106 Scientific Proceedings^ Royal Dublin Society. 



guard the jewels, and while thej are engaged eating the meat 

 thrown to them, the diamond-seekers are enabled to pick up the 

 stones. Grarcias speaks of several large diamonds which were 

 known-to exist in his time ; two weighed 140 and 120 mangelis 

 respectively [i.e. 700 and 600 grs.). Far exceeding these in size 

 was one which he had heard of from a native who had seen it ; it 

 was said to he equal in size to a fowl's Qgg; it weighed 250 man- 

 gelis, or 1250 grs. This was, according to Tavernier, who wrote 

 a century later, the form of the Great Mogul diamond when 

 originally found. So that it seems quite possible that this casual 

 notice by Grarcias is the earliest mention of that famous stone. 



Even in the time of Garcias it would seem that the tailings 

 from earlier washings were sometimes rewashed with good results. 

 He states that Lispor, in the Decan, was a principal mart for the 

 sale. (Can this have been Yizapur or Bijapur ?) 



The geographical limits of Balaghat — a name used not only 

 by Garcias, but also by some other writers — it would, probably, be 

 impossible to closely define now. The name is still conserved as 

 that of a particular district, but in early times it seems to have 

 been applied to all the region in Southern India above the Ghats, 

 which was sometimes also called the Carnata, a name now, how- 

 ever, restricted to a district below the Ghats. 



With reference to other precious stones, Garcias states that a 

 false smaragdas (emerald) was made of glass in Balaghat and 

 Bisnagar. He distinguishes four varieties of ruby, as the true, 

 carbuncle, balas, and spinel. Of sapphires he says two kinds 

 were found in Calicut, Cannanore, and several places in Bisnagar. 

 We have no knowledge of true sapphires ever having been obtained 

 in these districts. Both hyacinth and garnet were found in Calicut 

 and Cannanore, the latter being distributed throughout the whole of 

 Cambay and Balaghat. Beryl was found in Cambay, Martaban, 

 and Pegu, also in Ceylon : glasses and vases were made from it. 



Garcias states that the Murrhine Cup was made of jasper; 

 more correctly, perhaps, it was made of oarnelian, as suggested on 

 a previous page. 



C^SAR Fredeiiick. — About the year 1567, a traveller named 

 Csesar Frederick^ visited Western and Southern India. In a trans- 

 lation from his original account wc find the following passage : — • 



^ A translatiou of the account of his travels is given in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. ii. 

 1599, p. 213. 



