Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/42



RE diamonds a charm?

It was once believed through all the Orient that this precious stone did preserve from madness: and Serapius says that it will drive away "lemures, incubes, and succubos," and will make men brave and generous; also, that it completely nullifies the magnet and the North Pole. If this were once true, it is surely a curious fact. Now, it may be said, that the diamond acts in another and reverse way, and generates a species of madness.

Taking a simple and cold-blooded view of the gem, I find that a small crystal called the "Koh-i-noor" diamond, weighing 106 1-16 carats—less than one ounce—will sell (if the Government of England would sell it) for $5,000,000 or $10,000,000. There is no possible price to be put upon it, that somebody would not give it. Bear it in mind, then, that this pretty little stone, which no one can eat or use in any possible way, which no one would dare to wear upon his person, which no one can keep except in the Tower of London, guarded by soldiers and locked behind bars of steel, will to-day find purchasers, at the price of five million days' work of a stalwart man. Consider this and then ask yourself, Does not this little stone produce a singular and amazing madness? A few words more of the story of this "Mountain of Light" may make this more clear. It was once the light of the God Krischna; when Delhi was conquered by Ala-ed-din, he seized the gem; then one of the Mogul dynasty obtained it in 1526; by-and-by Nadir Shah conquered India and got it into his treasury; then Runjet Singh wrested it from the son of the Shah; and after the capture of Lahore, during the Sikh mutiny, the British troops got possession of it, and presented it to the Queen of England, in the year 1850. How many wars, and what amount of bloodshed it has already cost, who can say? How much more it is to stimulate, who knows?

I was led to look into this curious matter by a question asked me by a friend:

"Have you seen Mrs. Malthus's diamonds?"

Not only had I not seen them, but I may here confess that I never before had heard of Mrs. Malthus. Now my young friend's eyes were very large as he asked me the question—

"Have you seen Mrs. Malthus's diamonds?"

"No," said I. "Are they fine?"

"Fine ? Splendid! I should think so—fine!"

"Where did she get them?" I asked.

"Get them? Bought them, I s'pose. Where should she get them?"

"Only," I said, "the old fashioned way of getting fine diamonds was to rob them. So Malthus is not a duke, or a pirate, or a shah—nothing of that sort?"

"Pooh!" said he. "What are you driving at? Malthus—he's a speculator.