658 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
out that the loadstone, though it has many more virtues, is sold by 
Cambay maos (i.e. mands) equal to 26 pounds, while the emerald is 
sold by ratis, equal to 3 grains of wheat, while the other stones, which 
in Europe are sold by quilates (i.e. carats), equal to four grains, are in 
India sold by mangelis, equal to five grains.^ 
Garcia scouts tlie idea of the diamond being a poison, referring as 
a proof to the fact that the black servants sometimes conceal diamonds 
by swallowing them. He says the natives were in the habit of intro- 
ducing pounded diamonds with a syringe in cases of stone, but had 
relinquished the practice in consequence of the belief in its being a 
poison. 
He says diamonds are found in two different localities in Bisnager 
(i.e. Yijayanagar), and that all stones of 30 mangelis and upwards in 
weight are the property of the King. Another rock or mine with smaller 
stones, but of better quality (called diamonds of the old rock), is situated 
in the Decam (i.e. Deccan) in the territory of Imadixa^ (i.e. Ahmad 
Shah), called by the Portuguese Madre Maluco (i,e. Ahmed-i-mulk, the 
country of Ahmad ; or Ahmad Malik, the chieftain Ahmad), and they 
were sold at a market of good repute in the Deccan called Lispor 
(Ellichpur, the old capital of Berar). The naifes^ or diamonds having 
natural crystalline forms, were exported thence by merchants to Goa 
and even to Bisnager, where they sold for better prices than the 
amorphous diamonds which were found in that region. 
Another source of diamonds was situated, according to Garcia, in the 
Strait of Tanjampur, in Malacca. This indication of locality has been 
a source of great confusion, and is the original cause of the erroneous 
statement repeated in almost every work on precious stones that 
diamonds used to be found in Malacca. Here, however, Malacca 
stands for Borneo, and Tanjampur, the Taniapura of Linschoten, for 
Tandjong Pura, an old capital of Matan, on the West Coast of Borneo. 
He says the diamonds from this locality were good, though small, but 
were very heavy. ^ 
^ Taking the quilat or carat as equal to 3*174 Troy grains the rati would be- 
2*38 and the maugeli 3'97. From Tavernier, who wrote nearly 100 years later, 
and used Florentine carats, I deduce a value for the (pearl) rati of 2*66, and for 
the Goa mangeli 3*8 Troy grains ; elsewhere the mangeli was heavier. 
2 This mine was most probably situated at Wairagarh, the Beiragarh of the Ain 
Akbari {see "Economic Geology of India," p. 37)— an ancient mine which is 
known to have been taken possession of by Ahmad Shah in 1425. 
^ The same is related also by Csesar Frederick of the diamonds of lawa, 
i.e. Borneo. See Tavernier' s Travels," English translation by V. Ball, vol. ii., 
p. 462. 
