The Strange Legend Related Here Is Very Ancient And Widely Diffused.
Its
earliest known occurrence is in the Treatise of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of
Salamis in Cyprus, concerning the twelve Jewels in the Rationale or
Breastplate of the Hebrew High Priest, a work written before the end of
the 4th century, wherein the tale is told of the Jacinth.
It is
distinctly referred to by Edrisi, who assigns its locality to the land of
the Kirkhir (probably Khirghiz) in Upper Asia. It appears in Kazwini's
Wonders of Creation, and is assigned by him to the Valley of the Moon
among the mountains of Serendib. Sindbad the Sailor relates the story, as
is well known, and his version is the closest of all to our author's. [So
Les Merveilles de l'Inde, pp. 128-129. - H.C.] It is found in the
Chinese Narrative of the Campaigns of Hulaku, translated by both Remusat
and Pauthier. [We read in the Si Shi Ki, of Ch'ang Te, Chinese Envoy to
Hulaku (1259), translated by Dr. Bretschneider (Med. Res. I. p. 151):
"The kinkang tsuan (diamonds) come from Yin-du (Hindustan). The people
take flesh and throw it into the great valleys (of the mountains). Then
birds come and eat this flesh, after which diamonds are found in their
excrements." - H.C.] It is told in two different versions, once of the
Diamond, and again of the Jacinth of Serendib, in the work on precious
stones by Ahmed Taifashi. It is one of the many stories in the scrap-book
of Tzetzes.
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