IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



octahedrons ; others had three and six facets on each of the faces 

 of the octahedron ; and there were also hemihedral or bisected forms. 

 The diamond-yielding alluvium also contains gold, but in small 

 quantities. 



A Malay showed me the results he had obtained in three months' 

 work, consisting solely of four small diamonds, which together 

 could hardly have weighed half a carat. Another in a month's 

 work had found nothing except a few minute flakes of gold of the 

 value of perhaps a couple of shillings. He told me that he had 

 spent four dollars in provisions and in travelling to the spot, and 

 he had besides paid one dollar to the Government for his licence to 

 wash. The more sanguine and hard workers are buoyed up by 

 the hope of finding some stone worth, say, 100-150 dollars, which 

 would recompense them for the labour and expense incurred 

 during the preceding fruitless months. 



The Malays use certain seeds called " Bua saga " for weighing 

 diamonds. These are of the size of a large pea, and weigh about a 

 carat. They are slightly depressed, of a somewhat irregular 

 lenticular shape, very hard, and with a highly polished bright red 

 surface. They are a product of a leguminous tree, Adenanthera 

 pavonina, which is of Indian origin, but is sometimes to be met 

 with planted near huts and houses, even at Sarawak. 



I was desirous of ascertaining how nearly these seeds approxi- 

 mated to the weight they were supposed to represent, and was 

 surprised to find that they vary very slightly indeed, corresponding 

 almost precisely in weight to the English carat of 205 centigrammes. 

 Of five such seeds taken at random I found three weighing exactly 

 a carat ; the other two were one centigramme under weight. 



The profession of diamond washer is well adapted to the Malays, 

 who are born gamblers. They love to tempt fortune, and the hope 

 of one day securing a big prize makes them forget that steady work 

 would prove far more profitable. The Chinese prefer washing for 

 gold, which gives a smaller but more certain gain. 



During my stay in Borneo I did not hear of any big diamond 

 being found in the Sarawak river, but it is not in the Malay char- 

 acter to talk much about any such stroke of fortune ; and if any 

 were found it is not improbable that they were quietly smuggled 

 out of the country. Perhaps the fear of attracting other prospectors, 

 or making the Government augment the licence tax may also con- 

 tribute to this. Later, however, I heard that stones of 16, 18, 

 and even one of 72 carats had been got at Koom. 



The same evening I and my English friend aforesaid pro- 

 ceeded farther up the river for an hour and a half, using a small 

 boat on account of the shallows and frequent rapids. The banks 

 become more and more picturesque, being formed of lime- 

 stone rocks of strange shapes through which the river winds. These 



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