range
of knowledge to deny the possible existence of caverns filled with
rubies or mountain summits studded with diamonds ? Seeing that to this
day so little can be asserted positively of the forming of the precious
stones scattered in the earth's crust, it is not surprising that the
origin of the stones of fire has been, from the first, a baffling
puzzle and a fountain-head of conflicting surmises. Some wondering
people viewed them as splinters dropping from the stars, and some, as
the creations or transformations of genii. Some Hindoo miners still
believe that diamonds grow like onions, though much less quickly, and
that their age is marked by the difference in their size and quality.
Others suppose the common rock crystals to be immature diamonds, and
the distinction is marked by calling the rock crystal kacha (unripe),
while the diamond is pakka
(ripe)-1
For
the ripening of the crystals and the quickening of their seeming inward
fire, the lightning bolts, that sometimes rived the ground, were
thought to be potent. Others again, observing the liquid purity and
likeness which is marked to this day in the term " diamonds of the
purest water," attributed the forming of the crystals to the
supernormal trickle and hardening of dewdrops. It is of this fancy that
Dryden makes poetic use in his likening of the tears of Almahide : —
" What precious drops are those,
Which silently each other's track pursue,
Bright as young diamonds in their infant dew ? " 2
Bizarre
speculation was stretched even to the point of attributing to these
strange crystals animal instincts and reproductive powers. Thus Barreto
is quoted in the dictionary of Antonio de Moraes Silva as saying : —
" Que os diamantes se unem, amam e procream." 3
1 "Oriental Accounts of Precious Minerals." Translation by Rajah Kalikis-ken, Asiatic Society of Bengal.
2 "The Conquest of Granada," Second Part, Act III, Scene I, Dryden.
3 " Commonplace Book," Second Series, p. 668, Southey.
