426 pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXXVII: 



purpose ; a stone which shares its name, in part, with sardonyx. 

 It is a common stone, and was first found at Sardes, but the 

 most esteemed kind is that of the vicinity of Babylon. When 

 certain quarries are being worked, these stones are found, 

 adhering, like a kind of heart, to the interior of the rock. This 

 mineral, however, is said to be now extinct in Persia ; though 

 it is to be found in numerous other localities, Pares and Assos, 

 lor example. 



In India^^ there are three varieties of this stone ; the red 

 sarda, the one known as "pionia," from its thickness, and a third 

 kind, beneath which they place a ground of silver tinsel. The 

 Indian stones are transparent, those of Arabia being more 

 opaque. There are some found also in the vicinity of Leucas 

 in Epirus, and in Egypt, which have a ground placed beneath 

 them of leaf gold. In the case of this stone, too, the male 

 stone shines with a more attractive brilliancy than the female, 

 which is of a thicker substance, and more opaque. Among the 

 ancients there was no precious stone in more common use than 

 this ; at all events, it is this stone that is made so much parade 

 of in the comedies of Menander and Philemon. No one, too, 

 among the transparent stones is tarnished more speedily by ex- 

 posure to moisture than this ; though of all liquids, it is oil 

 that acts the most readily upon it. Those stones which a;-e 

 like honey in colour, are generally disapproved of, and still 

 more so, when they have the complexion of earthenware.^^ 



CHAP. 32. (8.) — TOPAzos : two varieties of it. 



Topazos'^^ is a stone that is still held in very high estimation 

 for its green tints : indeed, when it was first discovered, it was 

 preferred to every other kind of precious stone. It so happened 

 that some Troglodytic pirates, sufi'ering from tempest and 

 hunger, having landed upon an island off the coast of Arabia 

 known as Cytis,^ when digging there for roots and grass, 

 discovered this precious stone : such, at least, is the opinion 



red, which afterwards turns to a rich, deep, red, on exposure to the suu's 

 rays, and subsequently to artificial heat. 



22 "Which supplies the best carneHans at the present day. 



'-^3 From their mixture, Ajasson says, with argillaceous earth. 



2* Under this name Pliny evidently speaks of the stone known to us as 

 Chrysolite, and possihly of green agate as well. Our Topaz cannot be 

 easily recognized in this Chapter, at all events. 



2= See B. vi. c. 34. 



