Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1874 — The Shah’s Diamonds. [ARTICLE]

The Shah’s Diamonds.

The Friend of India, in an article which professes to be a summary of what the authors of recent books on Persia have written about the royal treasurehouse, says: The Shah’s strong-box consists of a small room, twenty by fourteen feet, reached by a steep stair and entered through a very small door. Here, spread upon carpets, lie jewels valued at £7,000,000 sterling. Chief among the lot is the Kaianian crown, shaped like a flowerpot, and topped by an uncut ruby as large as a hen’s egg, and supposed to have come from Siam. Near the crown are two lambskin caps, adorned with splendid aigrettes of diamonds, and before them lie trays of pearl, ruby and emerald necklaces, and hundreds of rings. Mr. Eastwick, who examined the whole, states in addition to these there are gauntlets and belts covered with pearls and diamonds, and conspicuous among them the Kaianian belt, about a foot deep, weighing perhaps eighteen pounds, and one complete mass of pearls, diamonds, emeralds and rubies. One or two scabbards of swordj are said to be worth a quarter of a million each. There is also the finest turquois in the world, three or four inches long, and without a flaw; and “I remarked a smaller one of unique beauty, threeeighths of an inch broad; the color was lovely, and almost as refreshing to the eyes as Persian poets pretend. There are also many sapphires as big as marbles, and rubies and pearls the size of nuts; and I am certain that I counted nearly a hundred emeralds from half an inch square to one and three-quarters inches long and an inch broad. In the sword scabbard, which is covered with diamonds, there is not, perhaps, a single stone smaller than the nail of a man’s little finger.” Lastly, there is an emerald as big as a walnut, covered with the names of Kings who have possessed it. The ancient Persians prized the emerald above all other gems and particularly those from Egypt. Their goblets, decorated with these stones, were copied by the Romans! The Shah also possesses a pearl worth £60,000. But the most attractive of alLthe Persian stones is the turquois, which is inlaid by the native lapidaries with designs and inscriptions with great effect and expertness. The best come from Nishapoor, in Khorassan, whose mines ornamented the gold armor of the Persians so much admired by the Greeks. Chardin records that in the Treasury at Ispahan he saw “in each chamber the stones in the rottgh piled high on the floor like heaps of grain, filling innumerable leather bags.” As with the King of Burmah and his rubies the turquoises of Persia are always first inspected by the Shah. They are divided into two classes, according to tho position in which they are found. The first, called Senqui or stony, are incrusted in the matrix and have to be removed by means of a hammer; the second are taken from the alluvial.deposits, and, though larger, are of less value than the former, which are of a deep blue color. Although the Lord of Lords contented himself with taking the least valuable gems of his incomparable collection on his recent tour in the West, he carried no fewer than 200 talismans, which, while they may be p6or in appearance, possess limitless value in the eyes of Persians. Among others there was a fine-pointed star, supposed to have been worn by Roostan, and believed to have the power of making conspirators at once confess their crimes. Around his neck the Shah wore a cube of amber, reported to have fallen from heaven in the -time of Mahomet and to confer on its owners invulnerability. Most precious of all, however, and in Nusseeroodeen’s case the most useless, was a little casket of gold-studded emeralds, said to have the remarkable property of rendering the royal wearer invisible so long as he remains celibate.

The death of Prof. Blot recalls a story ! of “ real thrift” on the part of a Boston | domestic. A lady, at her own expense, i sent her cook to the professor’s Class, and was delighted with her progress.' At the end of the course she was surprised to learn that that functionary was enfaged in looking for pastures new. “ Why, iridget, you are not going to leave me? If you had not intended to remain with us, not have sent you to learn cooking.” “And indade, mum, you don’t expect me to cook in the new way on the old wages?”