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380 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
material.5 Possibly human blood was believed to strengthen the special virtue supposed to be inherent in this red substance.
There
is a note of republican simplicity in the reported wearing of coral
ornaments on ceremonial occasions by the present Queen of Italy.
Indeed, the assertion that this is done to stimulate the coral industry
in Italy may be true, as nothing would better tend to do this than such
an example of royal favor for coral. Certainly this is in marked
contrast with the almost exclusive use of pearl ornaments of all kinds
so characteristic of Queen Margarita, whose devotion to the pearl, now
perhaps the most costly of gems, had a poetic appropriateness for one
bearing her name, and we can scarcely imagine the Pearl of Savoy
without her splendid parures and necklaces of pearls. Still,
undoubtedly this new departure renders it possible for all Italian
women, rich or poor, to loyally follow the example set by their Queen
Helena, and there is little danger that the rich will ever neglect to
avail themselves of the exclusive privilege they possess of owning and
wearing diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, which surpass
coral as much in beauty as they do in price.
A
comparatively recent attempt to use diamond dust as a poison is said to
have been made in 1874 on Colonel Phayre, British Resident at the court
of the then reigning Gaikwar of Baroda. The colonel was in the habit of
refreshing himself after his morning walk with a glass of sugared
water flavored with a little lime-juice. One day, on taking a sip of
his customary beverage, he noted that it had a strange taste, and
instead of drinking it he saved it up and had it analyzed The analysis
revealed the presence of arsenic in quantity sufficient to cause death,
and of diamond dust as
* Roth, " Great Benin, Its Customs, Art and Horrors," Halifax, England, 1903, p. 95.
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