Introduction of Glazes into China 127 



meaning, so as to conform it with a process to which a mineral could 

 be subjected; for, as has been shown by H. Blumner, 1 it is the verb 

 utilized in regard to the burning or baking of bricks and all fictile ware 

 in general. 



The fundamental passage in Pliny relative to the murrine vessels 

 runs as follows: — 



"The Orient sends the murrine vessels. They are found there in 

 several localities which otherwise have no special reputation, 2 for 

 the most part in places of the Parthian Empire; excellent ones, how- 

 ever, in Carmania. The opinion prevails that the humidity 3 con- 

 tained in these vessels is solidified by subterranean heat. In size 

 they never exceed the small sideboards (abaci); in thickness, rarely 

 the drinking-vessels, which are as large as previously mentioned. 

 Their brightness is not very powerful, and it is a lustre rather than 

 brilliancy. Highly esteemed, however, is the variety of colors, with 

 their spots changing into shades of purple and white; these two tinges, 

 again, result in a third hue resplendent, through a sort of color-transi- 

 tion, as it were, in a purple or milky red. Some laud profusely in 

 them the edges and a certain iridescence of the colors, such as are 

 visible in the rainbow. Others are pleased by oily spots: translucency 

 or pallor is a defect, and likewise are salt grains and warts, which are 

 not projecting, but which, as in the human body, are depressed. Also 

 their odor is commendable." 4 



The account of Pliny is vague. One point is conspicuous and quite 

 certain, that he had no opinion of his own to offer on the subject. As 

 illustrated by the application of such phrases as "putant, sunt qui, 

 aliis placent," he simply reiterates second-hand information which he 

 had picked up from unnamed sources, most probably from oral accounts 

 circulated by traders in the article. Most likely, these stories were 



1 Technologie und Terminologie, Vol. II, pp. 19, 44. 



* Or, in little-known localities. 



* There is no reason to take the word umor, as has been done, in the sense of 

 "moist substance." 



* Oriens myrrhina mittit. Inveniuntur ibi pluribus locis nee insignibus, maxime 

 Parthici regni, praecipua tamen in Carmania. Umorem sub terra putant calore 

 densari. Amplitudine numquam parvos excedunt abacos, crassitudine raro quanta 

 sunt potoria. Splendor est iis sine viribus nitorque verius quam splendor. Sed in 

 pretio varietas colorum subinde circumagentibus se maculis in purpuram can- 

 doremque et tertium ex utroque, ignescente veluti per transitum coloris purpura 

 aut rubescente lacteo. Sunt qui maxime in iis laudent extremitates et quosdam 

 colorum repercussus, quales in caelesti arcu spectantur. lam aliis maculae pingues 

 placent — tralucere quicquam aut pallere vitium est — itemque sales verrucaeque 

 non eminentes, sed, ut in corpore etiam, plerumque sessiles. Aliqua et in odore 

 commendatio est (xxxvn, 8, §§ 21, 22). 



