Travels in India (Tavernier) 106.5

106.5

The peasants, by feeling the belly of the goat, know how many bezoars it contains, and they sell the goat for a price in proportion to the number which are therein. In order to ascertain this, they run both hands under the belly of the goat and beat the paunch along both sides, so that all the stones fall to the middle thereof, and they then estimate exactly, by touch, how many bezoars are in it. The value of bezoar depends on the size, although the small possess no less virtue than the large. But in this respect one is often deceived by the fact that there are people who enlarge the bezoar with a kind of paste made of gum and other materials of the same colour as the bezoar. They understand, even, how to give as many coats as the natural bezoar ought to have. One can detect this fraud easily by two methods. The first by weighing the bezoar and placing it to steep for some time in lukewarm water; if the water does not change its colour, and if the bezoar does not lose weight, it has not been adulterated. The other means is to touch the bezoar with a pointed hot iron; if the iron enters it and makes it fry, it is a sign that it is a mixture, and that it is not genuine. For the rest, the larger the bezoar the higher the price, which rises in proportion like that of the diamond. For if 5 or 6 bezoars weigh an ounce, the ounce will be worth from 15 to 18 francs, but if it is a bezoar of one ounce, the ounce will be worth fully 100 francs.