Agate— Archaeology and Folk-lore 27 
agate, — small pieces of agate cut en cabochon with a 
flattish, circular, or oval back to show the "eye" or 
"eyes." Nicolo Conti, a Venetian, who travelled in 
India during the first part of the fifteenth century, 
writes that some regions of India have no money, but 
instead use for exchange stones which we call cat's- 
eyes. 
As is evident from Barbosa's account, the art of 
coloring agates artificially was partially understood in 
India. At the present time the stones collected near the 
village of Rotanpur near Cambay are classified into 
two sorts, — those that should be baked and those that 
should not be baked. The object of baking the stones 
is to bring out their colors. After exposure to the sun 
or by being baked in a cow-dung fire, light browns be- 
come white, and dark browns deepen into chestnut. Of 
yellows, straw colors become rosy, and orange is in- 
tensified into red ; other shades of yellow become pink. 
Pebbles with cloudy shades turn into brightly veined 
stones in red and white. The deeper and the more uni- 
form the color, the greater the value. Again, the larger 
and thicker the stone, the more is it valued. While 
carnelians, when large, thick, even-colored, and free 
from flaws, are precious ; yellow and variegated stones 
are worth little. 
Barbosa also mentions at Limodra, or as he calls 
the town Limadura, "much chalcedony, which they 
call babagore; they make beads with it and other 
things which they wear about them." This is the white 
agate of Cambay, called in Anglo-Indian babagooree, 
from Hindustani babaghuri. It is so called from the 
patron saint or martyr of the district in which the 
mines are located, under whose special protection the 
miners place themselves before descending into the 
shafts. According to tradition, he was a prince of the 
great Ghori dynasty, who was killed in a battle in that 
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