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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
malicious
nocturnal visitors called incubes so the ladies adopted the fashion of
always removing the rings before retiring to rest. Men derived courage
from wearing diamonds. Rubies were deemed a specific remedy against
the plague. Amethyst enabled a man to drink his fill without getting
drunk. An emerald, if exposed to the view of a false witness, would
fill him with confusion and check the flow of his perjury. A sapphire
was invaluable to persons who desired to win the favor of princes. So
on throughout the list. Each stone had its specific virtue.
According
to Garcias ab Orta (1563), the diamond was not used for medicinal
purposes in India of his time, except when injected into the bladder to
break up vesical calculi. He notes, however, the belief that diamonds
or diamond dust, when taken internally, worked as a poison. As a proof
of the falsity of this belief, Gareias adduces the fact that the slaves
who worked in the diamond mines often swallowed diamonds to conceal
them and never experienced any ill effects, the stones being recovered
in a natural way. The same author notes the case of a man who suffered
from chronic dysentery and whose wife had for a long time administered
to him doses of diamond dust. While this did not help him, neither did
it injure him; finally, by the advice of doctors, this strange
treatment was abandoned. The man eventually died of his disease, but
not until many days after the doses of diamond dust had been
discontinued.1 The idea that diamonds or diamond dust had deadly
1 Kunz, G. F., The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, p. 153. 12
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