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16 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
buried Herculaneum and Pompeii, from the ruins of old Rome, and the tombs of Egypt.1
In the course of explorations on the site of Curium and other ancient
towns in Cyprus, scarabs and scaraboids of agate, onyx, jasper, and
variously tinted car-nelians were found, as well as gold ornaments,
relics traced to the days of Eteandros, king of Paphos in the seventh
century b.c. ; but no diamonds were unearthed in this collection.2 Nor is
there record, as yet, of the discovery of diamonds in the explorations in Babylonia.3
But
this is, at most, evidence pointing to what is undoubted, — the
comparative rarity of the diamond among the gems that served as amulets
or ornaments for the people of western Asia, northern Africa, or
southern Europe prior to the Christian era and for centuries afterward.
Pliny expressly asserts this rarity in his allusion to the diamond ;
but the fact that the gem was scarce, outside of India, is entirely
compatible with its occasional inclusion in the collections of
sovereigns, which the same writer remarks, and the high value set upon
it would naturally limit its use as an ornament.
It
is impossible to mark with any precision in what district of India a
search for diamonds first began. Rajah Sourindo Mohun Tagore, in his
account of the precious stones of India, gives the names of eight
localities in which diamonds have been found according to tradition or
more certain report. These are Harma (Himalayas), Matanga (Kistna), and
Godaveri (or Gol-conda), Saurashtra (Surat), Paunda (probably including
the Chutia Nagpur Province), Kalinga (the tract between Orissa and the
Godaveri), Kosala (the modern Ajodhya or Berar), Vera Ganga
1 Clarke's '• Travels," Vol. VIII, p. 150.
2 Story of the Nations, " Phoenicia," George Rawlinson.
3 "Nineveh and Babylon," pp. 160-161, 602 et seq., Layard ; " Archaeology of the Past Century," Professor W. M. F. Petrie.
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