The Star of the South comes next in point of celebrity.  It is the largest diamond yet obtained from Brazil; and it is owned by the King of Portugal.  It weighed originally two hundred and fifty-four carats, but was trimmed down to one hundred and twenty-five.  The grandfather of the present king had a hole bored in it, and liked to strut about on gala-days with the gem suspended around his neck.  This magnificent jewel was found by three banished miners, who were seeking for gold during their exile.  A great drought had laid dry the bed of a river, and there they discovered this lustrous wonder.  Of course, on promulgating their great luck, their sentence was revoked immediately.

The world-renowned Koh-i-noor next claims our attention.

A Venetian diamond-cutter (wretched, bungling Hortensio Borgis!) reduced the great Koh-i-noor from its primitive weight—­nine hundred carats—­to two hundred and eighty.  Tavernier saw this celebrated jewel two hundred years ago, not long after its discovery.  It came into the possession of Queen Victoria in 1849, three thousand years, say the Eastern sages, after it belonged to Karna, the King of Anga!  On the 16th of July, 1852, the Duke of Wellington superintended the commencement of the re-cutting of the famous gem, and for thirty-eight days the operation went on.  Eight thousand pounds were expended in the cutting and polishing.  When it was finished and ready to be restored to the royal keeping, the person (a celebrated jeweller) to whom the whole care of the work had been intrusted, allowed a friend to take it in his fingers for examination.  While he was feasting his eyes over it, and turning it to the light in order to get the full force of its marvellous beauty, down it slipped from his grasp and fell upon the ground.  The jeweller nearly fainted with alarm, and poor “Butterfingers” was completely jellified with fear.  Had the stone struck the ground at a particular angle, it would have split in two, and been ruined forever.

Innumerable anecdotes cluster about this fine diamond.  Having passed through the hands of various Indian princes, violence and fraud are copiously mingled up with its history.  We quote one of Madame de Barrera’s stories concerning it:——­

“The King of Lahore having heard that the King of Cabul possessed a diamond that had belonged to the Great Mogul, the largest and purest known, he invited the fortunate owner to his court, and there, having him in his power, demanded his diamond.  The guest, however, had provided himself against such a contingency with a perfect imitation of the coveted jewel.  After some show of resistance, he reluctantly acceded to the wishes of his powerful host.  The delight of Runjeet was extreme, but of short duration,—­the lapidary to whom he gave orders to mount his new acquisition pronouncing it to be merely a bit of crystal.  The mortification and rage of the despot were unbounded.  He immediately caused the palace of the King of Cabul to be invested, and ransacked from top to bottom.  But for a long while all search was vain; at last a slave betrayed the secret;—­the diamond was found concealed beneath a heap of ashes.  Runjeet Singh had it set in an armlet, between two diamonds, each the size of a sparrow’s egg.”