23. Chap. 23.-Sandyx.

CHAP. 23.—SANDYX.

Calcined with an equal proportion of rubrica, sandarach forms sandyx;[1] although I perceive that Virgil, in the following line,[2] has taken sandyx to be a plant— "Sandyx itself shall clothe the feeding lambs."

The price of sandyx[3] is one half that of sandarach; these two colours being the heaviest of all in weight.

1. Sir H. Davy supposes this colour to have approached our crimson. In painting, it was frequently glazed with purple, to give it an additional lustre.

2. Ecl. iv. 1. 45. "Sponte suâ sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos." Ajasson thinks that "Sandyx" may have been a name common to two colouring substances, a vegetable and a mineral, the former being our madder. Beckmann is of the same opinion, and that Virgil has committed no mistake in the line above quoted. Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 110. Bohn's Edition.See also B. xxiv. c. 56.

3. The form "sand," in these words, Ajasson considers to be derived either from "Sandes," the name of Hercules in Asia Minor, or at least in Lydia: or else from Sandak, the name of an ancestor of Cinyras and Adonis.