[3121] Turquois is found in large quantities in a mountainous district of Persia, not far from Nichabour; where it occurs in veins which traverse the mountains in all directions.
[3122] Isidorus says, B. xvi. c. 17, that they wore it in the ears. The Shah of Persia, it is said, retains for his own use all the larger and more finely tinted specimens of turquois that are found in his dominions.
[3123] This story is now regarded as fabulous.
[3124] See B. x. cc. 44, 79.
[3125] The stone now known as “Prase” is a vitreous, leek-green, variety of massive quartz.
[3126] This may possibly have been Plasma, a faintly translucent Chalcedony, approaching jasper, having a greenish colour, sprinkled with yellow and whitish dots, and a glistening lustre. Or, perhaps, Bloodstone or Heliotrope, a kind of jasper.
[3127] See the preceding Chapter, and Note [3118].
[3128] “Cymbia.” Drinking vessels shaped like a boat.
[3129] Or “Nile-stone.” Egyptian jasper, or Egyptian pebble, a kind of quartz.
[3130] Our Malachite, a green carbonate of copper. See B. xxxiii. c. [26].