CHAP. 64.—NASAMONITIS. NEBRITIS. NIPPARENE.
Nasamonitis is a blood-red stone, marked with black veins.
Nebritis, a stone sacred to Father Liber,[1] has received its name
from its resemblance to a nebris.[2] There is also another stone
of this kind, that is black. Nipparene[3] bears the name of a
city and people of Persia, and resembles the teeth of the hippopotamus.
1. Bacchus.
2. A Greek word, signifying the skin of a fawn or deer, as worn by the
Bacchanals in the celebration of their orgies. Ajasson is of opinion that
this was a mottled quartz or agate, similar to those mentioned as resembling
the spots of the lion, in Chapter 54, the Leontios and Pardalios of Chapter 73.
3. This reading is doubtful.