Quartzose minerals were not commonly known in ancient times, and hence were extravagantly esteemed. The fragments of a murrhine cup, the little Cambay stone cup still made in Cambay, were exhibited in the theatre of Nero, 'as if,' adds Pliny, `they had been the ashes of no less than Alexander the Great himself !' Seventy thousand scsterces was the price of one of these little Cambay cups in Rome in the days of Pompey. The price in Bombay ranges from Rs. 18 to Rs. 35 and Rs. 75. Nero paid 1,000,000 sesterces for a cup, ' a fact,' slily remarks Pliny, well worthy of remembrance that the father of his country should have drunk from a vessel of such a costly price.' Amongst the people of India the inferior gems are held in but little esteem ; they value a gem for its intrinsic price, not for the workman's skill expended in shaping it, in which the chief value of all the inferior gems consists.
Ruby with lapidaries and jewellers is a term applied to the beautiful red crystals of any minerals which can be used as gems ; but the oriental ruby is the red variety of corundum. The finest stones are found in the sand of rivers in Ceylon, in the sand of certain streams, and in the Capelan mountains near Syriam, a former capital of Pegu (Jour. As. Soc. Beng. ii. p. 75), about GO to 70 miles from the capital in a N.E. direc tion, and over an area of about a hundred square miles, and sapphires are found along with them. The ruby is considered by eastern jewellers to approach perfec tion the more closely it resembles the colour of pigeon's blood. The ruby is generally set in rings and brooches, surrounded with brilliants. placed in the fire a true ruby becomes invisible, but when immersed in water it appears to glow with heat. It is stated in Prinsep's Oriental Accounts of the Precious Minerals, that not to be deceived in rubies is a work of difficulty, because there are spurious ones of polished crystal which much resemble the true gem ; these are called Ayn-ul-rajan. Jewellers in the east apply the term lal to all rubies of a fine red colour, but their lal rumani (scarlet or pomegranate ruby) is probably the true spinel. The bright red spine] ruby, lal rumani, is called by modern jewellers as yaqut naram, or simply, in Hindustani, narmah, also labri. The ruby is imitated by spinel, from which it is easily distinguished by superior hardness. The natives, like European mineral ogists, distinguish four principal species of yaqut,—red (oriental ruby), blue (oriental sapphire), yellow, white, or colourless (oriental topaz), and green (oriental emerald). Natives distinguish the oriental ruby from
the spinel, or balas ruby. A pure oriental ruby of ten carats is worth from £3800 to £4800, while the spinel ruby and balas ruby would be dear at one-twentieth of the sum. When the red has a decided shade of orange, it usually goes by the name of vermeil or verrneille, when of a yellowish-red it is called rubicelle.
Oriental sapphires are blue transparent varieties of corundum. When perfect, of a clear, bright, prussian blue colour, and possessed of a high degree of transpar cncy,this stone is valued next to the oriental ruby. It is, however, seldom found in this state, being more frequently pale-blue, passing by degrees into entirely colourless. Pale varieties when exposed to a strong heat entirely lose their colour without undergoing any other alteration, and have often been sold for diamonds.
Sapphire is found in the same earth with the rubies of Burma, but are much more rare, and generally of a larger size. Sapphire occurs crystallized in variously terminated six-sided prisms, and in masses, and is found in the beds of rivers or associated with crystal line rocks. It possesses double refraction, electric by friction. Is not acted on by acids, and re mains unaltered by the fire, red and yellow varietk's, if anything, being improved in colour bf heating. Sat phire is brought from Ceylon, Siam. Ladakh. and Pegu.
but it is also found in Bohemia, in France, in the brook Rioupezzouliou, near Expailly, in Velay, and in New South 1Vales. In 1881-82, sapphires from Siam were imported into British India valued at Es. 45,390, and via Simla from Ladakh, on the road to Zanskar, of value Rs. 25,95G. Sapphire is imitated with iolite, kyanite, etc.; hardness affords the best test of the genuineness of the stone. The word sapphire is derived from sapheiros, the name of a blue stone amongst the ancients. Most probably the sapheiros of the ancients, however, was not our sapphire, but lapis-lazuli.
Scholl occurs in the granite and syenite districts of the Peninsula of India.
Spinel, besides spinels properly so called, includes Franklinite and cbromite (chromic iron). Spinel ruby and balas ruby are beautiful gems. Pleonaste is an opaque variety of spinel. Spinel is found in Saffragarn and Matura, in Ceylon, in Mysore and Burma. Spinel ruby or balas ruby varies in value according to its cut and colour. Balas ruby is pale-red or rose-red ; it varies much in price.