112 DIAMOND MINES OF PANNA 



trench with water and shoveled and trod like mortar, and as the object is 

 to wash away the clay, fresh water is thrown on and poured off repeatedly 

 until the fragments are sufficiently cleansed, and as a final purification 

 they are sifted on fine baskets which completes the operation of washing, 

 they are then spread in a thin layer on a smooth floor plastered with clay 

 or cow dung, and A^hen dry the whole is passed under the hand, and 

 searched three several times, after which the fragments are thrown aside. 



Reproduction of the Diamond. 



The circumstance of diamonds being frequently found amongst these 

 fragments after they have been thrown aside, has, perhaps, given rise to the 

 idea of their reproduction, and I was anxious to obtain the opinion of ex- 

 perienced natives on this subject : they admit it only in one instance, viz. at 

 Majgoha, and even there, it is always ascribed to the spiritual agency of the 

 founder of the Mehdivi sect, to whom those mines belong, but their more 

 rational opinion is as follows, which I will give as nearly as possible in the 

 words of my communicant. " The object of washing is to free the rocky 

 fragments from clay, and particularly to cleanse the diamond, so that it 

 may readily be distinguished in the operation of searching, but with all 

 our care we cannot always succeed ; small diamonds frequently retain their 

 covering, and thus elude our search in the first scrutiny, nor can they be 

 discovered afterwards, until the coating which concealed them is worn 

 away ; hence it happens that diamonds are found amongst fragments 

 which have been searched and thrown aside, but it is observable that 

 small diamonds alone are so found, and that they rarely exceed the weight 

 of half a troy grain." 



With regard to Majgoha I am inclined to think that the above opinion 

 applies with greater force. The matrix of these mines contains calcareous 



matter, 



