IX. Aḥlamah. [אַחְלָמָה.] As to this stone also, all the authorities are in agreement, and render _aḥlamah_ by “amethyst.” This was not, however, the Oriental amethyst, a variety of corundum, but a dark blue or purple variety of quartz. Both Arabia and Syria furnished a supply of amethysts. The Hebrew name shows that this stone was believed to possess the virtue of inducing dreams and visions (cf. _halom_—“dream”), while, as is well known, the Greek name characterizes it as an enemy or preventive of inebriety. The amethyst was known in ancient Egypt and probably was named _hemag_. In the Book of the Dead a heart made of _hemag_ is mentioned, and two such heart-shaped amulets of amethyst are preserved in the Boulaq Museum. As the amethyst retained its repute as a stone of beauty and power through the Greek and Roman periods, we may safely assert that it was set in both the first and second breastplates. Upon the _aḥlamah_ was engraved the name Dan. X. Tarshish. [תַרשִׁישׁ.] The Septuagint renders this word “chrysolite,” where it is used in the description of the breastplate, as does Josephus also. In the Authorized Version, “beryl” is the rendering. We have already stated that the topaz of the ancients was usually our chrysolite, or peridot, and the name “chrysolite” appears to have been used to designate our topaz. This is indeed indicated by the literal meaning of the word, “golden-stone.” The _tarshish_ received its name from Tartessus, in Spain, an important commercial station of the Phœnicians. The stone derived from this source was not, of course, our Oriental topaz, a variety of corundum, nor was it the true topaz; neither is it at all likely that the name _tarshish_ signified, at least originally, the genuine topaz; most probably it denoted a variety of quartz which occurs in Spain. This is originally black, but is decolorized by heating to a deep brown, and if the heating be prolonged the stone becomes paler and eventually entirely transparent. The ancients were familiar with this property. In ancient Egyptian records a stone called _thehen_ is frequently mentioned as a material from which amulets were made. This Egyptian name signified primarily a “yellow stone,” and might designate either the topaz or the yellow jasper, known and used in Egypt at a very early date; the topaz was probably not known there earlier than 500 or 600 B.C. Hence, in spite of the unquestionable difficulty offered by the geographical name _tarshish_, which might seem to confine us to a Spanish origin for the stone, the probabilities favor the selection of the yellow jasper as the tenth gem in Aaron’s breastplate. For that made with pious zeal by those who labored to renew the glories of the Old Jerusalem, we choose the topaz,—possibly, indeed, a fine specimen of the genuine topaz,—for whatever the quality of the yellow stone originally brought from Tartessus, the name may well have been applied to the genuine