Among Other Methods Of Obtaining The Diamonds, They Make, Use Of
The Following Artifice:
There are great numbers of white eagles, which rest
in the upper parts of these rocks for the sake of feeding on the serpents,
which are found at the bottom of the deep vallies and precipices where the
men dare not go.
They therefore throw pieces of raw meat down into these
deep places, which the eagles seeing, stoop for, and seize with all the
little stones and gravel which adhere to them. The people afterwards search
the eagles nests when they leave them, and carefully pick out all the
little stones they can find, and even carefully examine the eagles dung in
quest of diamonds[2]. The kings and great men of the country keep all the
largest and finest diamonds that are procured from these mines, and allow
the merchants to sell the rest.
Lac is westwards from the shrine of St Thomas, from whence the Bramins have
their original, who are the honestest merchants in the world, and will not
lie on any account. They faithfully keep any thing committed to their
charge, or as brokers, they will sell or barter merchandize for others,
with great fidelity. They are known by a cotton thread, which they wear
over their shoulders, and tied under their arms across their breast. They
have but one wife, are great astrologers, of great abstinence, and live to
great ages. They constantly chew a certain herb, which keeps their teeth
good and helps digestion. There are certain religious persons among them
called Tangui, who live with great austerity, going altogether naked;
their principal worship is addressed to cows, of which they wear a small
brass image on their foreheads, and they make an ointment of ox bones, with
which they anoint themselves very devoutly. They neither kill nor eat any
living creature, and even abstain from green herbs, or fresh roots till
dried, esteeming every thing that lives to have a soul. They use no dishes,
but lay their victuals on dry leaves. They ease themselves in the sands,
and they disperse it, lest it should breed worms, which might die for want
of food. Some of these people are said to live to 150 years of age, and
when they die their bodies are burned.
Cael is a great city governed by Aster, one of the four brethren[3], who is
very rich and kind to merchants. He is said to have three hundred
concubines. All the people this country are continually chewing a leaf
called Tembul[4], with lime and spices. Coulam[5] is 500 miles south-west
from Moabar, being chiefly inhabited by idolaters, who are very much
addicted to venery, and marry their near kindred, and even their own
sisters. It also contains Jews and Christians, who have a peculiar
language. They have pepper, Brazil, indigo, black lions, parrots of many
kinds, some white as snow, some azure, and others red, peacocks very
different from ours, and much larger, and their fruits are very large.
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