the Senate and Roman people granted to the Athenians.

3. Paraetonium white gets its name from the place where it is dug up.
The same is the case with Melian white, because there is said to be a
mine of it in Melos, one of the islands of the Cyclades.

4. Green chalk is found in numerous places, but the best at Smyrna. The
Greeks call it [Greek: theodoteion], because this kind of chalk was
first found on the estate of a person named Theodotus.

5. Orpiment, which is termed [Greek: arsenikon] in Greek, is dug up in
Pontus. Sandarach, in many places, but the best is mined in Pontus close
by the river Hypanis.

CHAPTER VIII

CINNABAR AND QUICKSILVER

1. I shall now proceed to explain the nature of cinnabar. It is said
that it was first found in the Cilbian country belonging to Ephesus, and
both it and its properties are certainly very strange. First, before
getting to the vermilion itself by methods of treatment, they dig out
what is called the clod, an ore like iron, but rather of a reddish
colour and covered with a red dust. During the digging it sheds, under
the blows of the tools, tear after tear of quicksilver, which is at once
gathered up by the diggers.

2. When these clods have been collected, they are so full of moisture
that they are thrown into an oven in the laboratory to dry, and the
fumes that are sent up from them by the heat of the fire settle down on
the floor of the oven, and are found to be quicksilver. When the clods
are taken out, the drops which remain are so small that they cannot be
gathered up, but they are swept into a vessel of water, and there they
run together and combine into one. Four pints of it, when measured and
weighed, will be found to be one hundred pounds.

3. If the quicksilver is poured into a vessel, and a stone weighing one
hundred pounds is laid upon it, the stone swims on the surface, and
cannot depress the liquid, nor break through, nor separate it. If we
remove the hundred pound weight, and put on a scruple of gold, it will
not swim, but will sink to the bottom of its own accord. Hence, it is
undeniable that the gravity of a substance depends not on the amount of
its weight, but on its nature.

4. Quicksilver is a useful thing for many purposes. For instance,
neither silver nor copper can be gilded properly without it. And when
gold has been woven into a garment, and the garment becomes worn out
with age so that it is no longer respectable to use, the pieces o