Precious Stones Mentioned in Scripture: Stones (part 2: D-T)

DIAMOND.

EMERALD.

JACINTH.

JASPER.

LIGURE, See JACINTH.

ONYX.

PEARL.

RUBY.

SAPPHIRE.

SARDINE.

SARDIUS, see SARDINE.

SARDONYX, See ONYX.

TOPAZ.

DIAMOND

The diamond is the most precious of all stones. It is of a white colour, and beautifully transparent. It is found in the East Indies and in Brazil. The common mode of obtaining diamonds is to turn the course of the stream, and to wash, sift, and pick the sand, to separate the precious stones. When a large diamond is found, of a perfect water, as it is called, free from flaws, and admitting of being well cut, its value, from its rarity, is enormous. The largest diamond known belonged to the late Emperor of Brazil, and, according to the usual calculations, would be worth 5,645,000l. But it is for the purpose of grinding and cutting other hard substances that the greatest demand for diamonds exist; all those of a bad colour or form are reduced to powder, by the help of which all precious stones are cut and polished, as well as crests and cyphers for seals, &c. Glass is cut by a diamond having its natural edge perfect; for all broken or artificially formed edges will only scratch and tear that substance.

Diamonds themselves are cut and polished by being rubbed against a flat steel wheel, made to revolve rapidly; diamond-powder--that is, diamonds pounded fine,--mixed up with some oil, being spread on the surface.

There are diamond mines in the mountains of Panna (in the East Indies) for a distance of about twenty miles, beyond which no diamonds are found. The diamonds are intermixed with pebbles, but never united to them, and vary from the size of a pea to that of a filbert; but the latter are very rare. The workmen receive as a recompense three-fourths of the value of the smallest. Such was the case in 1814; but the mines are now nearly exhausted.

It was only about the beginning of the last century that diamonds made a part of the exports from Brazil to Europe. These valuable stones are, like the gold, frequently found in the beds of rivers and torrents. Before they were supposed to be of any value, they were often perceived in washing away the gold, and were consequently thrown away with the sand and gravel. The diamonds sent from the New to the Old World were enclosed in a casket with three locks, the keys of which were separately put into the hands of the chief members of administration; and those keys were deposited in another casket, to which was affixed the viceroy's seal.

EMERALD.

The emerald is one of the most beautiful of all the gems. It is of a bright-green colour, without the admixture of any other. The true eastern emerald is very scarce, and is only found at present in the kingdom of Cambay.

JACINTH, OR HYACINTH.

This is by some considered as the ligure of Scripture. It is described as of deep-red colour, with a considerable tinge of yellow. It is found in beds and streams of rivers in the East, along with rubies, sapphires, &c.

JASPER.

The jasper is a hard stone, of a bright, beautiful gree; sometimes clouded with white, and spotted with red or yellow. There are also red, yellow, and brown varieties. It is a kind of chalcedony.

ONYX. SARDONYX.

The onyx is a variety of chalcedony, and derives its name from the Greek word for nail, or hoof, the white and darkish horny colour of which it in some parts resembles. It has flat layers or bands of chalcedony of different colours. The sardonyx is another variety, marked with reddish bands or circles, so distinct that they appear to be the effect of art.

PEARL

Pearls, whose exquisite beauty have made them celebrated from the earliest ages, are well known to be marine productions; and the shores of the Indian Ocean yield the finest specimens. Many bivalve shells produce pearls of greater or less perfection; but it is the pearl oyster which I shall here mention. The interior surface of the shell is covered with very thin pearly plates. In some diseased states of the animal, or when the shell has received a trifling injury, or some foreign body--a grain of sand, for example--has found its way within, the pearly secretion is poured out in great abundance around the part, and, layer being imposed upon layer, produces a pearl, either attached to the inner surface of the shell, or loose.

