Introduction

Indian Diamonds 173
The Agra Treasure is hidden above Bartholomew Sholto’s rooms which are, not
purely by chance, outfitted as a laboratory (Doyle, Sign 233). The belief in the
magical alchemistic properties of diamonds is translated into the scientific interest
in chemistry which, nevertheless, investigates invisible influences and potentially
harmful substances. It is noteworthy that both Herncastle and Sholto are presented
to have acquired this interest in India.
Opium and Contamination in The Moonstone and The Sign of Four
In the texts, opium and cocaine are presented as both controllable and threatening
forces. A connection between the diamond and opium is established almost from
the beginning of The Moonstone. The history of the Moonstone includes its theft
from the city of Somnauth (12), named after the Hindu god of the moon but also
the ritualistic Vedic drug (Mehta 629). This link with another Indian drug21 paves
the way for the entwining of opium and diamond. The linking of opium and the
Moonstone is evident very early on when, in Betteredge’s account, Herncastle is
described to be “given up to smoking opium” after his return from India (Collins,
Moonstone 40) (Mehta 630) and Betteredge implies that the story of the Moonstone
might just be a product of his imagination, “a matter of opium” (45).
Opium also figures in Jonathan Small’s narrative of his theft of the Agra treasure
during the Mutiny, albeit imbued with different connotations. The rebelling
sepoys outside the besieged fort are described as drugged: “The beating of drums,
the rattle of tomtoms, and the yells and howls of the rebels, drunk with opium and
with bang” (Doyle, Sign 218). The connection of the Mutiny and opium heightens
the perception of the rebellion as irrational and thus unjustified. The evocation of
drums and inarticulate yells suggests primitivism and a lack of restraint. It is these
aspects which Keep and Randall see embodied in Tonga (214). Patrick Brantlinger’s
remark on the Mutiny that “[m]ost Victorian accounts insistently mystify the
causes of the Mutiny, treating the motives of the rebels as wholly irrational, at
once childish and diabolical” (Rule 222) also provides the adjectives which apply to
Tonga, who is first thought to be a child and then a simian (Doyle, Sign 160). The
introduction of “opium and bang” into the narrative thus serves the same effect as
the accusation of secret societies at work in instigating rebellion in “Indian plots”
(Pionke 115). Another such image without mention of opium consists of “the
black fiends […] dancing and howling round the burning house” (Doyle, Sign
216). Uncontrollable ecstasy connected to drugs and the violence of the Mutiny
are brought together and form the backdrop for the theft of the Agra Treasure.
With both Tonga and Herncastle, opium finds its way to England in the wake of
the diamonds. The connection between opium and diamonds, Hennelly suggests,
21 The actual plant that yields Soma cannot be ultimately identified in Vedic scripture but probably
was hallucigenic (Hillebrandt 4).