CHAP. 11.—AMBER: THE MANY FALSEHOODS THAT HAVE BEEN
TOLD ABOUT IT.
Next in rank among the objects of luxury, we have amber;
1
an article which, for the present, however, is in request among
women
2 only. All these three last-mentioned substances hold
the same rank, no doubt, as precious stones; the two former
for certain fair reasons; crystal, because it is adapted for
taking cool drinks, and murrhine vessels, for taking drinks that
are either hot or cold. But as for amber, luxury has not been
able, as yet, to devise any justification for the use of it. This
is a subject which affords us an excellent opportunity of exposing
some of the frivolities and falsehoods of the Greeks;
and I beg that my readers will only have patience with me
while I do so, it being really worth while, for our own practical
improvement, to become acquainted with the marvellous
stories which they have promulgated respecting amber.
After Phaëthon had been struck by lightning, his sisters, they
tell us, became changed into poplars,
3 which every year shed
their tears upon the banks of the Eridanus, a river known to
us as the "Padus." To these tears was given the name of "electrum,"
4
from the circumstance that the Sun was usually called
"elector." Such is the story, at all events, that is told by
many of the poets, the first of whom were, in my opinion,
Æschylus, Philoxenus, Euripides, Satyrus, and Nicander; and
the falsity of which is abundantly proved upon the testimony
of Italy itself.
5 Those among the Greeks who have
devoted more attention to the subject, have spoken of certain
islands in the Adriatic Sea, known as the "Electrides," and
to which the Padus,
6 they say, carries down electrum. It is the
fact, however, that there never were any islands there so called,
nor, indeed, any islands so situate as to allow of the Padus
carrying down anything in its course to their shores. As to
Æschylus placing the Eridanus in Iberia, or, in other words,
in Spain, and giving it the name of Rhodanus; and as to
Euripides and Apollonius representing the Rhodanus and the
Padus as discharging themselves by one common mouth on
the shores of the Adriatic; we can forgive them all the more
readily for knowing nothing about amber when they betray
such monstrous ignorance of geography.
Other writers, again, who are more guarded in their assertions,
have told us, though with an equal degree of untruthfulness,
that, at the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf, upon certain inaccessible
rocks there, there are certain trees
7 which shed their
gum at the rising of the Dog-Star. Theophrastus
8 has stated
that amber is extracted from the earth in Liguria;
9 Chares,
that Phaëthon died in the territory of Hammon, in Æthiopia,
where there is a temple of his and an oracle, and where amber
is produced; Philemon, that it is a fossil substance, and that
it is found in two different localities in Scythia, in one of
which it is of a white and waxen colour, and is known as
"electrum;" while in the other it is red, and is called "sualiternicum."
Demostratus calls amber "lyncurion,"
10 and he
says that it originates in the urine of the wild beast known as
the "lynx;" that voided by the male producing a red and fiery
substance, and that by the female an amber of a white and
less pronounced colour: he also informs us that by some persons
it is called "langurium," and that in Italy, there are
certain wild beasts known as "languri." Zenothemis, how-
ever, calls these wild beasts "langæ," and gives the banks of
the river Padus as their locality. Sudines says, that it is a
tree in reality, that produces amber, and that, in Etruria, this
tree is known by the name of "lynx;" an opinion which is
also adopted by Metrodorus. Sotacus expresses a belief that
amber exudes from certain stones in Britannia, to which he
gives the name of "electrides." Pytheas says that the
Gutones,
11 a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an
æstuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending
a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day's
sail from this territory, is the Isle of Abalus, upon the shores
of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being
an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the
inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their
neighbours, the Teutones. Timæus, too, is of the same belief,
but he has given to the island the name of Basilia.
12
Philemon says that electrum does not yield a flame.
13 Nicias,
again, will have it, that it is a liquid produced by the rays of
the sun; and that these rays, at the moment of the sun's
setting, striking with the greatest force upon the surface of
the soil, leave upon it an unctuous sweat, which is carried off
by the tides of the Ocean, and thrown up upon the shores of
Germany. He states, also, that in Egypt it is similarly produced,
and is there called "sacal;"
14 that it is found in India,
too, where it is held as a preferable substitute for frankincense;
and that in Syria the women make the whirls of their
spindles of this substance, and give it the name of "harpax,"
15
from the circumstance that it attracts leaves towards it, chaff,
and the light fringe of tissues. According to Theochrestus,
amber is thrown up by the tides of the Ocean, at the foot of
the Pyrenæan range; an opinion adopted also by Xenocrates.
Asarubas, who has written the most recently upon these subjects,
and is still living, informs us, that near the shores of the
Atlantic is Lake Cephisis, known to the Mauri by the name
of "Electrum;" and that when this lake is dried up by the
sun, the slime of it produces amber, which floats upon
the surface. Mnaseas speaks of a locality in Africa called
Sicyon, and of a river Crathis there, which discharges itself
from a lake into the Ocean, the banks of which are frequented
by birds which he calls "meleagrides"
16 and "penelopes:" it is
here that, according to him, electrum is produced, in manner
above mentioned. Theomenes says that near the Greater
Syrtis are the Gardens of the Hesperides, and Lake Electrum:
on the banks, he says, are poplars, from the summits of which
amber falls into the water below, where it is gathered by the
maidens of the Hesperides.
