OBSIDIAN, A NATURAL VOLCANIC GLASS: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CUSTOMS: MEXICAN ITZTLI: STATUES IN OBSIDIAN: USED BY GREEKS AND ROMANS: “OBSIDIANS”: OBSIDIAN “BOMBS”: BOTTLE STONE: MR. R. H. WALCOTT AND HIS TERM OBSIDIANITES: AUSTRALITES: BILLITONITES: MR. F. CHAPMAN’S THEORY: SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NATIVES: OLIVINE: DERIVATION: LEGEND OF THE SLEEPING VENUS: THE GATES: THE ONYX STONES OF THE HIGH PRIEST: LIFE AND EARTH DEATH: ANTIQUE BELIEF NOTED BY MR. PHILLIPS AND ITS MEANING: RABBI BENONI AND THE MASTER RAGIEL: EYE STONES: A CHARM OF BEAUTY: CASTOR AT THE TOMB OF APHAREUS: NICOLO THE ÆGYPTILLA OF THE ANCIENTS: GIBRALTAR STONE: THE MANTUAN VASE: EL JAZA OR STONE OF SADNESS: 5 TYPES OF ONYX: AN ONYX STAIRCASE: SYMBOLICAL MEANING OF THE STRATA: AS ROSICRUCIAN STONES: THE SAINTE CHAPELLE OR GRAND CAMAHIEU KNOWN AS THE “APOTHEOSIS OF AUGUSTUS”: PEIRESC CORRECTS A FALSE BELIEF: THE CARPEGNA CAMEO: THE CORONATION CAMEO OF AUGUSTUS: TRUE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF THE WORD CAMEO. OBSIDIAN “_There may be ranged among the kinds of glasses those which they call obsidiana for that they carry some resemblance of that stone which one Obsidius found in Æthyopia._” HOLLAND’S PLINY. This natural volcanic glass obtains its name, according to Pliny, from Obsidius or, as he is sometimes called, Obsius, who discovered it in Ethiopia. It is very hard, brittle and remarkably vitreous, and is variously coloured black, pink, green, grey, striped and spotted. It was early discovered to be a useful material from which to fashion knives, mirrors and other objects of ornament and use. An ancient Egyptian custom of cutting the dead bodies of their kings and priests with knives of obsidian was followed by the Guanchos of the Canary Islands. The ancient Mexicans used ITZTLI as they called it very generally in the manufacture of various implements. They quarried it from the Cerro de les Navajas or Hill of the Knives not far from Timapau. Pliny, noting that genuine gem stones could not be cut or scratched with obsidian, recommended the use of splinters of the substance for testing purposes. The same author, attesting the report that statues were made of obsidian, says: “I myself have seen solid statues in the material of the late Emperor Augustus of very considerable thickness.” The Greeks and Romans found it an easy material for fashioning into camei and intagli which later were copied in glass. In the 18th century connoisseurs applied the term “obsidians” to all antique pastes. The so-called “Obsidian Bomb” has been much discussed and written about. Professor F. W. Rudley says: “It was believed for a long time to be a variety of obsidian but its different fusibility and its chemical composition are rather against its volcanic origin.” It is known as Moldavite, so-called by Mr. A. Dufrenoy from Moldanthein in Bohemia, where quantities have been found.