(3) Smarcifjdos = bdrekcth. This is commonly supposed to be emerald ; but, as there is beryl also in the list, it is unlikely that a slight variety of purer and less pure colour should give occasion to repeat the same stone. There are two indications that in smaraydos is included rock-crystal. Pliny mentions the shortsighted Nero using an eye-glass of smaragdus ; the difficulty of getting emerald free from tlaws and large enough for an eye-glass, the depth of colour (for this was not the lighter beryl), and the greater hardness of emerald, all make that stone very unlikely. The colourless rock-crystal is far more probably the material used. And in Rev 4' there is described — a rain- bow like a smaracjdus : now a colourless stone is the only onq that can show a rainbow of pris- matic colours ; and the hexagonal prism of rock- crystal, if one face is not developed (as is often the case), gives a prism of 60°, suitable to show a spectrum. The confusion with emerald seems to have arisen from both stones crj'stallizing in hexagonal prisms ; and, as the emerald varies through the aquamarine to a colourless state, there is no obvious separation between it and quartz crystal. The meaning of bdreJceth, the 'flashing' or 'lightning' stone, agrees with the brilliancy of rock - crystal. The Arabic has sam uruU = smaragdus.
(4) Anthrax = nophekh. The former name is generally agreed to be the carbuncle, which is the (lark clear red garnet. Garnet was a favourite stone in Egjpt for beads, but is not found en- graved, at least not till late times.
(5) Sappheiros = .mjipir. There can be no doubt of the eciuivalence of these names ; yet they do not mean our sjipphire or corundum, as tliat was quite unknown in early times, and probably too hard to be engraved. Plinys description of it as opaque and speckled with gold, shows it to have been our lapis-lazuli, which was used and greatly valued in early times.
(6) As we cannot sever the iaspis from the yd.fh^pheh, we must assume a corruption in either the Heb. or Greek. The Greek is more probably correct, as the iaspis was certainly opaque, and would well consort with the opaque lazuli. We must restore, then, (6) iaspis=ydshipheh. The ear- liest jaspers mentioned by Greek writers appear to have been green ; and a dark green jasper was a favourite stone among early Greek engravers, and used also by Egyptians. This is probably, then, the iaspis.
(7) Ligurion = leshem. The ligurion is a cor-
ruption of li/ncurion, described as brilliant yellow, and in Greek times apparently identified with the jacinth = zircon. As tliis is unknown in Egyptian work, probably yellow quartz or agate (R.) was intended by leshem.
(8) Achates = shebo. This is agreed to be con- nected with some varieties of modern agates. The black and white banded is said to be probably the variety earliest known as achates to the Greeks ; but this is little, if at all, known in Egypt until Greek times. From the contrasts of colour in the series a red agate would be the more likely here ; but a grey and wliite is the only closely-banded agate that occurs in Egj-ptian work. If possible we should expect the carnelian here, as it is a usual stone, and yet does not appear elsewhere in the list.
(9) Amethystos=^ahldniah. There is no question as to this being the modem amethyst, which was frequently used in Egypt at an early date, and well engraved.
(10) Chr)jsolithos = tarshtsh. This stone among later Greeks is probably the topaz ; but, as that was quite unknown in earlier times, some other golden-coloured stone must be intended. As clear yellow quartz is already fixed to the ligurion, that IS not in question ; nor would a transparent yellow- stone be so appropriately termed ' golden ' as an opaque one. The bright yellow jasper was finely engraved by the Egyptians of the ISth dynasty and onward, and that may well be the 'golden stone ' or chri/sulithos.
(11) Beri/llion=sh6ham. — It is generally agreed that this IS the modern beryl, the opaque green variety of the emerald ; and with this was doubt- less confused the green felspar, which is only dis- tinguished in appearance by its brighter cleavage and lustre. As the felspar was far more usual for jewellery than the beryl in early times, it is pretty certain that it was the shoham, afterwards confused with the beryl.
(12) As we have already noticed, the ydshfphth has probably changed places in the Hebrew with yahalOm, and therefore ( 12) onyrhion = yahdlom seems to be the probable equivalence. This is usually accepted as being the modem onyx ; but such a stone in layers was apparently not known to early engravers, the first dated example being of the 26th dynasty. There is, however, no other stone which seems more probable for this name.
It may be as well now to state what stones that were used for early engraving stand outside of the identifications we have arrived at, and appear not to have been used in the breastplate. The follow- ing were all wrought in Egypt : obsidian, black jasper, ha?matite, fawn-colouretl chert, milky quartz, chalcedony, and turquoise. Thus no striking or important stone is omitted from the list of Ex. except turquoise, which was mainly used before 4tJuO B.C., and in late times. But we have in several cases put down two stones to one name, where they were such as were likely to have been confounded in one class together.