MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 9
these words. However, it appears probable that while shamir signifies a form of corundum, the word adamas, as
used by the early Greek writers, denoted a hard, metallic substance.
Possibly, when iron first became known to the Greeks, the adjective αδαμάντινοςf "indomitable," was applied to it, and later the noun adamas was
formed from this adjective and was used by the poets to signify an
imaginary substance even harder than iron ; hence, when the diamond
became known in Greek lands, its extreme hardness suggested the
application to it of this name.16
An Arab legend concerning the fabled shamir stone
is related by Cazwini in his cosmography. When King Solomon set about
building the temple in Jerusalem, he commanded Satan to dress the
stones that were to be used, but the work was performed with such
demoniac energy that the people round about complained bitterly of the
dreadful noise. To remedy this trouble, Solomon sought the council of
the leading scribes and also that of the evil spirits known as Ifrites
and Jinns. None of them, however, was able to help him in this
difficulty, but one of them advised him to question an apostate named
Sahr, who sometimes had special knowledge of such things. When called
upon for his opinion, Sahr declared that he knew of a stone that would
do the work required, but did not know where it could be found;
nevertheless he believed that, by a stratagem, he could secure
possession of it. He thereupon ordered that an eagle's nest with its
eggs should be brought to him, and also a bottle-shaped vessel made of
very strong glass. Into this he slipped the eggs, put them back into
the nest, and had nest and eggs replaced where they had been found.
When the
" See Pinder, " De adamante," Berolini, 1829, pp. 70 sqq., where the use of the word adamas to
designate iron is said to have been conjectured by Schneider, in his "
Analecta ad hist, rei met. vet.," pp. 5, 6. Adamas as a man's name
occurs in the " Iliad," xii, 140 and xiii, 560.
