safely
by armies, those who came back spread wonderful tales of eastern
treasures, so that the lands of the East became the dream of western
adventurers. Imagination so rioted over those stories of the wealth
and magnificence of dusky princes and their courts, that the barren
sands of the Orient were transformed in their dreams to gold, and all
the pebbles to precious stones.
Diamonds
have existed within the reach of man in India for many ages. Not only
are they found in the valleys and beds of streams, but also, separated
from the matrix in which they were formed, in strata of detrital matter
that have since been covered twelve to sixteen feet deep by the slow
accumulations of many later centuries. How long they have been known
and used as jewels is uncertain. Nor do we know when they were first
distinguished with certainty from similar white transparent stones.
Probably general knowledge was the growth of many ages, during which
those who knew, profited by the prevailing ignorance. Hindu legend in
the Mahab-harata tells of a diamond worn by one of the heroes 5,000
years ago. It is possible that if the hero really lived he did wear
one. It is also possible that the stone was a rock crystal or a
colorless zircon, or white sapphire, or topaz, for all these have at
one time or another passed for diamonds, but from the fact that
diamonds are specifically mentioned in the Hindu ancient writings, it
is certain that, if sometimes confounded with others, the stone was
known when men there began to make records.
Not
until a few centuries back was the art of cutting and polishing the
diamond discovered. Prior to that, but little of its marvelous
brilliancy was known. True,
