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Pebbles in which cloudy browns and yellows were first mixed are now marked by clear bands of white and red. The hue of the red car- nelian varies from the palest flesh to the deepest blood-red. The best are of a deep, clear, and even red color. The larger and thicker the stone, the more it is esteemed. White carnelians are scarce, and when of large size and good quality are much esteemed.
This burning of agates is fully described by Barbosa in 1517, and seems to be of very ancient date. It was then, as now, chiefly the industry of the Bhlls, an ancient Dravidian tribe which may formerly have possessed the Cambay coast, but had been driven to the hills by later invaders. It is this product, in all probability, which is the “onyx stone” of Genesis II, 12, which reached the ancient world through the “land of Havilah” on the Persian Gulf.
Pliny (XXXVII, 7, 8) says that murrhine was first known to the Romans after the conquests of Pompey the Great in Asia; that it was fabulously dear, T. Petronius having broken one of Nero’s basins valued at 300,000 sesterces, while Nero himself paid 1,000,000 ses- terces for a single cup. Pliny attributes the vessels to Parthia and Carmania. They were of moderate size only, seldom as large as a drinking-cup, supposed to be of a moist substance, solidified by heat under ground; shining rather than brilliant; having a great variety of colors, with wreathed veins, presenting shades of purple and white, with fiery red between. Others were quite opaque. They occasion- ally contained crystals, and depressed spots that looked like warts. They were said to have an agreeable taste and smell.
While Pliny’s description is not very definite, it suggests agate more than any other substance, and the reference to Parthia and Car- mania rather than to the Gulf of Cambay means that until the Romans discovered the sea-route to India they were dependent on the Parthian trade-routes for their Eastern treasures, and had only such information, often misleading, as the Parthians offered them.
49. Silk cloth. — See under §§ 49 and 64.
49. Mallow cloth. — See also under § 6. This was a coarse fabric, like the native cloth made by the East African negroes, which is imitated by the modern blue drill. It was dyed with the flowers of Hibiscus Rosa-Sinensis, order Malvacea , a shrub which is native throughout India and China. See Watt, p. 629.
49. Long pepper: Piper longum, Linn. , order Piperacea. Watt (p. 891), says it is a perennial shrub, native of the hotter parts of India from Nepal eastward to Assam, the Khasia hills and Bengal, westward to Bombay, and southward to Travancore and Ceylon. The Sanscrit name pippali was originally given to this plant, and only
