23* 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



[Madras. 



The chief tilings to be observed in purchasing rough diamonds are, 

 1st. The colour. 2d. The cleanness. 3d. The shape. 



I. Colour should be perfectly crystalline, resembling a tlrop of clear 

 spring water, in the middle of which you will perceive a strong light playing 

 with a great deal of spirit. If the coat be smooth and bright, with a little 

 tincture of green in it, it is not the worse, and seldom proves bad ; but if 

 there is a mixture of yellow with green, then beware of it — it is a sort 

 greasy stone, and will move bad. 



If the stone has a rough coat, that you can hardly see through it, and 

 the coat be white, and look as if it were rough by art, and clear of Haws or 

 veins, and no blemish east in the body of the stone, (which may be dis- 

 covered by holding it against the light), the stone will prove good. 



It often happens that a stone appears of a reddish hue, on the outward 

 coat, not unlike the colour of rusty iron ; yet by looking through it against 

 the light, you observe the heart of the stone to be white, (and if there be 

 any black spots, or flaws, or veins in it, they may be discovered by a true 

 eye, although the coat of the stone be opaque), and such stones are gene- 

 rally good and clear. 



If a diamond appears of a greenish bright coat, resembling a piece of 

 green glass, inclining to black, it generally proves hard, and seldom bad J 

 such stones have been known to have been of the first water, and seldom 

 worse than the second ; but if any tincture of yellow seem to be mixed with 

 it, depend upon its being a very bad stone. 



All stones of a milky coat, whether the coat be bright or dull, if never 

 so little inclining to a blueish cast, are naturally soft, and in danger of being 

 flawed in the cutting ; and though they should have the good fortune to 

 escape, yet they will prove dead and milky, and turn to no account. 



All diamonds of cinnamon colour are dubious ; but if of a bright coat, 

 mixed with a little green, then they are certainly bad, and are accounted 

 amongst the worst of colours. 



You will meet with a great many diamonds of a rough cinnamon- 

 coloured coat, opaque : this sort is generally very hard, and when cut, 

 contains a great deal of life and spirit ; but the colour is very uncertain ; it 

 is sometimes white, sometimes brown, and sometimes a very fine yellow. 



II. Channels. — Concerning the fouls and other imperfections that take 

 from the value of the diamond, it is said, that all diaphanous stones arc 

 originally (kids, and spirituous distillations falling into proper cells of the 

 earth, where they lie till they are ripened, and receive the hardness we 

 generally find them of. Every drop forms an entire stone, contained in its 

 proper bed, without coats. While this petrific juice, or the matter which 



