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Adamas, Diamond

Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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ADAMAS.
lona nut, the kernel of which, as every one must remember, is of an obtusely conical form, precisely that assumed by the Diamond in its secondary shape, when the edges of its faces are converted into flat planes. Nothing could be more appropriate than this simile to convey to his reader's mind the exact appearance of the antique Diamond, as worn by the enviable possessor (the finish­ing touch to his magnificence), with its base embedded in the massy gold of the ring. The Lasque', thin, flat, and oval, where all the angles have disappeared, is evidently his Ethiopian, the size of a gourd-seed, and of a somewhat similar colour,—a pale yellow. This, it is especially remarked, was the only kind known to the earlier mineralogists, studied by Pliny, and was said to be found near Meroe in Ethiopia; but Ethiopia was a vague term for the remotest East, and the Egyptian Meroe was confounded with Mount Meru in Hindostan. The Macedonian found in the gold-mines of Philippi was also a Lasque (cucumis semini par). The Arabian resembled the Indian in all respects, but was smaller. The Androdamas had a silvery lustre, like the Adamas, but was always square, and resembled a die in shape. Here we have the cubic crystal, the faces of which are never polished, but covered by a semi-opaque striated varnish. Lastly, the "Cenchros" is described as like a millet-seed; or the spherical, an abnormal form where the crystallisation radiates from the centre, preventing all artificial polish, and hence designated Bort (Bastard, in Provencal), from Abortus.6
Of the six kinds into which Pliny divides the Adamas the four above described are doubtless all forms of the true Diamond. The minute size is enough to demonstrate this; for how else could inconspicuous stones have been so highly valued—stones, too, whose minuteness can only be exemplified by the comparison to a gourd-seed or a grain of millet ? But, besides these, two kinds remain rejected by Pliny himself as " degenerate, and pos-
Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond
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