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THE ORLOFF. 57
the
Czarevitch as Hetman of the Don Cossacks, the sceptre as well as the
crown and globe, were exhibited to the admiring multitudes of Novo
Tcherkask.
Such
is the career of the imperial diamond given by Gregory Orloff to his
Empress. In appearance the gem differs materially from the Regent. It
is essentially an Asiatic stone, presenting all the peculiarities of
its Eastern birthplace. It is variously described as of about the size
of a pigeon's egg or of a walnut. One writer expresses disappointment
at it, remarking that the sceptre resembles a gold poker, and the
Mountain of Light (a name sometimes given to the Orloff) " which we had
pictured to ourselves as big as a walnut was no larger than a
hazel-nut! " Never having seen this diamond the present writer cannot
speak of its apparent size; but if the drawings are reliable it is
certainly a monstrous " hazel-nut " of a diamond.
The cutting of the Orloff is purely in the Eastern style, being what is known as an Indian
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