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Ch. 18: Cutting and Polishing

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CUTTING AND POLISHING                     169
in the epic poem " Mahabharata" ;1 but nothing more solid than tradition sustains this tale. If it were true, it would demonstrate incontestably a very ancient proficiency in the art of grinding and polishing a rough Indian diamond, as the figure of the Koh-i-nur on page 1 shows, illustrating the appearance of this famous gem before it was recut by modern lapidary art to
hold the foremost place in the jewels of the British crown.2 The Italian, Augusto Costellani, is the mouthpiece of another tradi­tion, little firmer than a floating pipe-bubble, that a certain King Carna of India, who lived some three thousand years before the Christian era, possessed a diamond whose natural planes or
1  "Indian Epic Poetry," Sir Monier-Monier Williams, 1863.
2  "A Popular Treatise on Gems," Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, 1867, Plate VIII, No. 1 5 and No. 1 5a.
Ch. 18: Cutting and Polishing Page of 396 Ch. 18: Cutting and Polishing
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