The shell which contains the pearls differs considerably, as is well known, from the oysters properly so called. The flesh of this shell-fish, though unpalatable, is eaten by the Hindus of the lower classes. The pearls are formed only in the softer part of the animal, from the extrvasation of glutinous matter either within its body or on its surface; exuded probably for the purpose of sheathing some rough and foreign substance, such as sand drawn into the shell with the food. The continual addition of fresh coats, one over the other, at length completes the pearl, which, when cut in half, appears to have the same structure as an onion, or any other bulb. These different coats often vary in colour, and a grey covering sometimes conceals a pearl of fine lustre, while at others a brilliant outside case contains a worthless, impure pearl. Those which have a golden hue are most esteemed by the natives; some have a bright, red lustre; others are gray or blackish, without brilliance, and of no value. Spotted and irregular pearls are sold cheap.

Manar is the name of a small island close to the western shore of Ceylon. Along the south of this island lie the banks where the pearl-oysters are found. From the middle of February to the 15th of April, about which time the south-east monsoon sets in, is the season for fishing, the sea being then generally calm enough for the boats to reach the banks, and the divers to go down in search of shells: but stormy weather, Pagan, Mohammedan, and Christian holidays, and reports of sharks, often interrupt the labours of the fishermen, so that they seldom work for more than thirty days during the season. One or two banks only are cleared in each year; and persons are deputed annually to examine the banks, in order to ascertain before the fishery commences where it can be carried on successfully. But no precautions are taken, unless some regulations to that effect have been lately established, to prevent the destruction of immature shells, and thus the beds are exhausted, so that, in order to replenish them, fourteen or more years, instead of seven, the natural period, are now requisite.

Kondache, a village consisting of a few huts on a semicircular bay, in a waste, sandy district, is the usual place of rendezvous. It is a wretched spot, where even water is very expensive, there being none that is drinkable nearer than Aripo, four miles to the north: but, during the fishing-season this dreary waste presents a most novel and amusing scene. Thousands of people, of almost every colour, caste, and occupation, are seen crowded together; the shore is covered with tents, huts, shops, and bazars, and fleets of boats return in the evening, laden with their motley crews and cargoes; while the speculators in their produce, full of eagerness and impatience, are hurrying to ascertain whether their "cunning men" have read the stars aright, and fixed upon the happy moment for the commencement of their labours. Brokers, jewellers, merchants, pastrycooks, and piemen; Hindu devotees and beggars, pearl-sorters and borers, weighers and retailers, complete the throng; and as riot and disorder would, but for timely interference, soon prevail amidst such a multitude, a party of soldiers, under the command of an officer, is prudently stationed there. But some drawbacks diminish the comforts of the visitors; the price of every kind of provisions is enormous; the water of the place is brackish, and makes those who drink it ill; and daily-accumulating heaps of putrifying oysters fill the air with a cadaverous stench, and generate swarms of insects, in number sufficient to annoy even a well-seasoned East Indian. Many of the strangers, therefore, die; and fevers, fluxes, and other pestilential diseases are often carried back by the rest to their native country. At ten o'clock P.M. a gun is fired as a signal, and the boats set sail from Kondache with the land-breeze, which carries them to the bank before daylight. At sunrise they begin to dive, and continue to do so till the sea-breeze, which brings them back, sets in. In the course of the afternoon they come to an anchor, and their cargoes, sometimes amounting to 30,000 oysters, are discharged before night. Each boat carries a captain, ten rowers, and ten divers, with pyramidal diving-stones of granite, each a foot long, and six inches thick, and weighing about thirty pounds. The divers go down five at a time; place the air-rope, to which the diving-stone is fastened, between two toes of one foot, and that attached to the net between those of the other, then seizing the two cords still fastened to the boat with one hand, and stopping their nostrils with the other, plunge into the water. When at the bottom they hang the net round their necks, and fill it with shells as fast as possible, pulling one of the cords so soon as they find themselves exhausted, which is usually in two minutes. They are immediately hauled up, discharge water, and sometimes blood, from their mouths and noses, are succeeded by the other party of five, and are ready to dive again themselves when their comrades have come up. Fifty such descents are often made before noon, and 25,000 shells brought up, one-fourth of which is allowed as wages to the boat's crew. Some of these divers have acquired, by long practice, a power of remaining under water so long as seven minutes.

