Indestructibility of the Diamond 23 



In the Jataka, the notion of the pearl being born from the ocean 1 has 

 been transferred to the diamond. Q. Curtius Rufus echoes this native 

 tradition when, in his description of India, he says that the sea casts upon 

 the shores precious stones and pearls, these offscourings of the boiling 

 sea being valued at the price which fashion sets on coveted luxuries.* 



The Chinese tradition transmitted from Fu-nan — that iron does 

 not break the diamond, but that the latter breaks iron — is reflected in 

 the same manner by Pliny, who says that the stones are tested upon 

 the anvil, and resist the blows with the result that the iron rebounds, and 

 the anvil splits asunder. 8 This certainly is pure fiction and merely a 

 popular illustration of the hardness of the stone. 4 This notion has 

 accordingly migrated, and the Physiologus presents the missing link 

 between East and West by asserting that the diamond cannot be 

 damaged by iron, fire, or smoke. 6 In India we meet the same test, 

 inasmuch as a diamond is regarded as genuine if it is struck with other 

 stones or iron hammers without bursting. 6 The fact that the Arabic 

 treatises on mineralogy reiterate the same story need not be discussed 

 here; for the account of Ko Hung is far older than these, and proves 

 that long before the advent of the Arabs it passed from India to Fu-nan 

 and from Fu-nan to China. 



Discussing the phenomena of sympathy and apathy ruling in nature, 

 Pliny sets forth that this indomitable power which contemns the two 

 most violent agents of nature, iron and fire, 7 is broken by the blood of 



1 Ibid., p. xxxii. A Sanskrit epithet of the pearl is samudraja ("sea-born"). 



* J. W. McCrindle, Invasion of India by Alexander, p. 187. 



1 Incudibus hi deprehenduntur ita respuentes ictus ut ferrum utrimque dissultet. 

 incudes ipsae etiam exiliant (xxxvn, 15, § 57). Compare BLttMNER, Technologie, 

 Vol. Ill, p. 230. 



4 The diamond is hard, but not tough, and can easily be broken with the blow of 

 a hammer. It is as brittle as at least the average of crystallized minerals (Far- 

 rington, Gems and Gem Minerals, p. 70). The fabulous notion of the ancients was 

 first refuted by Garcia da Orta (or, ab Horto), in his work on the Drugs of India, 

 which appeared in Portuguese at Goa in 1563. "It is out of the question," he says, 

 "that the diamond resists the hammer; on the contrary, it can be pulverized by means 

 of a small hammer, and may easily be pounded in a mortar with an iron pestle, 

 the powder being used for the grinding of other diamonds" (compare J. Ruska, 

 Der Diamant in der Medizin, Festschrift Baas, p. 129). In the Italian translation 

 of Garcia (p. 182, Venice, 1582) the passage runs thus: "Non e il vero, che il diamante 

 resista alia botta del martello, percioche con ogni picciolo martello si riduce in polvere, 

 e con grandissima facilita si pesta col pistello di ferro; e in questo modo lo pestanb 

 coloro, che con la sua polvere poliscono gli altri diamanti." 



6 F. Lauchert, Geschichte des Physiologus, p. 34. 



• R. Garbe, Die indischen Mineralien, p. 82. 



7 Pliny, accordingly, was of the opinion that the diamond is able to resist fire, 

 and Dioscorides (L. Leclerc, Traits des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 272) acquiesced ia 



