Chap. 24.] ONYX. 419 



is like wax in colour, ^° or else like cornel, with a circle also of 

 white around it. In some of these stones, too, there is a play 

 of colours like those of the rainbow, while the surface is redder 

 even than the shell of the sea-locust. ^^ 



Those stones which are like honey in appearance, or of a 

 f£eculeut*'- colour — such being the name given to one defect in 

 them — are generally disapproved of. They are rejected also 

 Avhen the white zone blends itself with the other colours, and 

 its limits are not deJB.nitely marked ; or if, in like manner, it is 

 irregularly intersected by any other colour ; it being looked 

 upon as an imperfection if the regularity of any one of the 

 colours is interrupted by the interposition of another. The 

 sardonyx of Armenia is held in some esteem, but the zone 

 round it is of a pallid hue. 



CHAP. 24. OKYX : THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF IT. 



"We must give some account also of onyx,®^ because of 

 the name which it partly shares in common with sardonyx. 

 This name, though in some places*^^ given to a marble, is 

 here used to signify a precious stone. Sudines says, that in this 

 stone there is a white portion which resembles the white of 

 the human-fingernail, in addition to the colours of chrysolithos, 

 sarda, and iaspis. According to Zenothemis, there are numerous 

 varieties of the Indian onyx, the fiery- coloured, the black, and 

 the cornel, with white veins encircling them, like an eye as it 

 were, and in some cases running across them obliquely. ^^ 

 Sotacus mentions an Arabian onyx, which difters from the rest ; 

 that of India, according to him, presenting small flames,®^ each 

 surrounded by one or more white zones ; in a manner altogether 

 difi'ereut from the Indian sai'donyx, which presents a series of 

 white specks, while in this case it is one continuous circle. 

 The Arabian onyx, on the other hand, is black, he says, with a 

 white zone encircling it. 



Satyrus says, that there is an onyx in India of a flesh 



80 A Yariety, probably, of common Chalcedony. 

 ■ 81 See B. ix. cc. 74, 88, and B. xxxii. c. 53. 



82 " FajciileutiB," of the colour of wine-lees. 



83 So called from ovv?, a "finger-nail." It is a variety of the C]>al- 

 ccdony, resembling Agate, but the colours are Arranged in flat horizontal 

 planes. ^i See B. xxxiv. c. 22, and B. xxxvi. c. 12. 



^5 It is pretty clear that the Onyx of Pliny included not only our Onyx^ 

 but several other varieties of the Chalcedony. ^^ - Igniculus." 



EE 2 



