THE KING-COBRA. 17 



most venomous kind. " Raj -Nag Pamoo (king- 

 cobra snakes)/' said my native guide. " The dia- 

 monds are the eyes of the Raj-Nags themselves. 

 In those deep valleys are their burial grounds, and 

 the largest of the serpents keep watch over the 

 remains of their fellows. It is only by sacrificing 

 a buffalo to Garuda (the eagle), the lord of the 

 serpents, that you may obtain permission to visit 

 them/' This strange fable irresistibly recalled to 

 my mind the story of Sinbad the Sailor and his 

 adventure with the serpents and eagles in the valley 

 of diamonds. Nicolo Conti, who visited this region 

 in the early part of the fifteenth century, was 

 apparently told the same tale, as he writes that 

 " the mountain where the diamonds are, is infested 

 with great and deadly serpents. The natives bring 

 oxen, which they drive to the top of a high moun- 

 tain which overtops the hill of diamonds, and here 

 they offer sacrifice and cast the flesh of the oxen 

 into the valley below. Diamonds sometimes adhere 

 to the warm flesh. Great vultures and eagles, 

 build in the precipitous rocks, scent the 

 iesh and swoop down into the valleys and carry 

 ;he meat and adhering diamonds to their nests, 

 md in these nests the men find diamonds enough 

 :o repay them all their labour and expense.'' 

 It was with great difficulty that I procured 

 >lies to carry my baggage, and guides to show 

 :he way into the dense forests which clothe the 

 >w ranges of hills that lie at the foot of the 

 eastern slope of the Nullamullays. When engaged 

 the forest I never carry a tent, but run up a 



2 



