Travels in India (Tavernier) 87.2.1

87.2.1

If by chance a stone is found which weighs above 7 to 8 mangelins, it is taken to the master of the mine, who by way of recompence gives a sarpo, which is a piece of cotton cloth to make a turban, of the value of 25 to 30 sols, and generally with it half a pagoda in silver, or otherwise a pagoda, when rice and a plate of sugar are not given. The merchants who go to the mine to buy, remain in their dwellings, and every morning at from 10 to 11 o’clock the masters of the miners, after they have dined (for the Banians never leave their houses till they have washed and eaten), take their diamonds to show to them. If the parcels are large, and contain many stones of the value of from 2000 up to 15,000 or 16,000 écus, they leave them, confiding them to the foreign merchant for seven or eight days or more in order that he may examine them with care. When the stones have been examined, and are returned by the merchant, if they suit him he should conclude the transaction at once, otherwise the owner of the stones wraps them in a corner of his waistband, his turban, or his shirt, and departs, so that one never sees the same stones again, or at least they are mixed with others, should the miner return in order to bring another parcel. When the transaction is concluded the purchaser gives an order for payment on the Shroff or person who issues and receives bills of exchange.