114 EASTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



In order to attain the valuable objea3,the merchants with great 

 labor afcend the mountains, and fling into the valley great 

 pieces of flefh, the eagles inftantly feize and carry them into 

 their nefts, v^dth quantities of diamonds flicking to them ; they 

 follow the eagle, and collect all they can find, but it fometimes 

 happens that the birds fwallow the flones with the meat; the 

 merchants watch the roofting places, and recover the diamonds, 

 which they find in the droppings. Part of this- fable is adopted 

 by the author of the Arabian Nights T'aleSy the only book in. 

 w^hich it ought to be found,. 

 Pitt's DiA- I SHALL not detain my reader longer than to give him the. 



fize of tv/o of the moft capital ftones yet ever found ; the one 

 graced the liat of the tv, o lail: monarchs of France on days of 

 ftate. It is known by the name of the Rege?it,, having been 

 purchafed by the Duke of Orleans in the muiority of Louis XV- 

 Its w^eight in the rough was 410 carats, when cut 135, or i|oz, ; 

 the cutting coft X'4>500 5 tlie ciiips were worth /. 8,000.; the 

 diamond duft ufed in cutting it coft ^.1,400. This had been 

 the property of Thomas Pittt governor of Fort St. George^wl-^om. 

 Pope charges with coming by the diamond in the following 

 manner, exprefled in his admirable hiftory of Sir Balaam : 



Afleep and naked as an Indian lay,. 



An honeft fadlor flole the gem away y 



He pledg'd it to the knight, the knight hadwiV 



So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit. 



1 HAVE little doubt but the poet in this inftance, as in many 

 others, gave way to his wafpidi humour, and having, caught at 



fome 



