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CHAP. XII.] THE BDELLIUM, OR PEARL.
279
circumstance which is also noted by Diodorus Siculus. The Emeralds,
former writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. enumerates twelve kinds of emeralds, the best
ot which, he says, are called Scythian, from the region in
which they are found. 1 None, he adds, are harder, or have
less faults; and these are as much superior to others, as the
emerald itself is to other precious stones. 2
Solinus also speaks of this tract as abounding in emeralds
of the first quality, and superior to those of Egypt, Media,
and even Chalcedon. 3 The stone called schoham is found The Schoham.
on the river Thermodon, near Amisius; 4 this is supposed to be
the Sapphire of Pliny; 5 who says it is found as far west as Chal
cedon, and is also obtained in Media. We have likewise the
stone called lapis Armenius, 6 which seems to have been con-
founded with lapis lazuli; and another, having the colour of
red lead, 7 to which Pliny gives the name of sandyx. 8
Few words have given rise to more discussion than nfrlS
in Genesis. 9 Some writers consider it to signify the gum Opinions cou-
which is described under that name by Pliny : 10 while others, Bdellium,
apparently with greater reason, have referred it to some more
precious substance. The learned Reland, for example, thought
that schoham, or emerald, was the bdellium of Moses; also Eu-
gubinus, and St. Jerome, were of the same opinion: 11 but Bero-
aldus, Kimchi, and Benjamin of Tudela, with more probabi
lity, have fixed upon the pearl; 12 and it is remarkable that, in
the same sentence, the last designates this precious stone by the
I Lib. LIV.—Colchis was considered a part of Scythia.—Herod., lib. IV.,
c. xi.—'Diodorus (lib. II. c. xliii.) says the original Scythians were an incon
siderable people on the Araxes.
a Pliny, lib. XXXVII. c. xvii. 3 Solinus, lib. XV.
4 See Hartman, Vol. I., p. 256.
6 Lib. XXXVII. c. xxxvii. 6 Strabo, lib. XL, p. 529.
7 Juba says, sandaracha and ochra are found in the gold mines of the island
of Topazus, in the Erythrean Sea.—Pliny, lib. XXXV. c. xxii. And these
are mentioned as being the less precious colours.
8 Lib. XXXV. c. xxiii.
9 Genesis ii. 12. 10 XII. c. ix.
II Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, book i. chap. iii. Oldys and
Birch. Oxford, 1829.
12 Ibid.; andKimchi'sHebrew Lexicon.