Note 34 — THE TWELFTH PAPYRUS

This is rather worrying. Everyone knows that, before the reign of David, there was in Asia a plenty of a third precious and perfect metal: that Tyrians and Phoinikians founded and worked it till the reign of Salomon: that there were rich deposits of it in the Atlantis, where it was excavated, founded, and worked: that it was heavier and more valuable than either gold or silver: that it had most of the qualities of gold, but was something of the colour of silver: that it was capable of high polish, the Romans using it for lamp-reflectors: that the Hebrews called it Khasmal = White Metal, and the Greeks called it Elektron or Khalkolibanon, or Orikhalkon: that it became rare through barbarian incursion and the submergence of the Atlantis: that it was imitated by a mixture of gold and silver by the Korinthians, the native metal (which they originally manipulated) being practically lost. Strabo (III.) and Pliny (Proem. xxxiii.) say that there was enough of this metal found in the sands of the Po in Trajan’s time to form a statue of Augustus. Many other writers preserve its memory, e.g. Saint Ezekhiel Prophet, i. 4, 7: Homer, Od. IIII. 71, XV. 458: Vergil, Georg. III. 521: Æn. VIII. 402, V. 624: Martial, VIII. 50: Sil. It., I. 229: Stat. Thebaid: Juv. Sat. xiiii. Serenus Samm. De Uenenis: Serv. Georg.: Lamprid. Heliog. Cf. also Aristophanes’ Knights, and Sophokles’ praise of the White Metal (ἐλέκτρον) of Sardis with gold of India. But, even now I see no particular connection (excepting in Mr. Crabbe’s mind) between modern platinum (which only exists, I am told, in the other hemisphere), and the undeniable White Metal (which the ancients called Elektron or Korinthic Bronze) which disappeared, I conceive, in the earthquake ingulphing the lost Atlantis. The problem is a sadly distracting one. A. H.