THE KOH-I-NUR. 91
nira, were left with him to-keep him company and amuse him during these tedious years.
Aurung-zeb,
who, for an Eastern potentate, was rather short of jewels, sent one day
to his father to get some of his diamonds in order to adorn his turban
which could boast of but one great ruby. The imprisoned Shah Jehan
exclaimed in his wrath that he would break all his gems to atoms
sooner than let his undutiful son touch one of them. He further
intimated that the hammers were kept in readiness for this purpose. His
daughter prevailed upon him to spare his glittering pebbles, and so the
Koh-i-nûr escaped an ignominious death.
The
same princess offered a basin full of diamonds to Aurung-zeb when he
came to see her in her palace prison after the demise of their father,
and thus the Koh-i-nûr came to adorn the brow of another emperor. For
nearly a century after the Koh-i-nûr dwelt tranquilly in Delhi, adding
the lustre of its rays to the turbans of the Mogul empress until the
year 1739.
