In the same country, too, the magnet called “hæmatites”[2673] is found, a stone of a blood-red colour, and which, when bruised, yields a tint like that of blood, as also of saffron. The hæmatites has not the same property[2674] of attracting iron that the ordinary magnet has. The Æthiopian magnet is recognized by this peculiarity, that it has the property, also, of attracting other magnets to it.[2675] All these minerals are useful as ingredients in ophthalmic preparations, in certain proportions according to the nature of each: they are particularly good, too, for arresting defluxions of the eyes. Triturated in a calcined state, they have a healing effect upon burns. In Æthiopia, too, not far from Zmiris, there is a mountain in which the stone called “theamedes”[2676] is found, a mineral which repels and rejects all kinds of iron. Of the attractive and repulsive properties of iron, we have spoken[2677] more than once. CHAP. 26.—STONE OF SCYROS. In the Isle of Scyros[2678] there is a stone,[2679] they say, which floats upon water when whole, but which falls to the bottom when broken into fragments. CHAP. 27. (17.)—SARCOPHAGUS, OR STONE OF ASSOS: TEN REMEDIES. At Assos in Troas, there is found a stone of a laminated texture, called “sarcophagus.”[2680] It is a well-known fact, that dead bodies, when buried in this stone, are consumed in the course of forty days, with the sole exception of the teeth. According to Mucianus, too, mirrors, body-scrapers, garments, and shoes, that have been buried with the dead, become transformed into stone. In Lycia, and in the East, there are certain stones of a similar nature, which, when attached to the bodies of the living even, corrode the flesh. CHAP. 28.—CHERNITES.