Ctesias asserts that there is in India
17 a river called Hypobarus,
a word which signifies "bearer of all good things;"
that this river flows from the north into the Eastern Ocean,
where it discharges itself near a mountain covered with trees
which produce electrum; and that these trees are called
"siptachoræ," the meaning of which is "intense sweetness."
Mithridates says, that off the shores of Germany there is an
island called "Serita,"
18 covered with a kind of cedar, from
which amber falls upon the rocks. According to Xenocrates,
this substance is called, in Italy, not only "succinum," but
"thieum" as well, the Scythian name of it, for there also it
is to be found, being "sacrium:" others, he says, are of opinion
that it is a product of Numidia. But the one that has
surpassed them all is Sophocles, the tragic poet; a thing that
indeed surprises me, when I only consider the surpassing
gravity of his lofty style, the high repute that he enjoyed in
life, his elevated position by birth at Athens, his various exploits,
and his high military command. According to him,
amber is produced in the countries beyond India, from the tears
that are shed for Meleager, by the birds called "meleagrides!"
19
Who can be otherwise than surprised that he should have believed
such a thing as this, or have hoped to persuade others
to believe it? What child, too, could possibly be found in such
a state of ignorance as to believe that birds weep once a year,
that their tears are so prolific as this, or that they go all the
way from Greece, where Meleager died, to India to weep?
"But then," it will be said, "do not the poets tell many other
stories that are quite as fabulous?" Such is the fact, no doubt,
but for a person seriously to advance such an absurdity with
reference to a thing so common as amber, which is imported
every day and so easily proves the mendacity of this assertion,
is neither more nor less than to evince a supreme contempt
for the opinions of mankind, and to assert with impunity an
intolerable falsehood.
(3.) There can be no doubt that amber is a product of the
islands of the Northern Ocean, and that it is the substance by
the Germans called "glæsum;"
20 for which reason the Romans,
when Germanicus Cæsar commanded the fleet in those parts,
gave to one of these islands the name of Glæsaria,
21 which by the
barbarians was known as Austeravia. Amber is produced from
a marrow discharged by trees belonging to the pine
22 genus, like
gum from the cherry, and resin from the ordinary pine. It is
a liquid at first, which issues forth in considerable quantities,
and is gradually hardened by heat or cold, or else by the action
of the sea, when the rise of the tide carries off the fragments
from the shores of these islands. At all events, it is thrown
up upon the coasts, in so light and voluble a form that in the
shallows it has all the appearance of hanging suspended in the
water. Our forefathers, too, were of opinion that it is the juice
of a tree, and for this reason gave it the name of "succinum:"
23
and one great proof that it is the produce of a tree of the pine
genus, is the fact that it emits a pine-like smell when rubbed,
and that it burns, when ignited, with the odour and appearance
of torch-pine wood.
Amber is imported by the Germans into Pannonia, more
particularly; from whence the Veneti, by the Greeks called
Eneti, first brought it into general notice, a people in the
vicinity of Pannonia, and dwelling on the shores of the
Adriatic Sea. From this it is evident how the story which
connects it with the Padus first originated; and at the present
day we see the female peasantry in the countries that lie
beyond that river wearing necklaces of amber, principally
as an ornament, no doubt, but on account of its remedial virtues
as well; for amber, it is generally believed, is good for affec-
tions of the tonsillary glands and fauces, the various kinds of
water in the vicinity of the Alps being apt to produce disease
in the human throat.
24
From Carnuntum in Pannonia, to the coasts of Germany
from which the amber is brought, is a distance of about six
hundred miles, a fact which has been only very recently ascertained;
and there is still living a member of the equestrian
order, who was sent thither by Julianus, the manager of the
gladiatorial exhibitions for the Emperor Nero, to procure a
supply of this article. Traversing the coasts of that country
and visiting the various markets there, he brought back amber,
in such vast quantities, as to admit of the nets, which are used
for protecting the podium
25 against the wild beasts, being
studded
26 with amber.
The arms too, the litters,
27 and all the other apparatus, were,
on one day, decorated with nothing but amber, a different kind
of display being made each day that these spectacles were exhibited.
The largest piece of amber that this personage brought
to Rome was thirteen pounds in weight.
That amber is found in India too, is a fact well ascertained.
Archelaüs, who reigned over Cappadocia, says that it is brought
from that country in the rough state, and with the fine bark
still adhering to it, it being the custom there to polish it by
boiling it in the grease of a sucking-pig. One great proof that
amber must have been originally in a liquid state, is the fact
that, owing to its transparency, certain objects are to be seen
within, ants for example, gnats, and lizards. These, no doubt,
must have first adhered to it while liquid, and then, upon its
hardening, have remained enclosed within.
28