96 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Somewliere between tlie years 1067 and 1081 Marbodms 

 wrote a poem entitled De Lapidibus Preciosis, in wbiob he gave 

 expression to the then prevailing ideas as to the sources and 

 qualities of the diamond. . Far India is recognised as its native 

 place, and the use of splinters of it for engraving upon other gems 

 is alluded to. Its hardness is said to yield to steeping in goat's 

 blood — a fable already quoted from Pliny. How this idea origi- 

 nated it is not easy to say ; possibly it may be connected with the 

 sacrificial offerings which preceded the search for diamonds, as will 

 be described on a future page. 



In the eleventh century, according to Dr. Burnell, wealth 

 must have abounded in Southern India, because it was then that 

 the numerous Sivoid temples were built; and in the thirteenth 

 century the great Vishnu temples were erected. Regarding the 

 famous inscription on the Tan j ore temple, he has written as 

 follows : — 



" The full importance in Indian history of Yera Cola's reign is 

 only to be gathered from this inscription ; but it contains other 

 information also of great value. It proves, e.g., that in the 

 eleventh century gold was the most common precious metal in 

 India, and stupendous quantities of it are mentioned here. Silver, 

 on the other hand, is little mentioned; and it appears that the 

 present state of things, which is exactly the reverse, was only 

 brought about by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. 



" I submit that the great abundance of gold spoken of in the in- 

 scription can have arisen only from mines, and that in the terrible 

 convulsions caused by the irruption of Moslem invaders from the 

 north and Europeans from the west, the position of these gold- 

 fields was lost sight of." 



It has been remarked upon this, that * " the full signi- 

 ficance of this statement as affecting Southern India can be 

 understood only when taken in connexion with the large areas 

 which are known to have been worked by the natives. It seems 

 to leave little room for doubting that the reefs and soils when first 

 opened up were extremely rich, and that the soils as we find them 

 now have been impoverished by repeated washings. 



" In the year 1293, AUahud-din, afterwards Emperor of Delhi, 



* Brough Smyth : Report of GgM Mines of South-East "Wynaad, &c. 



