ĂLĂBASTER

or ĂLĂBASTRUM, a ve el or pot used for containing perfumes, or rather ointments, made of that species of marble which mineralogists call gypsum , and which is usually designated by the name of alabaster . When varieties of colour occur in the same stone, and are disposed in bands or horizontal strata, it is often called onyx alabaster; and when dispersed irregularly, as if in clouds, it is distinguished as agate alabaster. The term seems to have been employed to denote ve els appropriated to these uses, even when they were not made of the material from which it is supposed they originally received their name. Thus Theocritus speaks of golden alabastra. These ve els were of a tapering shape, and very often had a long narrow neck, which was sealed; so that when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, is said by St. Mark to break the alabaster box of ointment for the purpose of anointing our Saviour, it appears probable that she only broke the extremity of the neck, which was thus closed.