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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.