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PRECIOUS STONES.
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to surrender it, a method by which many other valuable gems
were added to the Persian crown.* Sir John Malcolm, who, when minister to Persia, inspected
the regalia, says the Darya-i-Nûr was considered to have the finest lustre of any diamond known, and, with the Tay-e-Mah, constituted the most illustrious ornament of the Persian regalia Some of the other magnificent diamonds mentioned by this official, besides the " Sea of Light," and the " Crown of the Moon," set in a magnificent pair of bracelets, valued at five million dollars, are the " Sea of Glory," sixty-six carats ; the " Mountain of Splendor," one hundred and thirty-five carats ; the " Throne," and the " Sun of the Sea," which once ornamented the Peacock Throne at Delhi. The "Moon of the Mountains."—This diamond was torn
from the plumage of the " Peacock," and carried off to Persia, and its subsequent history is mixed up with the blackest crimes on record. After the assassination of Nadir Shah, and the plunder of
his treasures, an Afghan soldier fled with this gem to Shat-elArab, on the Red Sea, the emporium of trade between the East and the West, for the purpose of disposing of this precious stone with others robbed from the treasury of Nadir, including an emerald of rare beauty, a fine ruby, a magnificent sapphire called the " Eye of Allah," and other valuable gems. An Armenian trader, named Shaffras, opened negotiations for their purchase ; but before the bargain was completed, the Afghan, becoming alarmed lest his robbery should be found out, fled to Bagdad, where he disposed of his treasures to a Jew, for the trifle of two thousand five hundred dollars. Shaffras followed the soldier to Bagdad with the view of
securing the gems, and, learning they were sold, he murdered * A similar incident is related of the Koh-i-noor.
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