laid to produce diamonds. The diitridt was Sahara of Ptolemy,
and what is very ftriking the river Mahanuddy was his Adamas.
The diamond is found generally in the narrow crevices of the
rocks, lool'e, and never adherent to the ftony ftratum. The
miners make ufe of long iron rods, with hooks at the ends, and
with thefe they pick out the contents o f the Allures, and waih
them in tubs, in order to difcover the diamonds. In Coulour
they dig on a large plain to the depth of ten or fourteen fee t;
near Axty thoufand people are employed, the men to dig, the
women and children to carry the earth to the places in which
it is to be depoiited before the fearch is made. I ’avernier, who
vifited the feveral mines, thus defcribes the proceis :
“ A f t e r the miners have pitched upon the place where
“ they intend to work, they level another place clofe by o f the
“ fame extent, or elfe a little bigger, which they enclofe with a
“ wall about two feet high; in the bottom o f that little wall, at
“ the diftance of every two foot, they make fmall holes to let in
“ the water, which they flop up afterwards till they come to
u drain out the water again. This done, their labours are pre-
“ ceded by acts o f devotion, and a very Ample feaft. When
“ that is over the men fall to digging, the women and children
“ to carry the earth to the place prepared in that manner as I
8 have already defcribed : they dig ten, twelve, and fometimes
“ fourteen foot deep, but when they come to any water they
“ leave off. All the earth being carried into the place before-
“ mentioned, the men, women, and children, with pitchers,
“ throw the water which is in the drains upon the earth, let-
ff ting it foak for two or three days, according to the hardnefs
“ o£
v< of it, till it come to be a kind of batter, then they open the
“ holes in the wall to let out the water, and throw on more
“ water ftill till all the mud be waihed away, and nothing left
“ but the fand : after that they dry it in thé fun, and then they
“ winnow the fand in little winnows as we winnow our' corn.
“ The fmall duft flies away, the great remains, which they pour
“ out again upon the ground.
“ T he earth being thus winnowed, they fpread it with a
kind of rake as thin as they poflibly can, then with a wooden
■“ inftrument, like a pavior’s rammer, about half a foot wide at
“ the bottom, they pound the earth from one end to the other
if two or three times over ; after that they winnow it again,
K then, and fpreading it at one end o f the van, for fear o f loflng
“ any o f the earth, they look for the diamonds.”
T h e king was proprietor o f the mines; to him the merchants
pay a tribute for liberty of digging, and alio two per
eent. for all they buy. The Banians are the great traders o f
the country.
D i a m o n d s are alfo found in the gravel or fand o f rivers
waihed out of their beds, and carried down with the ftream.
The river Gouel, near Soumelpour, is the moil noted and the moft
an tient.
Marco Polo, in p. 144 o f his travels, mentions a wondrous
way o f getting thefe ftones t He fays that they are found in certain
vallies of India, environed with rude mountains, almoft in-
acceflible by reafon of rocks and precipices ; thefe again terriflc
from the number of great ferpents, and of white eagles, which
make thefe reptiles their prey : diamonds alio cover their bottom.,
£ V o l . II. Q In,