328 plint's natural HisxoKr. [Book XXXVI. 



wounds inflicted by serpents. ^^ Some, too, recommend the 

 white ophites as an amulet for phrenitis and lethargy. As a 

 eoimter-poison to serpents, some persons speak more particu- 

 larly in praise of the ophites that is known as "tephrias,"^ 

 from its ashy colour. There is also a marble known as 

 " memphites," from the place^*' where it is found, and of a 

 nature somewhat analogous to the precious stones. For medi- 

 cinal purposes, it is triturated and applied in the form of a 

 liniment, with vinegar, to such parts of the body as require 

 cauterizing or incision ; the flesh becoming quite benumbed, 

 and thereby rendered insensible to pain. 



Porphy rites, ^^ which is another production of Egypt, is of a 

 red colour : the kind that is mottled with white blotches is 

 known as "leptospsephos.'"^- The quarries there are able to 

 furnish blocks*'^ of any dimensions, however large. Yitrasius 

 Pollio, who was steward^^ in Egypt for the Emperor Claudius, 

 brought to Rome from Egypt some statues made of this stone ; 

 a novelty which was not very highly approved of, as no one 

 has since followed his example. The Egj-ptians, too, have 

 discovered in Ethiopia the stone known as " basanites ;" ^' 

 which in colour and hardness resembles iron, whence the 

 name^^ that has been given to it. A larger block of it has 

 never been known than the one forming the group Avhich has 

 been dedicated by the Emperor Vespasianus Augustus in the 

 Temple of Peace. It represents the river Mlus with sixteen 

 children sporting around it,^' symbolical of the sixteen cubits, 

 the extreme height^^ to which, in the most favourable seasons, 

 that river should rise. It is stated, too, that in the Temple 

 of Serapis at Thebes, there is a block not unlike it, which 

 forms the statue of Memnon^^ there ; remarkable, it is said, for 



5^ A superstition, owing solely to the name and appearance of the stone. 



^9 From the Greek ricppa, '* ashes." The modern Tephroite is a 

 silicate of manganese. ^o Memphis, in Egypt. 



^^ A variety of the modern Porphyry, possibly ; a compact feldspathic 

 base, -witli crystals of feldspar. Ajasson refuses to identify it with por- 

 phyry, and considers it to be the stone called Jied antique, of a deep uniform 

 red, and of a very fine grain ; which also was a production of Egypt. 



^2 " Small stone." ^^ Of porphyrites. ^4 "Procurator." 



^^ See B. xxxvi. c. 38. See also the Lydian stone, or touchstone, men- 

 tioned in B. xxxiii. c. 43. ^^ p'rom BdnavoQ, a *' touchstone." 



'^'' Philostratus gives a short account of this group, and copies of it are 

 to be seen in the Vatican, and in the grounds of the Tuilleries. 



e** See B. v, c. 10. 



^3 The Egyptians called it, not Memnon, but Amenophis, and it Ls sup- 



