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Ch. 4: Celebrated Diamonds

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CHAPTER IV
CELEBRATED DIAMONDS
T HE history of some of the world's celebrated dia­monds is founded entirely upon tradition. Elim­inate the records in which authorities differ, and the stories which are alike attached by one writer to one stone, and by another to some other stone, and there is little left. Some stones mentioned in old writings have passed out of knowledge: others known to-day cannot be traced back very far with certainty: a point is soon reached where the contradictory accounts given, or the similitude of the story to that attached to another, awaken suspicion. Historians usually insist that the great diamonds of the past served in the beginning of their history as eyes for an idol from which they were plucked by some knave or looter, and started on similar courses of adventures until they arrived at the hands of definite knowledge.
The most ancient and celebrated Indian diamond is known as the Great Mogul. The stone, so named after the Mogul dynasty in India, is said to have been found in the mines of Kollur of India, sometimes spoken of by the Persian name Gani Coulour or Colore, or Gan-i-mine of, Coulour, between 1630 and 1650, and pre­sented to Shah Jehan by Emir Jemla (called " Mirgi-mola" by Tavernier), about 1655. Another tradition is that a diamond of 320 ratis or 280 carats, was owned
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Ch. 3: Growth of the Diamond Trade Page of 448 Ch. 4: Celebrated Diamonds
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