Imitation Diamonds 41 



poisons, dispels insanity, and drives away groundless apprehensions 

 from the mind. 1 The coincidence would not be so remarkable were it 

 not for the fact that in mediaeval Mohammedanism the theory of dia- 

 monds being poisonous had been developed. This idea first looms up 

 in Pseudo-Aristotle, who is also the first to stage the snakes in the 

 Diamond Valley, and cautions his readers against taking the diamond 

 in their mouths, because the saliva of the snakes adheres to it so that it 

 deals out death. 2 According to al-Berunl, the people of Khorasan and 

 Iraq employ the diamond only for purposes of boring and poisoning. 8 

 This superstition was carried by the Mohammedans into India, where 

 the belief had prevailed that the diamond wards off from its wearer 

 the danger of poison. 4 The people of India now adhere to the super- 

 stition that diamond-dust is at once the least painful, the most active, 

 and most infallible of all poisons. In our own time, when Mulhar Rao of 

 Baroda attempted to poison Col. Phayre, diamond-dust mixed with 

 arsenic was used. 5 A. Boetius de Boot (1550-1632) 6 was the first 

 modern mineralogical writer who refuted the old misconception, de- 

 monstrating that the diamond has no poisonous properties whatever. 



Imitation Diamonds. — While all the principal motives of the 

 lore garnered by the Chinese around the diamond come from classical 

 regions, I can discover but a single notion traceable to India. Pliny 

 has written a short chapter on the method of testing precious stones, 7 

 but he does not tell us how to discriminate between real and counterfeit 

 diamonds. According to the Hindu mineralogists, iron, topaz, hya- 

 cinth, rock-crystal, cat's-eye, and glass served for the imitation of the 

 diamond; and the forgery was disclosed by means of acids, scratching, 



\ Adamas et venena vincit atque inrita facit et lymphationes abigit metusque 

 vanos expellit a mente (xxxvn, 15, § 61). 



* J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 150; and Diamant in der Medizin 

 (Festschrift Baas, pp. 121-125); likewise al-Akfanl (E. Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie 

 im Islam, p. 219). Qazwlnl (J. Ruska, Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des al- 

 Kazwlnl, p. 35) quotes Ibn Slna as saying that the venomous property imputed by 

 Aristotle to the diamond is a hollow pretence, and that Aristotle is ignorant of the 

 fact that snake-poison, after flowing out, loses its baleful effect, especially when some 

 time has elapsed. This sensible remark does not prevent Qazwlnl, in copying his 

 second anonymous source relating to the diamond, from alleging that "it is an 

 extremely mortal poison." 



* E. Wiedemann, Der Islam, Vol. II, p. 352. 



4 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. 10. Varahamihira (a.d. 505-587) states that 

 a good diamond dispels foes, danger from thunder-strokes or poison, and promises 

 many enjoyments (H. Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, Vol. II, p. 98). 



6 W. Crooke, Things Indian, p. 379. 



•Gemmarum et lapidum historia, p. 124 (ed. of A. Toll, Lugduni Batavorum, 

 1636); compare also J. Ruska, Festschrift Baas, pp. 125-127. 



7 xxxvn, 76. 



