Lovers at all times have linked this most brilliant of stones with their fair one’s sparkling eyes. One said that, wherever he went in the world, he found only his beloved:
If to far India’s coast we sail,
Thy eyes are seen as diamonds bright,
Thy breath is Amric’s spicy gale,
Thy skin is ivory’s soft white.
There are several sayings which, though they refer to the diamond, by indirection speak of mankind. Thus there is a warning to the person who is heedless of dress or decor, or of the furnishing of office or home, in the remark: “A fine diamond may be ill set.” There is, on the other hand, a challenge to pretense, or perhaps a warning to a person about to select an employee—or a mate—in the Chinese proverb: “A diamond with a flaw is better than a perfect pebble.”
Ruby
The ruby is a variety of corundum. The Sanskrit word kuruvinda was limited to the ruby, but we today use the word corundum to mean any form of aluminum oxide, chemically Al₂O₃. Corundum is next in hardness (though far inferior) to the diamond, and a hard granular form of it is used in grinding and polishing. In its pure, transparent form it is, according to its color, the ruby, the sapphire, the Oriental amethyst, or the Oriental topaz.
The Latin word ruber means red, and the crystalline corundum that is a ruby takes shades from pale rose-pink to a deep crimson that borders on the purple. The color is determined by the nature of the oxide, and the gem sometimes has a light silken sheen. A flawless deep red ruby is one of the rarest and most costly of gems.