DIAMONDS — LOGIE 361 



war and had Imocked some pieces off the giant stone and sold them. 

 The two flat planes from which these pieces had been detached were 

 easy to see when the Koh-i-noor was in the possession of Ran jit Singh. 

 Even what was left of the Great Mogul was still worth more than a 

 million pomids at that time. 



In the war against the British, the Punjab was overrun and the 

 Koh-i-noor fell into British hands. It was given for safekeeping to 

 John Lawrence, later Governor-General of India, who kept it in 

 a small tin box. For 6 weeks he forgot about it until it was needed 

 as a gift for Queen Victoria. Then to his dismay the box could not 

 be found. As a matter of fact it was still in the house. His Indian 

 valet had found it while changing the contents of his master's pockets 

 and, though he thought the diamond was a worthless piece of glass, 

 he was too well trained to throw it away. 



There was a big fuss made about the Koh-i-noor when it arrived 

 at Buckingham Palace. Even a tyro could see that it needed recutting 

 and the question immediately arose as to who should do the job. 

 England was singularly poor in cutters at the time and apparently 

 everybody participated in the repolishing, for we are told : 



• ♦ * in consequence of the keen interest evidenced by Her Most Gracious 

 Majesty tlie Queen and the Prince Consort, in the manipulation of this wonder- 

 ful gem, Messrs. Garrard, the Queen's jewelers, had a room specially fitted up 

 where Her Majesty personally assisted in putting on the facets. 



It is not surprising that the stone is still considered to be in bad shape. 



Tlie greatest of all diamonds comes from Cullinan. It was origi- 

 nally 3,025% carats {ly^ pounds) , was found in 1907 and was given to 

 Edward VII. It has been cut into 9 large stones of 516 carats, 309 

 carats, and 7 others of less than 100 carats each and into many smaller 

 ones. The two largest portions of the Cullinan diamond are still the 

 biggest diamonds in existence. 



The Cullinan is the largest diamond to come from South Africa, 

 but a great deal of fascinating history is associated with even the 

 smaller stones which have been found in this country. Nobody knows 

 for certain whether the first diamond was foimd in South Africa in 

 1866 or in 1867. We are not sure either whether it was Schalk van 

 Niekerk who first recognized the plaything of the Jacobs's children 

 as a diamond, or whether it was Jack O'Reilly. An account of the 

 event was given in 1932 by Erasmus Stephanus Jacobs. He said : 



• • * our family lived on the farm De Kalk on the south side of the Orange 

 River in the district of Hopetown. One day a water pipe leading out of the 

 dam became choked up and my father sent me out on the veld to cut a long 

 branch in order to clear the pipe. Having secured what I wanted, and feeling 

 somewhat tired, I sat down in the shade of a tree, when I suddenly noticed in 

 the glare of the strong sun a glittering pebble some yards away. I picked up 

 the stone which lay a few hundred yards from the bank of the Orange River. 



