Amritsar; but a native of the soil. He lives some
distance from the market-place in a rambling wooden
house on piles, surrounded by limes and pomegranates.
At one end he has built himself a strong-room'of brick,
in which lie hidden, according to popular tradition,
rubies of extraordinary value. U Hmat is seldom seen
RU BY-CUTTERS
abroad. He goes, it is said, in terror of his life ; and
his courtyard is thronged with retainers, who make for
him a kind of personal bodyguard. But in bygone
days he travelled every year to Mandalay with a present
of rubies, and was received in audience by the king.
H e is the builder of many monasteries and pagodas;
but is said to be less lavish in this respect than most
of his compatriots in Burma. He is believed accordingly
788
Mog6k
by his European neighbours to have “ his head screwed
on the right way.” His character for economy is the
topic of very favourable discussion at the little dinner-
tables of the settlement, and it is a commonplace of
opinion that he is the only Burman at the mines who
is not a fool. Let it be added that he is the father
of a pretty daughter, whose jewels are the despair of
every other woman in Mogok, and that he keeps her
in strict seclusion, lest some adventurous youth should
steal away her heart, or her person, or both. He has
been good enough, however, to show me some of her
most beautifullyewels.
All about the market-place,'in the little streets which
ray out from it in the direction of the mines, the ruby-
cutters toil. Each man sits before a slab of grey stone,
with a pile of little sticks a few inches long beside him.
In the head of each of these a ruby is embedded in
hard black paste, and the cutter, taking it up, rubs the
face of the ruby slowly up and down on the surface
o f the grindstone, till the attrition wears away a facet.
A wheel and pedal supplement the process in some
o f the larger shops; but the method is the same.
Of these cutters there are at least fifty in the town.
The outcome of their labours is a little rough.
Near the pits where the diggers are at work is the
ruby mart proper, which is open all the week. The
long, open sheds, with their low earthen floors and
thatched roofs, -stand in the very midst of the turmoil
. of the mining. The yellow stream of tailings flows
by the trays of the ruby-dealers, and the unceasing