SARD  , a reddish-

brown chalcedony much used by the ancients as a gem-stone . Pliny states that it was named from Sardis, in Lydia, where it was first discovered; but probably the name came with the stone from Persia (Pers. sered, yellowish-red) . Sard was used for Assyrian cylinder-seals, Egyptian and Phoenician scarabs, and early Greek and Etruscan gems . The Hebrew odem (translated sardius), the first stone in the High Priest's breastplate, was a red stone—probably sard, but perhaps carnelian or red jasper (see J . Taylor, " Sardius," in Hastings's Diet . Bibl.) . Some kinds of sard closely resemble carnelian, but are usually rather harder and tougher, with a duller and more hackly fracture . Mineralogically the two stones pass into each other, and indeed they have often been regarded as identical, both being chalcedonic quartz coloured with oxide of iron . The range of colours in sard is very great, some stones being orange-red, or hyacinthine, and others even golden, whilst some present so dark a brown colour as to appear almost black by reflected light . The hyacinthine sard, resembling certain garnets, was the most valued variety among the ancients for cameos and intaglios .