154 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
quarrels,
a square diamond inspired the wearer with vague terrors; a
five-cornered stone had the worst effect of all, for it brought death;
only the six-cornered diamond was productive of good.14
The
Turkish sultan Bejazet II (1447-1512) is said to have been done to
death by a dose of pulverized diamond administered to him by his son
Selim, who mixed the diamond dust with the sultan's food.15
It is also related that the disciples of Paracelsus (1493-1541) spread
the report that he died from the effects of a dose of diamond dust.
Ambrosius16 conjectures
that this was only an excuse to explain the demise of the master in the
prime of life—he was but forty-eight years old at the time of his
death—although he had promised long life to all who made use of his
medicaments.
While
Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), the unrivalled goldsmith, was imprisoned
in Rome, in 1538, he strongly suspected that his enemies were seeking
to poison him by tampering with his food. Cellini shared the belief of
his contemporaries that there was no more deadly poison than diamond
dust. One day, while eating his noonday meal, he felt something grate
between his teeth. He paid no particular attention to this, but when he
had finished eating his eye was caught by some bright particles on the
plate. Picking up one of these and examining it carefully, he was
terrified to find what he supposed to be a diamond splinter, and he
straightway gave himself up for lost, thinking that he had swallowed a
quantity of diamond dust. He prayed to God for an hour and finally
"Surindra Mohun Tagore, " Mani Mala," Pt. I, Calcutta, 1879, pp. 122, 125.
"Justi Lepsii, "De fraude et vi," cap. v, §8; cited in Pindar, " De adamante," Berolini, 1829, p. 58.
™ Aldrovandi, " Museum metallicum," Bononise, 1648, p. 949.
