34 



A 'CHAPTER ON DIAMONDS. 



This valuable stone seems to have been known from the most 

 remote period of antiquity. We find that it was associated along 

 with the emerald and the sapphire in the second rov/ of the twelve 

 precious stones on which the names of the children of Israel were 

 engraved, "everyone with his name according to the twelve tribes," 

 and these were set in the breast-plate of judgment worn by the 

 high-priest. It has been supposed, that as distinct names have 

 been given to swords, to the two pillars that were reared in the 

 porch of the temple at Jerusalem, and to the two chief diamonds 

 of the East, the " Mountain of Light," and the " Sea of Glory," 

 that the Urim and Thummim, which adorned the breast-plate of 

 the high-priest when he went into the " holy of holies," were also 

 diamonds. But the researches of Egyptian archaeologists have 

 established that these were small oracular images, similar to the 

 Teraphim, personifying revelation and truth ; and derived, accord- 

 ing to Sir Gardener Wilkinson, from Thmei, the Egyptian 

 goddess of truth and justice, generally represented as a double 

 person, or, according to Arundale and Bonomi, of Ra, the sun, 

 and Thmei, truth, as on the breastplate worn by the Egyptians. 



A diadem, to which succeeded crowns, was originally a simple 

 fillet, fastened round the head and tied behind. Among the jews 

 the diadem was worn by the high-priest ; sometimes a diadem, 

 sometimes a crown, by the kings. The state crown (atarah) was 

 of gold, set with jewels,. Such was the crown which David took 

 from the king of the Ammonites, (2 Samuel xii. 30,) and after- 

 wards wore himself, as did probably his successors. The more 

 ancient Egyptian sculptures represent crowns in the shape of a 

 distinguishing tiara, cap, or helmet, without gems ; but the head- 

 dresses of the Assyrian kings, disinterred by Layard, exhibit high 

 mitres or tiaras, evidently adorned with jewels, among which was 

 most probably the diamond. Many other ancient Asiatic crowns 

 exhibit the same appearance. The crown, in the time of the lower 

 empire, was a fillet, tied in a knot behind, and adorned with 

 pearls and diamonds, either in a single or a double rovf. The 

 diadem, thus decorated, may be observed on some of the coins 

 of Constantine and Jovian. 



The diamond has continued almost ever since to constitute an 

 ornament to the royal head-dress. On days of high ceremony, 

 the Empress of Russia was wont to wear a crown of diamonds, 

 and the collars and two stars of the Orders of St. Andrew and St. 



