Chap. 18.] DEFECTS IN THE SMAEAGDUS. 411 



the sea to such a degree, as to alarm the tunnies and put them 

 to flight : a novel circumstance, which for a long time excited 

 wonder in the fishermen, till at last the stones in the statue 

 were changed for others. 



CHAP. 18. DEFECTS IN THE SMAHAGDITS. 



It will be only proper, too, seeing that the prices of these 

 stones are so exorbitant, to point out their defects. Some 

 defects, no doubt, are common to all of them, while others, 

 again, like those found in the human race, are peculiar only 

 to those of a certain country. Thus, for example, the stones 

 of Cyprus are not all green alike, and in the same smaragdus 

 some parts are more or less so than others, the stone not always 

 preserving that uniform deep tint which characterizes the sma- 

 ragdus of Scythia. In other instances, a shadow runs through 

 the stone, and the colour becomes dulled thereby ; the conse- 

 quence of which is, that its value is depreciated ; and even 

 more so, when the colour is thin and diluted. 



In consequence of the defects^^ in these stones, they have 

 been divided into several classes. Some of them are obscure, 

 and are then known as "blind" stones; some have a certain 

 densit}^, which impairs their transparency ; others, again, are 

 mottled, and others covered with a cloud. This cloud, how- 

 ever, is altogether different from the shadow above mentioned ; 

 for it is a defect which renders the stone of a whitish hue, and 

 not of a transparent green throughout ; presenting, as it does, in 

 the interior or upon the surface, a certain degree of whiteness 

 which arrests the vision. Other defects, again, in these stones, 

 are filaments, salt-like^* grains, or traces of lead ore, faults 

 which are mostly common to them all. 



Next after the kinds above described, the smaragdus of 

 Ethiopia is held in high esteem ; being found, as Juba tells 

 us, at a distance of twenty- five days' journey from Coptos. 

 These are of a bright green, but are seldom to be met with per- 

 fectly clear or of an uniform colour. Democritus includes in 

 this class the stones that are known as " herminei,'' and as 

 ''Persian" stones; the former of which are of a convex, 



33 Ajasson remarks that the greater part of the defects here described 

 belong in reality to the Dioptase. 

 31 " Sal." See Chapters 8, 10, 22, and 37, of this Eook. 



