Precious Stones facts and fancies Kunz: Magic of Jewels Page 443



	PACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT PRECIOUS STONES 381

	well. Here, as in the case of Sir Thomas Overbury, the really innocuous diamond material was accompanied by an actual poison. The current belief in the poisonous quality of the diamond is reflected in the words "mortal as diamond dust," used by Horace Walpole in one of his letters to the Countess of Ossory.⁶ A German writer of the seventeenth century quotes with admiration a wonderful tale told by Johannes Bustamantius to the effect that he had seen a marriage of two diamonds, the two crystals being so firmly drawn toward each other by mutual sympathy that when they were put in one place they would cling to one another, as with an "unending kiss," as though one were a man and the other a woman, and he asserts that the union was blessed with offspring. This curious idea has been repeatedly put forth by certain of the older writers as we have had occasion to note elsewhere.⁷ After expatiating on the mechanical skill displayed by the Indians of the New World, an early Spanish traveller gives the following details regarding their success as gem-cutters :⁸ Vet all that we have said is surpassed by the ingenuity of the Indians In working emeralds, with which they are supplied from the coast of Manta and the countries^ dependent on the government of Atacames, Coaquis or Qnaqnes. But these mines are now entirely lost, very probably through negligence. These curious emeralds are found in the tombs of the Indians of Manta and Atacames; and are, in beauty, size and hardness superior to those found in the district of Santa Fé; but what chiefly raises the admiration of the connoisseur is, to find them worked, some in spherical, some cylindrical, some conical, and of various other figures; and all with a perfect accuracy. • See Wilt's " History of India," vol. ii, p. 197. Cited in Lean's Collectanea, vol. ii, Pt. II, Bristol, 1903, p. 641. ^TC. G. Jentech, "Dissertatio physico-historica de gemmis," Lipsie, 1706, p. 19. See also the present writer's " The Curious Lore of Precious Stones," Philadelphia and London, 1913, p. 41. * Ulloa's Voyage to South America, trans, of John Adams, in Pinkerton'» Voyages and Travels, vol. xiv, London, 1813, p. 546.