MEERSCHAUM
“A meerschaum pipe nearly black with smoking is considered a treasure.”
J. Nott. Dekker’s Gull’s Horn Book.
Meerschaum obtains its name from the German Meer, sea, and Schaum, foam, which is, according to Dr. Murray, a literal translation of the Persian KEF-I-DARYA (foam of the sea). It is also called keffekill and kiffekiefe, which has been credited with meaning the “earth of the town of Keffe or Kaffe,” the Crimean town whence it is exported. Its technical name is Sepiolite, and its various forms are given as myrsen, meershaum, meerchum, mereschaum, merschaum, meerschaum. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, extremely soft and light, smooth to the touch and in colour of white, grey-white, yellow and sometimes pinkish. Kirwan, the mineralogist, writing in the latter part of the 18th century says, “Kefferkill or Myrsen is said, when recently dug, to be of a yellow colour and as tenacious as cheese or wax.” It is well-known that the Tartars use newly dug meerschaum as we use soap, on account of its excellent lather. The peasantry at one time really believed it to be the petrified foam of the sea. The Meerschaum is included amongst the Galactites or Milk Stones. On account of its lightness it was first fashioned into a smoking pipe by a Hungarian shoemaker, Kavol Kowates, skilled in wood carving and metal work, in the old town of Pesth, in the museum of which town it now rests. The piece of meerschaum from which Kowates made his pipe was brought to Hungary by his patron Count Andrassy on his return from a diplomatic mission to Turkey. The Meerschaum is under the celestial Gemini.
MELANITE. See [GARNET].
MOONSTONE
“Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous tale.
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth.”