Legend of the Diamond Valley 15 



Under the Ming (1368-1643) the story was repeated by Ts'ao Chao 

 in his work Ko ku yao lun, which he published in 1387. His version is as 

 follows: "Diamond-sand comes from Tibet (Si-fan). On the high 

 summits of mountains with deep valleys, unapproachable to men, they 

 make perches for the eagles, on which they set out food. The birds eat 

 the flesh on the mountains and drop their ordure into desert places. 

 This is gathered, and the stones are found in it." 1 



As regards the origin of our legend, two distinct opinions have been 

 voiced. Yule* and Rohde* point to its great resemblance to what 

 Herodotus (III, 1 1 1) tells of the manner in which cinnamon was obtained 

 by the Arabs; and a certain amount of affinity between the two cannot 

 be denied. Great birds, says Herodotus, make use of cinnamon-sticks 

 to build their nests, fastened with mud to high rocks, up which no foot 

 of man is able to climb. So the Arabians resort to the artifice of cutting 

 up the carcasses of beasts of burden and placing the pieces near the 

 nests, whereupon they withdraw to a distance; and the old birds, swoop- 

 ing down, seize the flesh and bring it up into their nests. As the pieces 

 are large, they break through the nest and fall to the ground, when the 

 Arabians return and collect the cinnamon. The interval between 

 Herodotus and Epiphanius is too great to be spanned or to allow us to 

 link their stories in close historical bonds. There must be many inter- 

 mediary links unknown to us. They evidently belong, as two individual 

 variations, to the same type of legend, and seem to point to the fact 

 that the latter existed in the near Orient for a long time. 4 The Chinese 

 text recorded in the beginning of the sixth century, from which we 

 started, furnishes additional testimony to this effect. 



V. Ball 8 is inclined to think that the story "appears to be founded 

 on the very common practice in India, on the opening of a mine, of 

 offering up cattle to propitiate the evil spirits who are supposed to guard 

 treasures — these being represented by the serpents in the myth. At 

 such sacrifices in India, birds of prey invariably assemble to pick up 



1 Ko chi king yuan, Ch. 33, p. 3 b. 



* L. c, p. 363. 



* Der griechische Roman, p. 193. 



* Certain elements of the story may be found also in Pliny's (xxxvii, 33) curious 

 legend of the stone callaina, which has wrongly been identified with the turquois: 

 Some say that these stones are found in Arabia in the nests of the birds called "black- 

 heads" (Sunt qui in Arabia inveniri eas dicant in nidis avium, quas melancoryphos 

 vocant). Pliny then reports the occurrence of the stones on inaccessible rocks which 

 people cannot climb, and mentions the danger connected with the venture of seeking 

 them. Capturing them with slings certainly is a different feature, characteristic of 

 another cycle of legends. 



•Translation of Tavernier's Travels in India, Vol. II, p. 461. 



