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12 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
The
tradition of the generative power of this marvellous crystal originates
with the Hindoos, and to this day the natives of Pharrah will affirm
that the diamond beds yield fresh supplies of well-grown stones at
intervals of from fifteen to twenty years.
It
is seemingly hopeless to attempt to fix with any certainty the time
when the diamond was first singled out from the pebbles in which it
lay, and was prized by any one, or even when it entered the list of
gems known to the chief nations of Asia. Traditions coming down through
the mists of legendary ages are conflicting and uncertain reliances at
best. The ancient writers add to this perplexity by loose or erroneous
descriptions when the advance of the science had not marked precise
distinctions of structure and composition. Thus the Carbunculus of
Pliny was probably stretched to cover the spinel or Balas ruby, the
garnet and other red stones, besides embracing the Anthrax of
Theophrastus or our modern ruby. Many ancient writers confounded also
under the general term Smaragdus various distinct minerals of green
color, not only the true emerald, but green jasper, malachite,
chryscolla, and fluor spar.1 Among the common people,
pretending to no mineralogical knowledge, there was less thought of
distinction, and, in days approaching our own, Tavernier observes in
his travels, a.d. 1669,
after describing the true ruby of Pegu, in Ceylon, " the fatherland of
rubies," that "all other stones in this country are called by the name
Ruby, and are only distinguished by color, thus, in the language of
Pegu, the sapphire is a Blue Ruby," etc.'2 This confusion is
not surprising, and a much more discreditable one occurred within the
last thirty years in the sensational touting of the discovery of rubies
in the garnets of the Macdonnell Ranges in South Australia. It seems
highly probable that the stone of exquisite blue, now particularly
distinguished as the typical sapphire, was the ancient Hyacinthus; and
the Sap-phirus of the ancients certainly included the lapis lazuli and
1 "Precious Stones and Gems," Streeter, London, 1892.
2 " Voyages en Turquie, en Perse et aux Indes," Paris, 1676.
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