1836.] Jomp6le Gominchi. 263 



The difference between the two being more visible on the wax 

 (which is coloured black for this purpose with a fine charcoal made 

 from the plantain leaf) than on the stone. This is the reason the 

 native assayers give for the removal of the streaks of gold from the 

 stone to the wax, though to me no difference was perceptible : possibly 

 the following may afford another clue to the practice of the natives in 

 this particular. 



In this wax the impressions of the gold, which would be lost on 

 the stone, go on accumulating ; a ball of it, which my native inform- 

 ant had used for the last 30 years, he supposed to contain above two 

 taels of gold. 



The metal is separated from the wax by means of heat applied gra- 

 dually, in such proportions as barely to cause the wax to pass off in 

 the form of smoke : the residuum is then subjected to the process of 

 amalgamation. Half of the gold thus obtained is dedicated in alms to 

 the poor, or on religious offerings, at the shrine of some favorite Saint 

 or Wall ; generally to that of Mi ran Sahib at Nagore. 



The calculation of a Malay, long employed in the mines at Chimen- 

 dros, makes the average quantity of gold produced from 40 lbs. of the 

 pulverized stone, 24 grains of pure metal. Lumps of virgin gold, 

 weighing from five to six taels, have been found in the alluvial soil here 

 and at Taon. In Jelly e, a mass weighing upwards of a cattie has been 

 discovered : this will appear trifling if placed in comparison with that 

 which Reaumur mentions as having been shewn to the Royal Academy 

 at Paris, weighing 448 oz. Helms affirms that when one of the highest 

 mountains of Paraguay fell down, about 50 years ago, there were disco- 

 vered in it pieces of gold weighing from two to fifty pounds each. 



Seal of Johole, dated A. H. 1216, 



[The date on the seal is reversed, a mistake that we have not unfrequenMy 

 observed on Indian coins with Persian inscriptions. As this is the last Essay on 

 the Malacca States with which Lieut. Neweold will he able to favor us, it may 

 be as well to point out where the preceding are to be found : 



Visit to Mount Ophir, vol. II. p. 497. 



Account of Naning, „ III. ,, 601 ; IV. 297. 



Ditto the four Menangkabowe States, ,, IV. ,, 241. 



Ditto Sungie Ujong, „ IV. „ 537.— Ed.] 



