Travels in India (Tavernier) 136.2.3

136.2.3

To return to the yellow amber, for a piece of a seer or 9 onces (Fr.) weight, according to its colour and beauty, from 250 to 300 rupees is paid, and the other pieces cost the same in proportion to their size and beauty. Coral in the rough or worked into beads is saleable with sufficient profit, but the rough is much preferred, for this reason, that it can be cut according to their own fashion ; and most frequently women and girls are employed at this work. They also make beads of crystal and agate, and the men make the bracelets of tortoiseshell and sea shells, as also those small pieces of the same shell, both round and square, of which I have spoken above. All the people of the north, men, women, girls, and boys, suspend them from their hair and ears. There are in Patna and Dacca more than 2000 persons who occupy themselves with these trades, all that is produced by them being exported to the Kingdoms of Bhutan, Assam, Siam, and other countries to the north and east of the territories of the Great Mogul.