reckoned
of more value than their lives by him who commanded them? If he said,
"Fill the breach mine enemies have made to get my diamond, with your
bodies," they must do so.
His
diamonds were to the old-time prince of the Orient and are somewhat so
to-day, his fortune. Having no system of usury, valuables were
hoarded, and of them the diamond was the most concentrated form of
wealth, taking but little space for storage, and easily transported in
time of danger. To the rajah, his treasure chest was as lands were to
the feudal barons, or as his investments are to the money-king of
to-day, except that it bore him neither rents nor interest. He met his
current expenses by making levies upon his people; if his people failed
him, he had his treasure-chest.
Some
of these ancient conditions still surround the diamond to-day. Princes
of the Orient by hereditary instinct acquire and hold jewels with
old-time tenacity, though many of them are learning the modern method
of making investments yield an income. Men and women the world over,
yet see diamonds through the mists with which ancient superstitions and
reverence hallowed them, but beyond this, they have of late acquired
an important place in the commerce of the world as a staple product.
When the diamond fields of India and Brazil were the chief sources of
supply, there was a constant uncertainty, the fever of an unknown
quantity, arising from the irregularity of the yield and instability of
price. A definite idea in the public mind of value was impossible, for
buyers, like the supply, were limited and spasmodic. The African mines,
and the develop-
