Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-03-16
The Spelled Koh-l-noor.

The Koh.i-noor has hitherto been a
fatal Jewel. Its history is we'll authenti-
Gated at every step. This stone of fate
seems never to have been lost sight OF
from the days when Alh-ud-deen took it
from the Rsjahs of Malwa, five centuries
aud half ago, to the day when It be
came crownjewel of England. Trsdi-
ton carries back it's existence in the
memory of India to the year 81 B. c.;
and a still wilder legend would fain re-
cogniza in il q diamond first discovered
near Masulipatan, in the bed of the
Godavery, five thousand years ago:
The Koh-i-noor is reported by Baber,
the founder of the Mogul Empire, to
have come into the Delhi treasury from
the conquest of Malwa, in 1904. The
Hindoos trace the curses and the ulti-
mate ruin inevitably brought upon its
successive possessors by the genius oil
this fateful jewel ever since it was first
wrested from the line of Vikramaditya.
If we glance over its history since 1904,
its mslevelent influence far excels that
of the necklace for which Eriphyle be-
trayed her husband, or the Eguus Scianus
of Greek and Roman tradition. First
falls the vigorous Patan, then the mighty
Mogul Empire, and, with vastly accele-
rated ruin, the power of Nadlr, OF the
Doorauce dynasty, and of the Sikh.
Runjeet Singh, when it was in his pos.
session, was so convinced of the truth of
this belief that, being satisfied with the
enjoyment of it during his own lifetime,
he sought to break through the ordinance
of fate and the consequent destruction
of his family by bequesthipg the stone to
the shrine of Juggernaut for the good OF
his soul and the preservation OF his dy.
nasty. His successors would not give
% the baleful treasure, and the last
Maharsjah is now a private gentleman.
In 1850, in the name of the East India
Company (sinee, in its turn, detunct),
Lord Dalhousie presented the koh-i-noor
to Queen Victoria.
Perhaps we should have been better
without il. The Brehmins will hardly
relinquish their faith in the malignant
powers possessed by this stone, when
they think of the speedily following
Russian war, which annihilsted the pres
tige of the British army, and the Sepoy
mutiny three years later, which caused
Englands existence as nation to hang
for months on the forbearancs of one
man.
The public saw the Koh-i-noor luster
less at the exhibition of 1851, thea
weighing one hundred and eighty six
carats. Its recutting, performed in 1862,
though executed with the utmost skill
and perfection, has deprived the stone of
all its historical and mineralogical inter-
est. As a specimen Of gigantic dia-
mond, whose native weight and form had
been interfered with as little as possible
(for with Hindoo lapidaries the grand
object is the preservation of weight, it
stood without rival, save the Orlof, in
Europe. As it is, in the place of the
most ancient gem in the history of the
world-older even than the Tables OF the
Law and the Breastplate of Aaron, sup
posing them still to exist-we get, ac-
cording to Mr.. King, a bad-shaped,
because too shallow, modern brilliant, 8
mere lady's bauble, of but second-rste
water, for it has grayish tinge, and,
besides, inferior ia weight to several,
being now reduced to one hundred and
two carats and half
The operation of recutting was per
formed 10 London, under the care Of the
Messrs. Garrards, the Queens jewellers,
who erected for that purpose small
four-horse steam engine on their prem
ises. II was conducted by Voorsanger |
and another skillful workman sent over
by NJ. Coster from Amsterdam. 10 con-
sequence of the advantage gained by |
using steam power, the actual cutting |
occupied no more than thirty. eight work |
log dsys--s striking contrast TO the two
years necessary for cutting the Pitt |
diamond by the old hand process. In
some parts of the work, as it was neees-
sary to grind out deep flaw, the wheel
made three thousand revolutions per |
the Year Round.