396 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
would see in the first syllable, pad, an abbreviation of padma, lotus,
the petals of this flower often having a soft orange tint. In this case
the meaning would be "hidden lotus," as though the very color-essence
of the flower were enclosed within and shone through the gem.30
A Persian treatise on precious stones was composed by Mohammed Ben Mansur 31 in
the thirteenth century of our era. This work was written for Sultan Abu
Naçr Behadir-chan, and consists of two divisions, the first treating of
precious stones and the second of metalsi. It is interesting to note in
this treatise the recognition of the essential likeness of the
Oriental ruby, sapphire, topaz, etc. ; these varieties of corundum are
all grouped under the single designation "yakut." Ben Mansur writes :82
The
yakut is six-fold : 1, the red ; 2, the yellow ; 3, the black ; 4, the
white ; 5, the green or peacock-hued ; 6, the blue or smoky-hued. Some
divide the yakut into four classes : red, yellow, dark, and white,
reckoning the peacock-hued and the blue among the dark. The yakut cuts
all stones except camelian and diamond.
Although
the Oriental camelian is hard and difficult to cut or polish only
popular prejudice accounts for this statement, as it falls far short of
the diamond in hardness.
Pseudo-Aristotle, writing some time from the seventh to the ninth century a.D., was
the first to define clearly the three leading varieties of the corundum
gems (yakut) as the same mineral substance, and differing only in
color. These are the ruby, the Oriental topaz (jacinthus citrinus) and
the sapphire. Instead of according different medicinal or talis-manic
virtues to these three precious stones, this writer states that each
and all of them, when set in rings or worn
*> Leopold Claremont, " Singhalese Gems," in The Jeweler and Metalworker, pp. 193ea-1936g, December 15, 1913.
"Abridgment by Von Hammer in the "Fundgruben des Orients," Wien, 1818, vol. vi.
»Ibid., p. 129.
