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Facts and Fancies About Precious Stones: Shah

In 1613, Shah Abbas of Persia sent to Jehangir six bags of "turquoise-dust," weighing in all some 23 1/2 pounds Troy. However, the material proved to be of very inferior quality, for the jewellers searched in vain through the whole mass for a single stone fit for setting in a ring. Jehangir consoles himself with the reflection that "probably in these days turquoise-dust is not procurable such as it was in the time of Shah Tahmasp." When the Syrian monarch Antiochus XIII visited Syracuse during the praetorship of Caius Verres, he bore with him many richly adorned vessels, some of them being of gold set with gems after the Syrian fashion. However, the finest of all was a wine-cup carved out of a single piece of precious-stone material. When this had once met the gaze of the greedy Verres, he did not rest until he had got it into his possession. To attain his end he resorted to a most ignoble stratagem. Professing his ardent admiration of this as well as of the other richly-adorned and finely-wrought vessels, Verres requested that they might be left with him for a short time so that he might contemplate them at his leisure, and might also have an opportunity to submit them to examination by his goldsmiths with a view to having some copies executed. Antiochus readily acceded to this request, but when after the lapse of a few days he wished to regain possession of his things, Verres put him off from day to day, on one pretext or another. Finally, as Antiochus refused to take the more than broad hints that the precious objects should be bestowed as gifts, Verres spread the rumor that a piratical fleet was on its way from Syria to attack Sicily, and forced Antiochus to leave the island that very day, retaining the borrowed vessels in spite of all remonstrances.