mirror stone.” A variety of Specular stone, probably.

3265“Onion stone.” A kind of agate, according to Dalechamps. It had its name probably from the union of its streaks like those on the neck of an onion.

3266“Pottery stone.”

3267See B. xxix. c. 38, Vol. V. p. 415.

3268The Cinædus. See B. xxxii. c.53.

3269By its clear or clouded colour, it was said.

3270“Wax stone.”

3271Fromκίρκος, a “hawk” or “falcon.”

3272“Hair-like;” fromκόρση, the “hair.”

3273“Coral agate.” See Chapter54of this Book.

3274Vermilion. See B. xxxiii. cc.37,40.

3275“Strong stone”—fromκρατερὸς, “strong.” Supposed by some to have been amber-coloured Hyacinth.

3276Oriental topaz, probably. See Chapters42and43of this Book.

3277“Saffron-coloured,” probably. If this is the meaning of the name, it may be supposed to have resembled the bigaroon cherry.

3278“Pregnant stone. An aëtites or geodes, probably. See B. xxx. c. 44, and B. xxxvi. c.39.

3279“Sounding like brass.” Probably Clinkstone or Phonolite, a compact feldspathic rock of a greyish colour, clinking under the hammer when struck, somewhat like a metal.

3280“Swallow-stone.”

3281“Tortoise-stone.”

3282Six in the morning until mid-day.

3283“Tortoise-like stone.”

3284“Chelone,” in Greek.

3285“Grass-green stone.” It is just possible that the Chlorite of modern Mineralogy, a kind of emerald-green talc, or hydrous silicate of magnesia, may be meant: but we must dismiss the story of the wagtail.

3286The pied wagtail, Motacilla alba of Linnæus.

3287See B. vi. c. 31.

3288“Golden light.” Ajasson suggests that this may have been a yellow phosphate of lead, which emitted light at night, from its close vicinity to naphtha. Bologna stone, Bolognian spar, or sulphate of Barytes, has also been suggested. Topaz, too, is mentioned.

3289“Golden face.”

3290A variety of Hyacinth, according to Dalechamps.

3291Fromκηπὸς, “a garden,” it is thought; on account of its varied colours.

3292“Laurel-stone.”

3293“Substitute” for beryl.

3294“Two-formed,” or “of a double nature.” A grand acquisition, as Ajasson remarks, for the worshippers of Priapus. See a similar characteristic in the Eryngium, our Eringo, B. xxii. c. 9: also Mandragora, B. xxv. c. 94, Note 877.

3295“Stone of Dionysus” or “Bacchus.”

3296“Dragon stone.”

3297The serpent so called—“draco.” See B. xxix. c. 20.

3298A story invented, no doubt, by the sellers of some kind of precious stone.

3299“Heart-shaped.” A turquois, Hardouin thinks. See “Bucardia” in Chapter55above.

3300“The best.”

3301“Formed like the testes.”

3302“Red stone,” apparently. The reading is very doubtful.

3303The reading is doubtful, but the word may possibly mean “stone of love,” or something equivalent.

3304“Fine-haired.”

3305“Skilled in sacred matters.”

3306“Of fair length.” Ajasson thinks that this may have been a variety of Pyromachic silex, or gun flint, nearly allied to Chalcedony.

3307A preferable reading, probably, to “Eumitres.” It perhaps took its name from Mithres, the god of the Sun among the Persians, and meant “blessing of Mithres.” Ajasson thinks that it may have been green Tourmaline, and that its electric properties may have been very “serviceable to the charlatans who had the monopoly of the Temple of Bel.”

3308See Chapter55of this Book.

3309“With beautiful leaves.” By some authorities this is thought to be Opal, by others Heliotrope or Bloodstone. Ajasson thinks that it may have been a general name for Jasper quartz, or else that it was Quartz agate opalized.

3310This reading is very doubtful.

3311“Mouldy stone.”

3312“Stone of the religious.”

3313“Black on the surface.” This is the case, Ajasson remarks, with many stones of the class known as “Cat’s eye.”

3314“Galaxy stone.” Ajasson thinks that this may possibly have been an Opal, or a dead white Topaz, traversed by lines of other colours.

3315“Milk stone.”

3316Probably milk-white Quartz, Ajasson thinks.

3317“White earth.”

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