Chnp. 11.] AMBER. 397 



glass have been brought to a marvellous degree of resemblance 

 to crystal; and yet, wonderful to say, they have only tended 

 to enhance the value of crystal, and in no way to depreci- 

 ate it. 



CHAP. 1 1 . AMBER : THE MANY FALSEHOODS THAT HAVE BEEN 



TOLD ABOUT IT. 



Next in rank among the objects of luxury, we have amber ;^^ 

 an article which, for the present, however, is in request among 

 women^ only. All these three last-mentioned substances hold 

 the same rank, no doubt, as precious stones ; the two former 

 ^for certain fair reasons ; crystal, because it is adapted for 

 taking cool drinks, and murrhine vessels, for taking drinks that 

 are either hot or cold. But as for amber, luxury has not been 

 able, as yet, to devise any justification for the use of it. This 

 is a subject which affords us an excellent opportunity of ex- 

 posing some of the frivolities and falsehoods of the Greeks ; 

 and I beg that my readers will only have patience with me 

 while I do so, it being really worth while, for our own practi- 

 cal improvement, to become acquainted with the marvellous 

 stories which they have promulgated respecting amber. 



After Phaethon had been struck by lightning, his sisters, they 

 tell us, became changed into poplars," which every year shed 

 their tears upon the banks of the Eridanus, a river known to 

 us as the "Padus." To these tears was given the name of "elec- 

 trum,"®^ from the circumstance that the Sun was usually called 

 *' elector.'* Such is the story, at all events, that is told by 

 many of the poets, the first of whom were, in my opinion, 

 -^schjius, Philoxenus, Euripides, Satyrus, and Meander ; and 

 the falsity of which is abundantly proved upon the testi- 

 mony of Italy itself.®' Those among the Greeks who have 

 devoted more attention to the subject, have spoken of certain 

 islands in the Adriatic Sea, known as the " Electrides," and 



^5 *• Succinum." It is of vegetable origin, and, according to Ooppert, 

 was originally the viscous resin of a tree named by hira Pinites succinifer. 



^ It is used by men, more particularly, at the present day, as a mouth- 

 piece for pipes. 



8^ As to the vegetable origin of amber, there is no doubt that the ancients 

 •were right. 



'"•s Most probably from i/Xiog, the " sun." Phaethon was fabled to 

 have been the son of Apollo. See the story in Ovid's Met. B. ii. 1. 340, et 

 teq. fi9 Where amber was not to be found. 



