Note 30 — HISTORY OF KHWAJAH HASAN AL-HABBAL.[21]

For the diamond (Arab. “Almás” from ἀδάμας, and in Hind. “Hírá” and “Panná”) see vols. vi. 15, ix. 325; and in latter correct, “Euritic,” a misprint for “dioritic.” I still cannot believe diamond-cutting to be an Indian art, and I must hold that it was known to the ancients. It could not have been an unpolished stone, that “Adamas notissimus” which according to Juvenal (vi. 156) Agrippa gave to his sister. Maundeville (A.D. 1322) has a long account of the mineral, “so hard that no man can polish it,” and called Hamese (“Almás?”). For Mr. Petrie and his theory, see vol. ix. 325. In most places where the diamond has been discovered of late years it had been used as a magic stone, e.g., by the Pagés or medicine-men of the Brazil, or for children’s playthings, which was the case with the South-African “Caffres.”