But There Are Men On The
Watch, And As Soon As They See That The Eagles Have Settled They Raise A
Loud Shouting To Drive Them Away.
And when the eagles are thus frightened
away the men recover the pieces of meat, and find them full of diamonds
which have stuck to the meat down in the bottom.
For the abundance of
diamonds down there in the depths of the valleys is astonishing, but
nobody can get down; and if one could, it would be only to be
incontinently devoured by the serpents which are so rife there.
There is also another way of getting the diamonds. The people go to the
nests of those white eagles, of which there are many, and in their
droppings they find plenty of diamonds which the birds have swallowed in
devouring the meat that was cast into the valleys. And, when the eagles
themselves are taken, diamonds are found in their stomachs.
So now I have told you three different ways in which these stones are
found. No other country but this kingdom of Mutfili produces them, but
there they are found both abundantly and of large size. Those that are
brought to our part of the world are only the refuse, as it were, of the
finer and larger stones. For the flower of the diamonds and other large
gems, as well as the largest pearls, are all carried to the Great Kaan and
other Kings and Princes of those regions; in truth they possess all the
great treasures of the world.[NOTE 2]
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