418 PLINT's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXVII. 



time this stone has been held in very high esteem at Eome : for 

 which reason, we shall give it the next place after the opal. 

 By sardonyx, as the name'^ itself indicates, was formerly un- 

 derstood a sarda with a white ground beneath it, like the flesh 

 beneath the human finger-nail ; both parts of the stone being 

 equally transparent. Such, according to Ismenias, Demostratus, 

 Zenothemis, and Sotacus, is the sardonyx of India ; the last 

 two giving the name of " blind" sardonyx to all the other 

 stones of this class which are not transparent, and which have 

 now entirely appropriated the name to themselves. For, at 

 the present day, the Arabian sardonyx presents no traces what- 

 ever of the Indian sarda, '^ it being a stone that has been found 

 to be characterized by several different colours of late ; black 

 or azure for the base, and vermilion, surrounded with a line of 

 rich white, for the upper part, not without a certain glimpse"''' 

 of purple as the white passes into the red.'^^ 



We learn from Zenothemis that in his time these stones 

 were not held by the people of India in any high esteem, al- 

 though they are found there of so large a size as to admit of 

 the hilts of swords being made of them. It is well known, too, 

 that in that country they are exposed to view by the moantaiii- 

 streams, and that in our part of the world they were formerly 

 valued from the fact that they are nearly the only ones"^^ among 

 the engraved precious stones that do not bring away the wax 

 when an impression is made. The consequence is, that our 

 example has at last taught the people of India to set a value 

 upon them, and the lower classes there now pierce them even, 

 to wear them as ornaments for the neck ; the great proof, in 

 fact, at the present day, of a sardonyx being of Indian origin. 

 Those of Arabia are remarkable for their marginal line of 

 brilliant white, of considerable breadth, and not glistening in 

 hollow fissures in the stone or upon the sides, but shining upon 

 the very surface, at the margin, and supported by a ground 

 intensely black beneath. In the stones of India, this ground 



''^ From tbe Greek "Edpcioi', " sard," and 6vv^, a ** finger nail." 



"^^ His meaning seems to be that it does not present the bright trans- 

 parent red of tlie Indian Sarda or Carnelian. See Chaper 31 of this 

 Book. ''' *' Quadam spc." Un soupcon, as the French would say. 



'^ This would appear, from the description, to bean Agate, or variegated 

 Chalcedony. 



'^ He probably intends to include the Sarda or Carnelian here. 



