414 PUNT'S NATUUA.L HISTORY. [Book 



cubits in length by three in breadth. He informs us, also, that 

 in a temple of Jupiter, in Egypt there was an obelisk made of 

 four smaragdi, forty cubits in length, and four in breadth at 

 one extremity, and two at the other. He says, too, that at 

 the period at which he wrote, there was in the Temple of Her- 

 'ules at Tyrus a large column made of a single smarngdus; 47 

 though very possibly it might only be pseudo-smaragdus, a 

 kind of stone not uncommonly found in Cyprus, where a block 

 had been discovered, composed, one half of smarugdus, and 

 one half of jasper, 43 and the liquid in which hud not as yet 

 been entirely transformed. . Apion, surnamtd " Flistonices," 4 *- 

 has left a v;ry recent statement, that there was still in exist- 

 ence, in his time, in the Labyrinth of Kgypt, a colossal statue 

 of Serapis inadu of a single smarugdus, nine ciibiU* in height. 



CHAP. 20. BERYLS: EIOIIT VAKIKTIKS OK.TIIKM. DKITXTS JN 



BKUYL8. 



Beryls, it is thought, arc of the same 50 nature as the smarng- 

 dus, or at least closely analogous. India* 1 produces thorn, and 

 they are rarely to be found elsewhere. The lapidaries cut all 

 beryls of an hexagonal 6 * form ; because the colour, which is 

 deadened by a dull uniformity of surface, is heightened by the 

 reflection resulting from the angles. If they are cut in any 

 other way, these stones have no brilliancy whatever. The most 

 esteemed beryls are those which in colour resemble the pure 

 green of the sea; 53 the chrysobcryP 1 being next in value, a stone 

 of a somewhat paler colour, but approaching a golden tint. 

 Closely allied to this last in its brilliancy, but of a more pallid 



47 Herodotus mentions this smanigdns and the temple, I), ii. c. 44, as 

 Laving been s en by himself. 



** laspis." Sec Chapter 37'of'tliis Book. 



19 Meaning "the conqueror of many," probably; in reference to his 

 c :!(< ntious dispoMttoiJ, See end of 15. xxx. 



*' The Uervl and the Knierald are only varieties of the same species, the 

 latter o\vin^ its colour to oxide of chrome, the former to oxide of iron. 



41 Th" brst Ueryls are found iu Siberia, llindobtan, Brazil, and the 

 t'nit'd States. 



** The ctysfals an* naturally hexagonal* 



43 Hence the name of the sky-blue, or mountain-green beryl, ayua~ 



*i Or " golden beryl." The modern Chrysoberyl is altogether a differ- 

 ent stone from the one here described, which probably is identical with 

 prase or leek-grctu Chalcedony, the btonu next mentioned. 



