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abundance of diamonds down there in the depth of the valley is aston- ishing, but nobody can get them; and if one could it would be only to be incontinently devoured by the serpents which are so rife there.”
The part played by the eagles is that of other sacred birds, for the defence and profit of man. Compare the bird Jatayu, who gave his life in defence of Slta against the Raksha Ravana, in the Rarndyana ; the ibis at Buto who defended Egypt against the frankincense-serpents, (p. 132), and the eagles who fought the dragons. (Virgil, Aeneid, XI, 755; Pliny, X, 5.)
Connected with these beliefs was that in the efficacy of the dia- mond in warding off from the wearer all sorts of evils. “Sir John Mandeville” ( Travels , XVII), recounts it for his day, and it may still be observed.
“He that beareth the diamond upon him, it giveth him hardiness and manhood, and it keepeth the limbs of his body whole. It giveth him victory of his enemies in plea and in war, if his cause be rightful.
. . . And if any cursed witch or enchanter should bewitch him, all that sorrow and mischance shall turn to himself through virtue of that stone. And no wild beast dare assail the man that beareth it on him. And it healeth him that is lunatic, and them that the fiend pursueth or travaileth. And if venom or poison be brought in presence of the diamond, anon it beginneth to wax moist and for to sweat. . . Nathles it befalleth often time that the good diamond loseth his virtue by sin, and for incontinence of him that beareth it. And then it is needful to make it to recover his virtue again, or else it is of little value.”
56. Sapphires. — The text is hyakinthos, which has been trans- lated as jacinth, ruby and amethyst. Jacinth is a product of Africa rather than India. Rubies are from Burma and probably never came in great quantities from India. Pliny says that the hyacinth resembles the amethyst, but draws a distinction between them. Pliny probably had in mind a violet sapphire, and his word really might be translated as meaning all tints of sapphire from blue to purple.
Dionysius Periegetes refers to the “lovely land of the Indians where the complexions of the dwellers are dark, their limbs exquisitely sleek and smooth, and the hair of their heads surpassing smooth and dark blue like the hyacinth.” (McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 188.)
W. Goodchild ( Precious Stones, p. 183), also thinks that the sap- phire was the hyacinthus of Pliny, and says that the principal source of sapphires in that part of the world was in the watered gravels of Southern Ceylon, which were derived from watered crystaline rocks; and at the time of the Periplus the natural market would have been on the Malabar coast. The ruby, which is practically of the same