The mayae, another shell containing pearls, are to be found both in the sea and in rivers. The marine kinds generally live under sand or sludge. And the place where they lie is betrayed by a small hole, out of which they occasionally protrude their proboscis. Those which inhabit rivers are generally found in the mud at its bottom. In some places the animals are used for food; but, what makes them of considerable importance is, the quantity of pearls which they sometimes produce. This shell is well known in Britain by the name of the pearl muscle. We are informed in the Philosophical Transactions that several pearls of great size have been procured from the rivers in the counties of Tyrone and Donegal, in Ireland. There was also a great fishery for pearls in the river Tay, which extended from Perth to Loch Tay; and it is said that the pearls sent from thence, from the year 1761 to 1764, were worth 10,000l. It is not uncommon in the present day to find pearls in those shells which bring from 1l. to 2l. It is said that those in the Scottish crown, which forms part of the regalia now exhibited in the castle of Edinburgh, are the produce of the river Tay.

The small island of Cabagua, in the Caribbean Sea, was noted for a pearl-fishery. It was first discovered by Columbus. At that time the coast from Paria to Cape de la Vela was called the Coast of Pearls; the first Spaniards who landed on its shores finding the natives everywhere decorated with these valuable jewels. Until the year 1530 the fishery averaged yearly 173,000l. But this profitable branch of commerce diminished rapidly afterwards, and was entirely at an end before 1683. It is conjectured that this decay arose from the destruction of the pearl-fish, as well as from the arts of cutting and setting diamonds having become common in the sixteenth century.

RUBY.

It is thought that the word rendered sardius in some passages of Scripture should be translated ruby, which is a beautiful gem, of a red colour, mixed with purple. The ruby, from its splendid colour, ranks in value and estimation next to the diamond. When the specimen is fine, and free from flaws, a ruby of large size will fetch from 10,000l. to 15,000l.

SAPPHIRE.

The sapphire is extremely beautiful and valuable. Its proper colour is pure blue. In the choicest specimens it is of the deepest azure; and in others varies into paleness, in shades of all degrees between that and a pure crystal brightness, without the least tinge of colour, but with a lustre much superior to the crystal. The Oriental sapphire is the most beautiful and valuable. It is transparent, of a fine sky colour, sometimes variegated with veins of a white sparry substance, and distinct separate spots of a gold colour. Whence it is that the prophet describes the throne of God as like unto sapphires.

The sapphire is, next to the diamond, the hardest substance in nature. The finest sapphires come from Pegu, Ceylon, &c. They are found in the sands and beds of rivers.

SARDINE, SARDIUS.

The sardine is the same with the sardius; the best of which were found at Sardis. It is a stone of a bloodred colour.

TOPAZ.

"This stone varies more than most gems, both in size, form, and colour: the Brazilian species is often as transparent as a piece of clear ice when the surface is melting, and resembles that substance in its limpid appearance; in other countries it is green, blue, yellow, or pink, of various shades. The Scotch pebble, called from the place where it is found, Cairn-gorum, is a topaz."

TURQUOISE.

In travelling towards Sinai, Laborde mentions, that his attendant searched among the ruins of some tombs at a place called Sarbout El Cadem, for turquoise stones, which are found there in great abundance, being brought to the surface by the rains. "He gave me five of these stones, which were of considerable size, parting with them without the slightest reluctance. The Arabs of the present day attach no value to the turquoise, though in former ages it was much sought after in the East, the most extraordinary medicinal qualities having been ascribed to it. A person spending a few days on this mountain, where he will be exposed to no danger, and which is not more than six days' journey from Cairo, might make a large collection of turquoises, which, though not to be ranked among the best of precious stones, nevertheless possess a certain value."--LABORDE, pp. 91, 92.