1£H< DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 
low as 30 or 40 feet. The sides are made per- 
pendicular, without any precaution to prop them 
up. At first, the soil thus dug is merely thrown 
into baskets, and handed to the women for wash- 
ing. As the pit becomes deeper, two ladders of 
bamboo are employed, one for ascending, and the 
other for descending. As the miners dig down 
in this manner, it happens very frequently that 
they are overwhelmed by sides of the pit falling in. 
This is an event submitted to by the surviving 
friends with the most tranquil resignation. They 
entertain the conviction, that the devil, who sup- 
plies the gold found on the surface of their soil, 
carries on also extensive mining operations of his 
own under ground, for which he requires a regu- 
lar supply of workmen from above. As he is un- 
derstood to treat well the persons thus employed, 
the transference is not deemed a ground of regret ; 
and the relations merely sacrifice a cow or other 
victim, to recommend them to favour with their 
new master. This faith is not in the slightest 
degree shaken, when, as often happens in the 
course of digging, the skeletons are discovered of 
the individuals who have been thus buried. The 
devil, it is supposed, sometimes errs in his choice 
of his servants ; on finding, therefore, the person 
fixed upon unfit for his employment, he disdain- 
fully throws him back to the spot where he had 
been originally found. It never occurs to them, 
