Diamond
The diamond is to the pearl as the sun is to the moon, and we might well call one the “king-gem” and the other the “queen-gem.” The diamond, like a knight of old,—brilliant and resistant, is the emblem of fearlessness and invincibility; the pearl, like a lady of old,—pure and fair to look upon, is the emblem of modesty and purity. Therefore it does not seem unfitting that the diamond should be presented as a token to the pearl, and that pearls should go with the diamond. The virtues ascribed to this stone are almost all directly traceable either to its unconquerable hardness or to its transparency and purity. It was therefore thought to bring victory to the wearer, by endowing him with superior strength, fortitude, and courage. Marbodus[74] tells us it was a magic stone of great power and served to drive away nocturnal spectres; for this purpose it should be set in gold and worn on the left arm. For St. Hildegard the sovereign virtue of the diamond was recognized by the devil, who was a great enemy of this stone because it resisted his power by day and by night.[75] Rueus[76] calls it “a gem of reconciliation,” as it enhanced the love of a husband for his wife.
Cardano[77] takes a more pessimistic view of the qualities of the diamond. He says:
It is believed to make the wearer unhappy; its effects therefore are the same upon the mind as that of the sun upon the eye, for the latter rather dims than strengthens the sight. It indeed renders fearless, but there is nothing that contributes more to our safety than prudence and fear; therefore it is better to fear.
The diamond was often associated with the lightning and was sometimes believed to owe its origin to the thunderbolt, but we do not recall having seen elsewhere the statement made in an anonymous Italian manuscript of the fourteenth century. Here it is expressly asserted that the diamond is sometimes consumed or melted when it thunders.[78] Certainly, that the same force that was supposed to have formed the stone should be able to dissolve it, is not an illogical idea. That the diamond can be entirely consumed at a high temperature was a fact not known in Europe in the fourteenth century, and therefore the belief in the destructive effect of the electric current must have arisen from superstitious or poetic fancies, and not from any vague conception of the true nature of the diamond.
In the Talmud we read of a gem, supposed to have been the diamond, which was worn by the high priest.[79] This stone served to show the guilt or innocence of one accused of any crime; if the accused were guilty, the stone would grow dim, but if he were innocent, it would shine more brilliantly than ever. This quality is also alluded to by Sir John Mandeville, who wrote:
It happens often that the good diamond loses its virtue by sin and for incontinence of him who bears it.
The Hindus classed diamonds according to the four castes. The Brahmin diamond gave power, friends, riches and good luck; the Kshatriya diamond prevented the approach of old age; the Vaisya stone brought success, and the Sudra, all manner of good fortune. On the other hand, in the treatise on gems by Buddhabhatta[80] we read:
A diamond, a part of which is the color of blood or spotted with red, would quickly bring death to the wearer, even if he were the Master of Death.
The Arabians and Persians, as well as the modern Egyptians, agree in attributing to the diamond a wonderful power to bring good fortune, and Rabbi Benoni, a mystic of the fourteenth century, treating of its magic virtues, asserts that it produces somnambulism, and, as a talisman, so powerfully attracts the planetary influences that it renders the wearer invincible; it was also said to provoke a state of spiritual ecstasy. An alchemist of the same century, Pierre de Boniface, asserted that the diamond made the wearer invisible.
A curious fancy, prevalent in regard to many stones, attributed sex to the diamond, and it is therefore not surprising that these stones were also supposed to possess reproductive powers. In this connection Sir John Mandeville wrote:
They grow together, male and female, and are nourished by the dew of heaven; and they engender commonly, and bring forth small children that multiply and grow all the year. I have oftentimes tried the experiment that if a man keep them with a little of the rock, and water them with May dew often, they shall grow every year and the small will grow great.
The following lines from a translation of the celebrated Orphic poem, written in the second century, show the high esteem in which the adamas was held at that time:
The Evil Eye shall have no power to harm
Him that shall wear the diamond as a charm,
No monarch shall attempt to thwart his will,
And e’en the gods his wishes shall fulfil.
This probably refers either to colorless corundum, the so-called “white sapphire,” or to quartz. The writer is disinclined to believe that the ancients knew the diamond.
The ancient Hindu gem-treatise of Buddhabhatta asserts that the diamond of the Brahmin should have the whiteness of a shell or of rock-crystal; that of the Kshatriya, the brown color of the eye of a hare; that of the Vaisya, the lovely shade of a petal of the kadali flower; that of the Sudra, the sheen of a polished blade. To kings alone the sages assigned two classes of colored diamonds,—namely, those red as coral and those yellow as saffron. These were exclusively royal gems, but diamonds of all other shades could be set in royal jewels.[81]
A typical diamond is thus described in a Hindu gem-treatise:[82]
A six-pointed diamond, pure, without stain, with pronounced and sharp edges, of a beautiful shade, light, with well-formed facets, without defects, illuminating space with its fire and with the reflection of the rainbow, a diamond of this kind is not easy to find in the earth.
