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Stone; it has its Name from the River Achate in Sicily; and is ſold at a great Price.
irregular and uncertain Manner of its Spots, Clouds, and Variegations, being placed. It has commonly a grey horny Ground; its Variegations are of different Colours, and often moſt beautifully diſpoſed; repreſenting ſometimes, very exactly and elegantly, Trees, Shrubs, and Plants, Clouds, Rivers, and Foreſts; and ſometimes Animals: There are Stories of very ſtrange Repreſentations on ſome of them; and, indeed, the beautiful Images we often now ſee upon ſome, may incline one to believe many of the ſtrange Things we hear of them.
The Antients have diſtinguifhed Agates into many Species, to each of which they have given a Name, importing its Difference from the common Agate; whether it were in Colour, Figure, or Texture: From their, Colours, they called the red Hæmachates, the white Leucachates, and the plain yellowiſh, or wax-coloured, Cerachates. Thoſe which approached to, or partook of the Nature of other Stones, they diſtinguiſhed by Names compounded of their own generical Name, and that of the Stone they reſembled or partook of: Thus that Species which ſeemed allied to the Jaſpers they called Jaſp-Achates; and that which partook of the Nature of the Carnelian, Sard-Achates; and thoſe which had the Reſemblance of Trees and Shrubs on them, they called, for that Reaſon, Dendrachates: Theſe are what our Jewellers at this Time call Mocho-Stones, but improperly; for they are not the Product of that Kingdom, but are only uſed to be brought from other Countries, and ſhipped there for the Uſe of our Merchants.
Others they have named idly from their imaginary Virtues; as that Kind which they ſuppoſed had the Power of conquering the Rage of Lions, and other wild Beaſts, they called therefore Λεοντοσέρες, which ſome have imperfectly tranſlated Leonina only, and ſuppoſe the Stone to have been ſo named, from its being of the Colour of a Lion's Skin: How much they were miſtaken, we may know from this remarkable Deſcription of it in ſo old an Author as Orpheus:
Ἀλλ᾿ οὗτος πάντων προφερέϛατος, εἴκέ μιν εὕροις
Εἷδος ἔχοντα δαφοινὸν ἁμαιμακέτοιο δράκοντος,
Τῷ καί μιν προτέροισι λεοντοσέρην ὀνομῇναι
Ἥνδανεν ἡμιθέοισι, κατάϛικτον σπιλάδεσσι
Πυρσαῖσι λευκαῖς τε, μελαινομέναις χλοεραῖς τε.
Pliny ſeems not to have perfectly underſtood
