Chap. 74.] COCHLIDES. 461 



Melichloros^ is a stone of two colours, partly honey-coloured, 

 partly yellow. Crocias^^ is the name given to a stone which 

 reflects a colour like that of saffron ; polias, to a stone resembling 

 white hair in colour ; and spartopolias, to a stone more thinly 

 sprinkled A^ith white. 



Ehoditis is like the rose in colour, chalcitis resembles copper, 

 and sycitis'" is in colour like a fig. Eostrychitis''^ is covered 

 with branches of a white or blood-red colour, upon a ground of 

 black ; and chernitis''^ has, on a stony surface, a figure like that 

 of two hands grasping each other. Anancitis''^ is used in 

 hydromancy, they say, for summoning the gods to make their 

 appearance ; and synochitis,''^ for detaining the shades from 

 below when they have appeared. If white dendritis'^ is buried 

 beneath a tree that is being felled, the edge of the axe will 

 never be blunted, it is asserted. There are many other stones 

 also, of a still more outrageously marvellous nature, to which, 

 admitted as it is that they are stones, barbarous names have 

 been given : we have refuted, however, a quite sufficient num- 

 ber of these portentous lies already. 



CHAP. 74. (12.) — PRECIOUS STONES THAT SUDDENLY MAKE THEIR 

 APPEARANCE. COCHLIDES. 



l^ew species of precious stones are repeatedly brought into 

 existence, and fresh ones are found all at once, destitute of 

 names. Thus, for example, there was a stone formerly dis- 

 covered in the gold-mines of Lampsacus, which, on account of 

 its extraordinary beauty, was sent to King Alexander, as we 

 learn from Theophrastus."® Cochlides," too, which are now so 

 common, are rather artificial productions than natural, and in 

 Arabia there have been found vast masses of them ; which are 

 boiled, it is said, in honey, for seven days and nights without 

 intermission. By doing this, all earthy and faulty particles 

 are removed ; after which, the mass, thus cleansed and purified, 

 is adorned by the ingenuity of artists with variegated veins and 

 spots, and cut into such shapes as may be most to the taste of 

 purchasers. Indeed, these articles, in former times, were made 



68 " Honey-coloured and yellow." ^^ *' Saffron stone." 



"0 All three being derived from the corresponding name in Greek. 



'1 See Chapter 55 of this Eook. " i<. Hand stone." 



7» " Stone of necessity." '*" Retaining stone." ''^ " Tree stone." 



'6 De Lapidibus. " He alludes to petrified shells, most probably. 



