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Sec. III, Ch. 7: The Emerald

Sec. III, Ch. 7: The Emerald Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 7: The Emerald Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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The Emerald.
as Basalt, Porphyry, Amethysts, and Emeralds. They fashioned these last, which were found very large, into many curious and fantastic forms." Elsewhere (vol. Hi., p. 214), in describing certain spoils, he mentions a large Emerald " cut in pyramidal shape, of so extraordinary a size, that the base was as broad as the palm of the hand.'' And in another place (p. 287) mention is made of fine Emeralds of a wonderful size and brilliancy, which had been cut by the Aztecs into the shapes of flowers, fishes, and other fantastical forms.
In the Manka Valley of Peru the natives appear to have paid divine homage to a magnificent Emerald of the size of an ostrich egg, which they named the goddess of Emeralds. The priests enhanced the value by dis­playing it on high festivals only, when, it was alleged, Emeralds were peculiarly acceptable to the idol, and thus the temple came into possession of a vast number of these costly gems, which on the discovery of Peru by the Spaniards, fell into the hands of the conquerors ; but Pizarro and his followers, "like bad lapidaries" writes Purchas, broke many to fragments, supposing they would possess the adamantine property of the Diamond.
After the discovery of Peru, Emeralds became less rare in Europe, and jewellers and lapidaries much pre­ferred the Peruvian stones ; hence the most beautiful of Emeralds are always called Spanish Emeralds. Joseph DAcosta, who himself visited the Emerald mines of New Granada and Peru, said that at first these stones came to Europe in such numbers, that on the ship in which he returned from America to Spain, in 1587, were two chests each containing one hundredweight of Emeralds.
The Emerald is found crystallized in six-sided prisms or columns, without striations, and therefore, unlike those
Sec. III, Ch. 7: The Emerald Page of 366 Sec. III, Ch. 7: The Emerald
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