INHERENT QUALITIES 117
rubbing or grinding one against the other, and smooth places
were made in lieu of natural facets. This was called " bruting," and
the process was continued for centuries, even till long after the art
of cutting them was established, in the grinding down of the crystal in
preparation for the wheel, at the point where the main front facets
would be.
The
exterior of a diamond crystal is not brilliant like that of a cut
diamond, but though hard looking and luminous, it has somewhat the
appearance of a piece of alum. The " nyf," as it is called, looks like
a dull skin over a brilliant body, so that if it has not always the
luster of a quartz crystal even, there is something about it which
attracts the eye and unmistakably differentiates it from all other
stones. It is sometimes rough, but one sees at once that the roughness
covers peerless qualities.
It
is curiously illustrative of the Oriental character that with a
knowledge of the diamond extending over many centuries, they got no
farther in the art of improving the diamond than bruting. The art of
cutting and polishing diamonds was discovered in Europe and perfected
in the United States of America. It was a Venetian who cut the Great
Mogul for the Hindu Prince, after whom, as the head of a dynasty, it
was named. It is said there were diamond polishers in Nuremberg in the
latter part of the fourteenth century, but the method of cutting them
by grinding with their own powder is generally credited to Ludwig van
Berquem or Berghem, also known as Louis de Bequem, of Bruges, who is
said to have first done so in 1456. Bruges at that time was at the
height of its prosperity under the dukes of Burgundy, and the industry
continued there until, in the
