3178 “Electrum.”
3181 Yellow quartz crystal probably, or False topaz.
3182 “White gold stone.” It has not been identified.
3184 “Honey gold stone.” Some are of opinion that this was the Honey-coloured Hyacinth. Others, again, identify it with the yellow, honey-coloured Topaz; an opinion with which Ajasson coincides.
3186 “Lovely youth.” See Chapter 22, where it has been already mentioned. He here reverts to the Opals.
3188 The Opal, which he is about to describe.
3190 The vitreous Asteriated crystals of Sapphire are still called by this name. Ajasson, however, and Desfontaines, identify this gem with Girasol opal or fire opal. See Note 3147.
3191 From ἀστερ, a star.
3192 “Star-stone.” Ajasson identifies this stone with the Asteriated Sapphire or Corundum, mentioned in Note 3190 above.
3193 See B. iv. cc. 10, 17.
3194 “Lightning darting.”
3195 “Star-like.” Ajasson thinks, that it is identical with the stone next mentioned.
3196 “Planet-stricken.” It is not improbable that this was Cat’s-eye, a translucent Chalcedony, presenting a peculiar opalescence, or internal reflections, when cut en cabochon. The colour is either bright-greenish grey, or else yellow, red, or brownish.
3198 Brotero thinks that these were petrified shells, to which the magicians imputed marvellous properties.
3199 Brotero is of opinion that those were Belemnites, more commonly known as “thunderstones.” The reading “bætyli” is doubtful; but Parisot says, on what authority does not appear, that “Betylus” meant “Great father,” and that this name, as well as “Abaddir” of similar signification, was given by magicians to aërolites or meteorites used in their enchantments.
3200 A meteoric stone or aërolite, evidently.
3201 “Rainbow.” Opinion seems divided as to whether this is Hyalin quartz iridized internally, or prismatic crystals of Limpid quartz, which decompose the rays of the sun.
3202 The reading and meaning of this passage are very doubtful.
3203 The reading is doubtful, “zeros” and “erros” being given by some MSS. Ajasson hazards a conjecture that it may have been a variety of quartz, formed of a concretion of agates united by a cement of a similar nature.
3204 A general name for Agate, and possibly some other stones not now included under the name.
3205 “Jasper agate.”
3206 “Wax agate.” The modern Orange agate, probably.
3207 “Smaragdus agate.” Emerald-coloured agate.
3208 “Blood agate.” Agate sprinkled with spots of red jasper.
3209 “White agate.”
3210 “Tree agate.” Moss agate or Mocha stone, coloured by oxide of iron.
3211 Probably the reading should be “Stactachates,” “Myrrh agate.”
3213 Undulated agate.
3215 Sillig is of opinion that the reading here is corrupt.
3216 “Coticulas.” Stones for grinding drugs.
3217 “Refreshing” stone. Hardly any of these stones appear to be identified.
3218 As to the “nitrum” of Pliny, see B. xxxi. c. 46.
3220 From the Greek, ἀλέκτωρ, a “cock.”
3221 See B. vii. c. 19.
3222 “Man-subduing.” Identified by some with Marcasite, or White iron pyrites.
3224 “Silver-subduing.”
3225 “Counteracting-stone.”
3227 “Aromatic stone.” Cæsalpinus is of opinion that this is grey or clouded amber.
3228 “Reginis.”
3230 The reading is doubtful.
3232 Ajasson thinks that the reading should be “Aeizoe,” from the Greek ἀειζώη, “long lived.”
3233 “Shining stone,” apparently.
3235 The reading is doubtful.
3238 “Gem of Aphrodite” or “Venus.” Thought by Dalechamps and Hardouin to have been a kind of agate.
3239 “Which never grows cold.”
3240 A kind of Onyx, Dalechamps thinks.
3241 “Acorn stone.” Like an olive in appearance, and now known as “Jew stone,” probably, a fossil.
3242 “Frog-stone.” Varieties of quartz, probably.
3243 “Dipped stone.” Dalechamps says that it was amber stained with alkanet, but on what authority does not appear.
3244 “Eye of Belus.” Supposed by Ajasson and Desfontaines to be Cat’s eye Chalcedony. See Chapter 50, Note 3196.
3247 “Grape-cluster stone.”
3248 “Puniceus” seems to be a preferable reading to “pampineus,” “like a vine-tendril,” given by the Bamberg MS.
3249 Possibly it may have been Datholite or Borate of lime, a variety of which is known as Botryolite.
3250 “Hair-stone.” This was probably either Iron alum, known also as Alun de plume; Alunogen, known also as Feather Alum or hair salt; or Amianthus, also called satin Asbestus. See B. xxxvi. c. 31.
