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CHAPTER VII. 
OF NATURAL COLOURS. 
SOME are found in certain places in a native state, and 
thence dug up, whilst others are composed of different 
substances, ground and mixed together, so as to answer 
the same purpose. First we shall explain the nature 
of that which is found native, called by the Greeks 
ége. This, as in Italy, is discovered in many places, but 
the best is the Attic sort, which cannot now be procured, 
for in working the silver mines at Athens, if by chance 
they fell upon a vein of ochre, they followed it up just 
as they would one of silver. Hence the ancients used 
abundance of ochre in their finishings. Red ochre is 
also found in many places, but the best only in a few, 
as at Sinope, in Pontus; in Egypt; in the Balearic 
Islands, near the coast of Spain ; also in Lemnos, the 
revenue of which island the senate and people of Rome 
granted to the Athenians. The Parætonion takes its name 
from the place where it is dug up. The Melinon on a si¬ 
milar account is so called, from its abundance in Melos, one 
of the Cyclades. Green chalk is also found in many places; 
but the best comes from Smyrna, and is called by the Greeks 
Geodoziov, because Theodotus was the owner of the land in 
which it was first discovered. Orpiment, which is called 
aggévizov in Greek, is obtained from Pontus. Red lead 
is also obtained from many places, but the best comes 
from Pontus, near the river Hypanis. In other spots as