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DIAMONDS IN LEGEND
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only
ashes. The answer to the "success" of Lemoine's earlier demonstrations
seems to have been this: Lemoine placed the diamonds in fusible plugs
and concealed them in the furnace before his experiments took place.
The
Seraglio strongholds of the Sultans of Turkey were, until the end of
the first World War, the source of almost as many legends and rumors
concerning vast hordes of secret jeweled wealth as the treasures of the
Indian maharajahs. Even when Turkey's form of government changed and a
form of democracy was set up, the secrets of the Seraglio were never
fully exposed. It has been said that many of the world's great diamonds
that disappeared from time to time eventually found their way to the
Sultan's strongrooms. Many travelers sought to enter the Treasury Rooms
of the Seraglio in vain.
But A. C. Hamlin, in Leisure Hours Among the Gems, tells
of an American traveler (unidentified) who in 1880 was admitted to a
view of the rooms in the Treasury. In the center was a throne of gold
embroidered with pearls, rubies, and diamonds. In one of the galleries
were effigies of all the Sultans of Turkey down to Mahmoud the
Reformer. These figures were dressed in what professed to be the state
robes actually worn by the Sultans whom they represented, and featuring
their garb were large turbans, each set with a large, brilliant
diamond. This traveler said he was informed that some of the diamonds,
found in the Haiwanserai and Hebdomon rivers, were believed to have
belonged to the treasures of ancient Byzantine emperors. One of them, a
diamond of 50 carats, is said to have adorned the crown of Justinian
and was lost during a triumphal march in 548 a.d.
Within the sacred precincts of the temple of Cho Kang in Tibet is another great room that explorers have sought in
(203)
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