Travels in India (Tavernier) 87.2.7

87.2.7

While I examined the stone, the Banian, seeing the attention which I gave to it, said, “Do not trouble yourself now, you will see it to-morrow morning at your leisure when you are alone. When a fourth of the day has passed,” it is thus that they speak, “you will find me outside the town, and if you wish for the stone you will bring the price of it with you,” and he then stated the amount he wanted for it. For it should be stated en passant that after this fourth of the day the Banians, both male and female, disappear into the city or town where they dwell, both for the purpose of satisfying the ordinary necessities of nature and for the purpose of bathing, as well as for the prayers which their priests require them to repeat. The Banian having named this hour—because he did not wish any one to see us together—I did not fail to go in search of him, and carried with me the price he had asked, less by 200 pagodas, which I kept apart, in reserve. But in the end, after we had bargained for a short time, I gave him 100 pagodas extra. On my return to Surat I sold the stone to a Dutch captain, from which transaction I earned a fair profit.