DIAMOND. 
387 
in the Persian language, Coulour. This mine is 
said to have been discovered by a countryman, who, 
digging a piece of ground to sow millet, found a 
pointed stone that weighed above twenty-five carats. 
This, being carried to Golconda, immediately in- 
duced the inhabitants to search further ; and such 
was the success of their industry, that not only 
many other stones of considerable size were found, 
but the wonderful diamond, weighing nine hundred 
carats, which Mirgimola afterwards presented to 
Aureng-zeb. 
When Tavernier first visited this mine there 
were above sixty thousand persons at work, consist- 
ing of men, women, and children ; the men being 
employed to dig, the women and children to carry 
the earth. 
When the miners have fixed upon the place 
where they intend to dig, they level another, some- 
what larger, in the same neighbourhood, and en- 
close it with a wall about two feet high, only leav- 
ing apertures from space to space, to give passage 
to the water. The place being thus prepared, the 
people that are to work meet all together, men, 
women, and children, with the work-master, his 
friends, and relations. But before any thing is 
done, a superstitious ceremony is performed to ren- 
der their labours propitious. The only passive per- 
sonage in this ceremony is a little household god 
which the master brings with him, and before 
which the people prostrate themselves three times, 
while the bramin says a certain prayer. This being 
o r o 
