Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/234

 224

and other jewels; some set rubies in gold; some work with gold or- naments on colored thread, some string pearls, some grind the lapis lazuli, some pierce shells, and some cut coral.” (Mitra, op. cit.,

p. 100 .)

5b. Diamonds.— The text is adamas. Some commentators, notably Dana, have doubted whether the Romans ever knew the true diamond. There can be no doubt that Pliny in his description (XXXVII, 15) includes under adamas other substances, probably quartz, iron ore, emery, etc., but he also says that the diamond possessed the greatest value, not only among the precious stones, but of all human possessions; and as Watt says (p. 556), India was long the only source of diamonds known to European nations.

Garcia de Orta (1563), mentions various Eastern diamond mines, such as those of ‘ Bisnager” ( Vijayanagar) and the “Decam” (Deccan). Ball, in his translation of Tavernier’s Travels, gives full particulars of all the Indian sources of diamonds (II, 450-461). Tavernier was a diamond merchant and the first European (1676) to examine critically the diamonds and court jewels of India.

The principal districts were,

(1) Southern Group: — districts of Kadapa, Bellary, Karnul,

Kistna, Godaveri, (Golconda, etc.);

(2) Middle Group: — MahanadI valley, districts of Sambalpur,

Chanda;

(3) Northern Group: — Yindhyan conglomerates near Panna

(still worked ).

Pliny (XXXVII, 15) describes the Indian adamas as “found, not in a stratum of gold, but in a substance of a kindred nature to crystal; which it closely resembles in its transparency and its highly polished hexangular and hexahedral forms.” (The true form of the diamond is octahedral.) “In shape it is turbinated, running to a point at either extremity, and closely resembling, marvelous to think of, two cones united at the base. In size, too, it is as large even as a hazel-nut. ”

The Romans seem to have had no knowledge of diamond- cutting. Pliny goes on to say that “its hardness is beyond all expres- sion, while at the same time it quite sets fire at defiance; owing to which indomitable powers it has received the name which it derives from the Greek.” ( a privative, and damad, “to subdue.”)

After his description of the hardness of the diamond, Pliny ob- serves, “this indomitable power, which sets at naught the two most violent agents in nature, fire, namely, and iron, is made to yield before