Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-02-09

mutiny. At that period 1t was
secreted by one Of the Queens oil
the exiled King of Delhi, by whom il
was sold when money was an object Of
greater moment than the possession OF
a noted Lingam. But this lady was, Of
course, a Moslem, and therefore her
only concern in the deity was its in.
trinsic value; moreover, it was not her
property, but that Of the temple In
which we are told it had been kept for
more than thousand years. There is,
therefore no getting over the fact that
the cat's-eye-god or no god--was at
one time piece of ecclesiastical prop.
erty, and that, directly or indirectly 1t
forms part Of the loot of unsanctified
hands In plain language, it was
stolen; and II the India Office credited
the story, and did its duty, 1t ought at
once to have been impounded until the
history OF It's transference from Delhi to
London was fully explained. At all
events the Lingam god failed to evoke
any great amount of enthusiasm. We
are, therefore, justified in assuming that
the trade In this description of property
is just at present a little fiat, or that the
collectors of Indian curios prefer to in
vest in articles of q less compromising
description than crystal of cymophane
which, with its setting of topaz and gold
and diamonds, exchanged hands during
the turmoil of a military mutiny in the
city OF the Grand Mogul
At the same time, while sharing the
1udicious doubts exhibited by the tardy
bidders at yesterdays sale, we are by
no means certain that this particular
idol is not the embodiment of q most
romantic chronicle. Most gems are.
1t may even be the god it claims to
have been, and there can hardly be
any question as to the fact of the stones
having at one time or another been OBJ
jects of religious superstition. In an
cient India-in modern Hindostan, in
deed-the temple OF god was the fame
to which every thing of supreme beauty
and value eventually tended. Time
was when the eyes of silva and Vishnu
and Durga and Juggernaut were dia-
monds, or rubies, or topazes of meal
culable value, and their shrines were
glittering with the pearls and emeralds
and rubies which devotees had in the
course of ages offered up with the OBJ
Ject OF purchasing their favor or of
stunning their wrath. To this day
there are plenty of temples in India
which would yield fine profit to an in
vader of the type OF Nadir Shah,
and some of less fame, but of as little
scruple. The ornaments of the Kreist-
mar Avatar of Vishnu, in the great
temple on the Island of Srivangam, con-
sists OF armlets and necklaces and
breastplates and crowns, all set in dia-
mond, and ruby, and emerald, and
topaz, and opal, the market
value of which has never
been even estimated. A single neck
lace OF emeralds, rubies and diamonds,
with pearl pendants, can not be worth
less than 100000, while one of the
many umbrellas of the god is covered
with $4,000 pearls, every one Of which,
though small, is Gf good water As
TN tie vessels ii gold under which the
attendants stagger, and the maces gilt
tertng with flat diamonds, which dazzle
the e es Of the sightseer they are be-
lieved to be of enormous value. There
are, indeed, whispers to that effect that
already some willy priests have managed
to substitute Partisan paste for the more
marketable of the sacred gems, and, in
any case, there is little chance of any
future conqueror reaping such harvest
as did Mahmud of Ghazni, who, whom
he impiously leveled the figure of a god
in the Pagoda of Sumnat, found himself
ankle deep in the pearls and rubies
with which it was stuffed, The Orloff
diamond, now in the Russian Imperial
scepter, is said to have formed one of
the eyes of Hindu idol, and, though
the Koh-i-noor can not be positively
traced to any such place of distinction,
it is certain that, rs far back as Indian
legend deals with it-and this extends
to at least two thousand years-this
huge diamond has been associated with
snperstitiOus feelings. No man, it is
said, ever prospered in the end who
owned it. The Pathan fell under its
nolayo1anf IL, u,,opoo c. 1;1 A. MI
and so did Nadir. the Duranee, and
Runjeet Singh, the Lion of the Pun
lab, while not a passing IN sfortune
ever smites the British Raj, but the
wise men of the Indian bazaars shake
their heads and recall the present own
ership OF the Mountain of Light" 1t
may, indeed, be safely calculated that
almost every gem has a long history.
Precious stones are, in themselves, in
destructible. and so portable are they,
and so carefully guarded, that it is sell
dom that they are ever lost or de-
stroyed. Age after age they pass from
hand to hand, appearing and disappear
ing, and changing masters in the most
extraordinary fashion. A temple SER
want gouges out the eyes of temple
deity, and the precious plumber passes
from thief to receiver, until it shines in
the crown of the sovereigns of France.
The churches ofmedi@val England were
pillaged of the Virgins jewels, to be
transferred to the temple of some hid
eous Hindu goddess. Or, to come
nearer to our own times, a French mar
shall may coolly twist a priceless emer-
aid off the crown of the Madonna To-
ledo-as Junot actually did-to sell it,
in the days OF his adversely, to the Jews
of Amsterdam, just as "Lingam god"