42 The Diamond 



and the touchstone. The Agastimata is specific on this point by 

 anathematizing forgers and recommending the following recipe: "The 

 vile man who fabricates false diamonds will sink into an awful hell, 

 charged with a sin equal to murder. When a connoisseur believes that 

 he recognizes an artificial diamond, he should test it by means of acids 

 or vinegar, or through application of heat: if false, it will lose color; if 

 true, it will double its lustre. It may also be washed and brought in 

 contact with rice: thus it will at once be reduced to a powder." 1 The 

 TsH tung ye yii of Chou Mi, previously quoted, imparts this advice: 

 "In order to distinguish genuine from counterfeit diamonds, expose the 

 stone to red-heat and steep it in vinegar: if it retains its former appear- 

 ance and does not split, it is real. When the diamond-point happens 

 to become blunt, it should be heated till it reddens; and on cooling off, 

 it will again have a sharp point." 2 The first experiment is identical 

 with that proposed in the Sanskrit text. As to the second, we again 

 encounter a striking parallel in Pliny: "There is such great difference 

 in stones, that some cannot be engraved by means of iron, others may 

 be cut only with a blunt graver, all, however, by means of the diamond; 

 heating of the graver considerably intensifies the effect." 3 



Acquaintance or the Ancients with the Diamond. — The 

 previous notes have been based on the supposition that the stone 

 termed adamas by the ancients, and that called kun-wu (or subsequently 

 kin-kang) by the Chinese, are identical with what we understand by 

 "diamond." This identification, however, has been called into doubt 

 by students of classical antiquity as well as by sinologues. It is there- 

 fore necessary to scrutinize their arguments. Our investigation has 

 clearly brought out two points, — first, that the Chinese notices of the 

 diamond-point {kun-wu) agree with Pliny's account of the same imple- 

 ment; and, second, that Chinese traditions regarding the stone kin-kang 

 perfectly coincide with those of the ancients and the Arabs concerning 

 adamas and almas, the latter word being derived from the former. If, 



1 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. xxx. 



2 F. de Mely (Lapidaires chinois, p. 124) has misunderstood this passage by 

 referring it to the stone in lieu of the diamond-point. " S'il a des facettes emoussees, 

 on le chauffe au rouge, on le laisse refroidir, et ses facettes redeviennent aigues." 

 This point of view is untenable. First, the facets of a diamond are neither blunt nor 

 sharp; second, a faceted diamond, as will be shown in detail farther on, was always 

 unknown to the Chinese, who for the first time noticed cut diamonds in the possession 

 of the Macao Portuguese; and, third, the parallelism with Pliny proves my conception 

 of the Chinese text to be correct. 



* lam tanta differentia est, ut aliae ferro scalpi non possint, aliae non nisi retuso, 

 omnes autem adamante. Plurimum vero in iis terebrarum proficit fervor (xxxvu, 

 76, § 200). Compare Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 231. 