According to a wide-spread superstition, the talismanic power of a diamond was lost if the stone were acquired by purchase; only when received as a gift could its virtues be depended on.[83] The same belief is noted regarding the turquoise. The spirit dwelling in the stone was thought to take offence at the idea of being bought and sold, and was supposed to depart from the stone, leaving it nothing more than a bit of senseless matter. If, however, the diamond (or turquoise) were offered as a pledge of love or friendship, the spirit was quite willing to transfer its good offices from one owner to another.
The Talmud shows us that the Jewish Rabbis sometimes endeavored to enliven their exhaustive discussions of ritual and legal questions by telling “good stories” to each other. One of these may be given as illustrating at once the wild improbability of some of these recitals and the belief in the wonderful magic virtues of the diamond:[84]
R. Jehudah of Mesopatamia used to tell: Once while on board of a ship, I saw a diamond that was encircled by a snake, and a diver went to catch it. The snake then opened its mouth, threatening to swallow the ship. Then a raven came, bit off its head, and all water around turned into blood. Then another snake came, took the diamond, put it in the carcass, and it became alive; and again it opened its mouth, in order to swallow the ship. Another bird then came, bit off its head, took the diamond and threw it on the ship. We had with us salted birds, and we wanted to try whether the diamond would bring them to life, so we placed the gem on them, and they became animated and flew away with the gem.
It is said that the first large diamonds discovered by Europeans in South Africa were found in the leather bag of a sorcerer. Although large stones or fragments of rock are usually the objects of adoration as fetiches in Africa, any small stone that is wrapped in colored rags and worn on the neck may be regarded in the same way.[85] Several competent authorities state that these diamonds were the playthings of some Boer children.
Al Kazwini relates as follows the marvellous tale of the Valley of Diamonds:[86]
“Aristotle[87] says that no one except Alexander ever reached the place where the diamond is produced. This is a valley, connected with the land Hind. The glance cannot penetrate to its greatest depths and serpents are found there, the like of which no man hath seen, and upon which no man can gaze without dying. However, this power endures only as long as the serpents live, for when they die the power leaves them. In this place summer reigns for six months and winter for the same length of time. Now, Alexander ordered that an iron mirror should be brought and placed at the spot where the serpents dwelt. When the serpents approached, their glance fell upon their own image in the mirror, and this caused their death. Hereupon, Alexander wished to bring out the diamonds from the valley, but no one was willing to undertake the descent. Alexander therefore sought counsel of the wise men, and they told him to throw down a piece of flesh into the valley. This he did, the diamonds became attached to the flesh, and the birds of the air seized the flesh and bore it up out of the valley. Then Alexander ordered his people to pursue the birds and to pick up what fell from the flesh.”
“Another writer states that the mines are in the mountains of Serendib (Ceylon) in a very deep gorge, in which are deadly serpents. When people wish to take out the diamonds they throw down pieces of flesh, which are seized by vultures and brought up to the brink of the gorge. There such of the diamonds as cling to the flesh are secured; these are of the size of a lentil or a pea. The largest pieces found attain the size of a half-bean.”
In his version of the tale, one form of which appears in the seventh voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, Teifashi states that the finest corundum gems were washed down the streams that flowed from Adam’s Peak, on the island of Ceylon; in time of drought, however, this source of supply ceased. Now it happened that many eagles built their nests on the top of this mountain, and the gem-seekers used to place large pieces of flesh at the foot of the mountain. The eagles pounced upon these and bore them away to their nests, but were obliged to alight from time to time in order to rest, and while the pieces of flesh lay on the rock, some of the corundums became lightly attached to this, so that when the eagles resumed their flight the stones dropped off and rolled down the mountain side.[88]
These oft-repeated tales are explained by Dr. Valentine Ball as originating in the Hindu custom of sacrificing cattle when new mines were opened, and leaving on the spot a certain part of the meat as an offering to the guardian deities. As these pieces of meat were soon carried away by birds of prey, the legend arose that the diamonds were obtained in this way. This custom still prevailed in some parts of India when Dr. Ball wrote.[89]
The effect exercised by Hindu superstition on even the most enlightened Europeans of our day may be recognized in the fact that the gifted prima donna, Mme. Maeterlinck, the wife of the foremost living European poet, has confessed that she wears a diamond suspended on her forehead because her husband believes that this brings good fortune to the wearer. This forehead-jewel is characteristically Hindu and enjoys in India the reputation of being especially auspicious.