Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/156

 is a common substance in Ceylon, from whence great quantities are annually received. It presents a peculiar luminous appearance when held in a strong light, resembling the eye of the animal from which it is named. Its color is generally light grey, yellowish, or reddish brown: a variety, of rare occurrence, is dark green, which exhibits more strongly and in greater perfection the same characters, and is much more valuable and highly prized.

specimens of this stone are held in high veneration by the Cinglese. They are generally used for ring stones, and cut hemispherically,

SARD OR SARDOINE AND ONYX

terms not very distinctly understood; they are frequently confounded by writers on mineralogy, and still more so by lapidaries.