94 DIAMONDS AND 



jewel for ages. It then passed into the possession of the Moguls 

 at Delhi, resting there until the last inroad of the Tartars under 

 Nadir Shah, who, on reinstating his Tartar kinsman on the throne 

 of Delhi, kept the great Diamond for himself. The tale runs that 

 the stone was mounted in the turban worn by the king of Delhi, 

 and on taking leave of him. Nadir Shah, as a mark of friendship, 

 insisted on changing turbans. In any case, it went back with the 

 great conqueror to Persia, with all the fabulous wealth accumu- 

 lated by the Persian host. On the break-up of his empire after 

 Nadir Shah's death, the Koh-i-noor became the property of 

 Ahmed Shah, king of Afghanistan, as the price of assistance ren- 

 dered by him to the king of Persia. The gem from that time is 

 very conspicuous in the history of the Afghan princes — always the 

 symbol of power, continually the incentive to treachery and rob- 

 bery, until it went into exile with Shah Soujah, who, hunted from 

 Peshawur to Cashmere, fell into the hands of Runjeet Sing, the lion 

 of the Punjaub; he, while professing friendship to the unfortunate 

 Dooranee prince, took the opportunity to despoil him of his trea- 

 sured diamond. It descended to Runjeet's successors, who 

 retained it till the Sikhs were finally overthrown in 1849 by Eng- 

 land, when this fateful gem, the taUsman of Indian sway, passed 

 into the hands of the East-India Company, who presented it in 

 1850 to Queen Victoria. Since then it has been re-cut, but unfor- 

 tunately in such an injudicious manner as to destroy to a large 

 extent its beauty, the stone, in order to preserve its size, having 

 been cut too thin for it to have the lustre and brilliancy inherent 

 to its pure and beautiful material, which is perfection. However, 

 with the disappearance of its ancient Indian form, its baleful 

 influence, we may hope, has also passed away, and that it will 

 henceforth remain an interesting jewel in the British regalia. 



In the Middle Ages, the Diamond had come to be valued and 

 to hold the foremost place as a gem for its beauty as well as for the 

 mystic qualities which superstition assigned to it. Principal 

 among these was the power to counteract poison, to ward oif 

 insanity, and to inspire courage ; further, the Italians attributed to 

 it the power of maintaining affection between husband and wife, 

 for which quality they named it " Pietra della Reconciliazione," 

 and on this account it was used as the most appropriate stone for 

 a betrothal ring. 



