170 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
facets
were polished; but what the good king did with his sparkling treasure,
or where it has wandered, is unfortunately left to the drift of fancy.
It
has been shown that the earliest known catalogues of gems do not
include the diamond, and that the references to it in the Hebrew
Scriptures and other writings before the Christian era are far from
decisive, in view of the likelihood that the white sapphire was the
ancient adamas.1 The failure to bring to light any diamond in the exhumation of ancient gems is further significant.2
If it be true that a genuine diamond, bearing the engraved head of the
philosopher Posidonius, exists in the collection of the Duke of
Bedford, as reported by Streeter,8 this is a solitary
instance, so far as is known, of the application of engraving to this
adamantine surface at a date probably prior to the birth of Christ, for
Posidonius was a Tyrian Greek, living in the second and first centuries
b.c.4
It
is, however, highly probable that the genuine diamond crystals were
discovered in India hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the
Christian era, and partially polished, at least, in the primitive
method of rubbing or striking the planes of one crystal against the
other, or even by laborious friction with gritstone by hand or a
grinding wheel.
It
is certain that revolving stones or metallic wheels for grinding gems
were in use in remote antiquity, perhaps two thousand years or more
before the Christian era. From the softer stones, carnelian, onyx, and
jasper, the ancient workmen advanced to harder gems, preparing their
face first chiefly by a smooth polish for the sculptors of cameos and
intaglios.5 Their mode of
1
"Precious Stones noted in the Sacred Scriptures," R. Hindmarsh, 1851.
"Precious Stones and Gems," Edwin William Streeter, 1880.
2 The Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson, M.A., 1894. "Ancient Mineralogy," N. F. Moore, 1834.
3 "Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter, p. 46.
4 The Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson, M.A., 1894. "Ancient Mineralogy," N. F. Moore, 1834.
5 " A Treatise on the Ancient Method of Engraving Precious Stones," Lauren-tius Natter, London, 1754. " ^ Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones," John Mawe, 1813.