3251 “Ox-heart.” Supposed to be a sort of Turquois, Hardouin says.
3252 “Thunder-stone.”
3253 “Clod-stone.” It may possibly have been a kind of Geodes. See B. xxxvi. c. 32. Dalechamps, however, identifies it with Crapaudine, Toad-stone, or Bufonite, supposed in former times to be produced by the toad, but in reality the fossil tooth of a fish.
3254 See B. iii. c. 4.
3257 Lapis lazuli.
3260 “Cappadocian stone.”
3261 Like the “callaina” or “callais.”
3263 “Attractive stone.” A large rocky stone, according to Solinus. Dalechamps thinks that it must have been a kind of amber or bitumen, an opinion with which Desfontaines coincides.
3264 “Looking-glass stone,” or “mirror stone.” A variety of Specular stone, probably.
3265 “Onion stone.” A kind of agate, according to Dalechamps. It had its name probably from the union of its streaks like those on the neck of an onion.
3266 “Pottery stone.”
3267 See B. xxix. c. 38, Vol. V. p. 415.
3269 By its clear or clouded colour, it was said.
3270 “Wax stone.”
3271 From κίρκος, a “hawk” or “falcon.”
3272 “Hair-like;” from κόρση, the “hair.”
3275 “Strong stone”—from κρατερὸς, “strong.” Supposed by some to have been amber-coloured Hyacinth.
3277 “Saffron-coloured,” probably. If this is the meaning of the name, it may be supposed to have resembled the bigaroon cherry.
3279 “Sounding like brass.” Probably Clinkstone or Phonolite, a compact feldspathic rock of a greyish colour, clinking under the hammer when struck, somewhat like a metal.
3280 “Swallow-stone.”
3281 “Tortoise-stone.”
3282 Six in the morning until mid-day.
3283 “Tortoise-like stone.”
3284 “Chelone,” in Greek.
3285 “Grass-green stone.” It is just possible that the Chlorite of modern Mineralogy, a kind of emerald-green talc, or hydrous silicate of magnesia, may be meant: but we must dismiss the story of the wagtail.
3286 The pied wagtail, Motacilla alba of Linnæus.
3287 See B. vi. c. 31.
3288 “Golden light.” Ajasson suggests that this may have been a yellow phosphate of lead, which emitted light at night, from its close vicinity to naphtha. Bologna stone, Bolognian spar, or sulphate of Barytes, has also been suggested. Topaz, too, is mentioned.
3289 “Golden face.”
3290 A variety of Hyacinth, according to Dalechamps.
3291 From κηπὸς, “a garden,” it is thought; on account of its varied colours.
3292 “Laurel-stone.”
3293 “Substitute” for beryl.
3294 “Two-formed,” or “of a double nature.” A grand acquisition, as Ajasson remarks, for the worshippers of Priapus. See a similar characteristic in the Eryngium, our Eringo, B. xxii. c. 9: also Mandragora, B. xxv. c. 94, Note 877.
3295 “Stone of Dionysus” or “Bacchus.”
3296 “Dragon stone.”
3297 The serpent so called—“draco.” See B. xxix. c. 20.
3298 A story invented, no doubt, by the sellers of some kind of precious stone.
3300 “The best.”
3301 “Formed like the testes.”
3302 “Red stone,” apparently. The reading is very doubtful.
3303 The reading is doubtful, but the word may possibly mean “stone of love,” or something equivalent.
3304 “Fine-haired.”
3305 “Skilled in sacred matters.”
3306 “Of fair length.” Ajasson thinks that this may have been a variety of Pyromachic silex, or gun flint, nearly allied to Chalcedony.
3307 A preferable reading, probably, to “Eumitres.” It perhaps took its name from Mithres, the god of the Sun among the Persians, and meant “blessing of Mithres.” Ajasson thinks that it may have been green Tourmaline, and that its electric properties may have been very “serviceable to the charlatans who had the monopoly of the Temple of Bel.”
3309 “With beautiful leaves.” By some authorities this is thought to be Opal, by others Heliotrope or Bloodstone. Ajasson thinks that it may have been a general name for Jasper quartz, or else that it was Quartz agate opalized.
3310 This reading is very doubtful.
3311 “Mouldy stone.”
3312 “Stone of the religious.”
3313 “Black on the surface.” This is the case, Ajasson remarks, with many stones of the class known as “Cat’s eye.”
3314 “Galaxy stone.” Ajasson thinks that this may possibly have been an Opal, or a dead white Topaz, traversed by lines of other colours.
3315 “Milk stone.”
3316 Probably milk-white Quartz, Ajasson thinks.
3317 “White earth.”