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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
DIAMOND MINER.
31
Diamond-cutters at work there, each furnished with a single wheel of steel, the size of a dinner-plate. They operated upon but one stone at a time, but worked rapidly, having Diamond-dust a discretion. If the rough stone were clear, they did nothing more than polish its natural faces, in order not to lessen the weight; but if it contained flaws or black and red specks, they covered the gem all over with facets to disguise them. So inva­riably was this the rule, that Tavernier as soon as he saw a facetted Indian Diamond was certain of its defectiveness. It is con­trary to the Hindoo nature to suppose that they had learnt this art from Europeans, who themselves had only commenced to facet the newly-invented Rose some 20 years before ; and had the method been a new introduction at the place, the careful Tavernier would certainly have noted it down. But the Koh-i-noor,6 which has been known from the remotest antiquity (from 3000 p.c. pretend the Hindoos, being a jewel of Kama, that most ancient king of Anga), was in its original condition as brought to this country covered with little facets curiously arranged around its circumference, encircling the base of an extremely depressed four-sided pyramid.
DIAMOND MINES.
We find in the ancients few indications as to the particular locality of India that supplied them with the Diamond; Pliny says merely, at random, the gem-producing rivers are the Ace-sines (Jenaub) and the Ganges. Dionysius Periegetes enumerates the Diamond amongst the numerous gems (the Beryl, Green Jasper, Topazius, Amethyst) picked up in the river-beds by the natives of India, as anciently understood, lying to the east of Mount Parapamissus, and Ariana. Ammian (xxii. 8,30), writing-in the 4th century, mentions the region of the Agathyrsi beyond the Sea of Azov as abounding in Diamonds : " apud quos ada-mantis est copia lapidis." He may refer to the washings in the
Adamas, Diamond Page of 453 Adamas, Diamond
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