and Diamonds of Smnbhulpore. *,' 135 



inference is farther supported by the fact of their being not 

 unfrequently met with in the beds of Nullahs in Raigurh, 

 Jushpore, and Gangpore, though I have no reason to think 

 that any attempt has been ever made to discover and open 

 their mines or beds ; and this may be chiefly accounted for by 

 the state of society and government in these wild regions. 

 Any attempt on the part of a private individual to appropri- 

 ate to himself, or conceal a diamond, would, if discovered, 

 have been assuredly punished with death ; and the rajahs have 

 mutually preferred this scanty and uncertain acquisition of 

 precious stones in the manner I have described, to the publi- 

 city and consequent interference of the Mahomedan or Mar- 

 hatta sovereigns, by whom they were in turn ruled, which 

 would necessarily have resulted from the establishment and 

 working of mines. Another obstacle has doubtless been the 

 extreme insalubrity of the climate of the track under consider- 

 ation, — an insalubrity which the observation of many years has 

 convinced me always attached to mountainous and woody dis- 

 tricts, in which gold and diamonds are indigenous. None 

 but natives of the wilds, whose appearance sufficiently marks 

 the ravages of disease, can enter them with impunity, except- 

 ing in January and the three succeeding months, and this 

 would form the chief objection to the employment of skilful 

 European mineralogists, whose researches, if they could be 

 adequately persevered in, would, I am sanguinely of opinion, 

 be attended with very interesting and important results. 



" There were two tribes or casts of diamond searchers in 

 Sumbhulpore, of whose origin, or of the period of their settle- 

 ment in this part of the world, I can learn nothing. They 

 have the appearance, however, of aborigines. The names of the 

 tribes are Ihara and Tora. Sixteen villages of the poorer de- 

 scription have been always enjoyed by them in rent-free Ja- 

 geers ; of these four are in the hands of the Toras, ten pos- 

 sessed by the Iharas, and two have been given to their tute- 

 lary deity Bukeser Pat, an appellation of Mahadeo. They 

 are under the direction of three chiefs, or Sirdars, two of the 

 Ihara tribe, called Pater and Buhera, and one of the Tora, 

 styled Seeree Ghakur. They search for gold as well as dia- 

 monds, and are allowed to dispose of all the former article 



