are smoothed into shape by whetstones; after
which they are polished with chalk and
water, or with oil, and are finally rubbed with
flannel. The workmen themselves are said
to become nervous and electrified, owing
to the remarkably excitable nature of the
substance. They make of amber, pipe mouth-
pieces, necklaces, bracelets, ear-rings, and
various other articles; including such amber
snuff-boxes as that of which Sir Plume was
justly vain. Herr Jantzen, a Prussian
manufacturer, has even gone so far as to produce
amber candlesticks, amber wine-glasses, and
amber work-boxes; and Herr Winterfield, of
Breslau, has displayed before us a vase, a set
of chess-men, a knife and fork, fruit-knives,
a paper-cutter, sets of buttons, work-boxes,
pen-holders, frames for knitting-needles—all
of amber. Pieces of amber can be joined
by the aid of heat and a little linseed oil;
and it may be rendered soluble to serve as
a varnish, or as a cement for broken glass
or china, by being boiled with oil; it may
be imitated, at a humble distance, by a
particular manner of treating gum-lac.

If we would know the real value and estimation
of amber, we should keep company with
a Turk. He has his hookah or narghili, which
has a receptacle for water or rose-water,
through which the smoke passes before reaching
his mouth; the receptacle is an air-tight
vessel surmounted by a bowl containing burning
tobacco. The passage of the smoke
through the water deprives it of some of its
strong rank flavour, and cools it. The Turk
loves to hear the bubbling sound of the
liquid as the smoke passes through it: he
says it lulls and soothes him, like soft
music. He does not sit with a yard of stubborn
clay projecting from his lips. His pipe-
stem is flexible, being formed of a spiral wire
covered with leather, over which another wire
is coiled to strengthen the tube; but if he be
more moderate in his piping operations he uses
a stiff-stemmed tchibouque. It is in the amber
mouth-piece of his splendid narghili that he
especially glories. He places it in the centre
of the apartment; his guests sit around,
and he lends a smoke to each in turn, by
passing round the flexible tube from hand to
hand, and from mouth to mouth. He prides
himself on the amber mouth-piece so much,
that he will spend a little fortune upon it. He
has, as his countrymen generally have, a
theory that amber is incapable of
transmitting infection, and this may have had
very much to do with the growth of a liking
on the part of the Turks for amber mouth-
pieces. He prefers the straw-coloured,
translucent, slightly-clouded specimens; and, for
a bit of such amber he gives an astonishing
price. If he be a very very wealthy Turk
indeed, he causes his amber imame or mouth-
piece to be studded with diamonds; then
its value may be anything you like to name.

Insects, and flies, and worms, and straws,
and twigs found in amber, have always been
a fruitful source of literary illustration. The
wonder is, how they got there, until it is
explained that amber has once been a
liquid. The little extraneous bodies
comprise insects, leaves, drops of clear water,
bits of metal, sand, pebbles, and stones. Some
of the insects evidently struggled hard when
they found themselves entangled in the
once viscid mass, for their legs and wings
alone are left, their heads and bodies being
nowhere. In the British Museum, at the east
end of the mineralogical gallery, are amber
specimens enough to give us quite a lesson
on the subject; they are rich in insects
with learned names; they vary in colour
from nearly white to deep red; they
have all degrees of translucency from the
transparent to the opaque. Some are long,
some round, some smooth, some rough; most
of them are in the natural forms, but a few
have been fashioned into miniature bottles
and cups. Sir Thomas Browne, the trusty
exposer of Vulgar Errors, fought strongly
against insects in amber, declaring that they
were merely representations or imitations;
but herein experience and observation,
science and good sense, have all shown him to
have been in the wrong; for there is no longer
any doubt that amber-insects are real insects.
Dr. Mantell says, that there have been no
fewer than eight hundred species of insects
found in amber, some known at the present
day, but mostly extinct species.

Roguery finds something to do even with
so pretty a subject as amber. It is
mortifying to know that amber is not always
amber—that it is sometimes copal; in so
far as copal is a resinous substance which
exudes spontaneously from certain species
of trees, it may be regarded as a younger
sister of amber; but it does not thence
follow that those who prefer the elder
sister would willingly receive the other as a
substitute. There are among the specimens
in the British Museum two marked respectively—
AMBER and COPAL; it would puzzle
any but a professional judge to distinguish one
from the other, for they are of the same colour;
they present similar degrees of translucency
and polish, and both contain insects and
other little fragments. Possibly the copal
specimen may be lower; it may have been
picked up in this state; but many a bit of so-
called amber is a delusion and a snare.
Sometimes a piece of copal is boldly put forth as a
piece of amber; sometimes a good piece of
amber is backed and enlarged by a piece of
copal; while, at other times, a lump of
copal is buried in the middle of a third
hollow envelope of amber. Mineralogists
tell us that amber has a more shell-like
structure than copal; and chemists assert
that the white smoke from a bit of
ignited amber gives forth a more fragrant
odour than burning copal; and that
the means of detecting shams are thus
afforded. Sir Thomas Browne received a letter