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THE ORLOFF.
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until
the story of the French grenadier is shown to be a pure fabrication,
maintain that the " Orloff" glittered in the eye, not of Aurung-zeb's
peacock, but of the idol Sri-Ranga, and that it reached Europe, not
from Delhi via Persia, but from Mysore, via Madras.
Mawe, who had also confused the stories of the "Orloff" and "Moon of Mountains," in the first edition of the Treaty on Diamonds, subsequently
discovered his mistake, and at p. 42 of the second edition of that
work, (London, 1823), inserted the subjoined paragraph :—" In a former
edition I stated that this diamond belonged to Nadir Shah, but this may
be doubted, as the Asiatics rarely part with diamonds of a large size;
nor do I believe that a single instance of the kind is known to have
occurred."
The account given by Pallas of the "Orloff" will be noticed when we come to treat of the " Moon of Mountains."
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