428 PLINT's NATURAL HISTOET. [Book XXXYII. 



namely, who inhabit Mount Caucasus, the Sacse, and the 

 Dahse. It is remarkable for its size, but is covered with holes 

 and full of extraneous matter ; that, however, which is found 

 in Carmania is of a finer qualitj^, and far superior. In both 

 cases, however, it is only amid frozen and inaccessible rocks that 

 it is found, protruding from the surface, like an eye in appear- 

 ance, and slightly adhering to the rock ; not as though it formed 

 an integral part of it, but with all the appearance of having 

 been attached to it. People so habituated as they are to ridiug 

 on horseback, cannot find the energy and dexterity requisite 

 for climbing the rocks to obtain the stones, while, at the same 

 time, they are quite terrified at the danger of doing so. Hence 

 it is, that they attack the stones with slings from a distance, 

 and so bring them down, moss and all. It is with this stone 

 that the people pay their tribute, and this the rich look upon 

 as their most graceful ornament for the neck.^^ This constitutes 

 the whole of their wealth, with some, and it is their chief 

 glory to recount how many of these stones they have brought 

 down from the mountain heights since the days of their child- 

 hood. Their success, however, is extremely variable ;^^ for while 

 some, at the very first throw, have brought down remarkably 

 fine specimens, many have arrived at old age without obtaining 

 any. 



Such is the method of procuring these stones ; their form 

 being given them by cutting, a thing that is easily efifected. 

 The best of them have just the colour of smaragdus, a thing 

 that proves that the most pleasing property in them is one that 

 belongs of right to another stone. Their beauty is heightened 

 by setting them in gold, and there is no stone to which the 

 contrast of the gold is more becoming. The finest of them lose 

 their colour by coming in contact with oil, unguents, or undi- 

 luted wine even ; whereas those of a poorer quality preserve 

 their colour better. There is no stone, too, that is more easily 

 counterfieited in glass. Some writers say, that this stone is to 

 be found in Arabia also, in the nest of the bird known as the 

 ** melancoiyphus."^^ 



not far from Nichabour ; where it occurs in veins which traverse the moun- 

 tains in all directions. 



^5 Isidorus says, B. xvi. c. 17, that they wore it in the ears. The Shah 

 of Persia, it is said, retains for his own use all the larger and more finely 

 tinted specimens of turquois that are found in his dominions. 



3« This story is now regarded as fabulous. 37 ggg _g ^ (,g_ 44, .79. 



