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Introduction: The Diamond in History

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PREFACE.
HIS book is a romance of truth. The trite proverb that " fact is stranger than fiction,' was never better illustrated than it is in the following chapters. Some of the incidents in the imaginary career of Sinbad the Sailor may be accepted as modest facts compared with the histories of several of the great diamonds of the world.
It is true that in the narratives of such stones as the "Koh-i-Nur," the "Great Mogul," the " Taj-e-Mah," the " Pitt," and other famous gems, fable has crept in, as if to try a bout, in romantic revelation, with fact. Oriental fancy has strewn the lurid history of the diamond with much traditionary gloom ; but human invention is outdone by the reality of human depravity and human woes.
A symbol of power, the diamond has been a talisman of not less influence in the East than the very gods whose temples it has adorned. It has been a factor in tragedies innumerable, supplying the motives of war and rapine, setting father against son, blurring the fair image of virtue, making life a curse where it had been a blessing, and adding new terrors to death. There is no intrigue however deep, no crime however shameful, which you cannot parallel in
Introduction: The Diamond in History Page of 312 Introduction: The Diamond in History
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