384 
DIAMOND. 
number of miners in proportion to the hurry they 
may be in. Sometimes a hundred men are em- 
ployed at once; and when this is the case, the mer- 
chant pays four pagodas to the king, for every day 
they work, and two when the number is not so 
great. 
When Tavernier visited these mines, the poor 
people never got above three pagodas * for the la- 
bour of a year, though they understand their busi- 
ness extremely well. These trifling wages, and the 
distress they suffer in consequence, make them 
hide a stone whenever they can find an opportunity: 
this, it must be confessed, is but seldom, as, besides 
being strictly guarded, they work almost naked ; 
and therefore, not having any outward protection 
for their stolen goods, they are sometimes in- 
duced to swallow them. When any of these peo- 
ple chance to meet with a large stone, they carry 
it to the master of the work, who rewards them ac- 
cordingly. 
Every day after dinner, the master of the miners 
brings the diamonds to the lodgings of the mer- 
chants in order to show them ; and if the stones are 
large, or sufficiently numerous to amount to more 
than the sum of two thousand crowns, he will leave 
them for some days that the merchants may have 
time to consider their value, and agree about the 
price. This it seems they are obliged to do before 
* About ll. 5s. 6d. 
