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DIAMONDS.
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river
are forwarded to Court. Only a few days ago a diamond arrived which had
a value of 50,000 rupees, and I hope many more will be added to my
store of jewels.' The diamond river alluded to is the Sunk.
To
the present day a spot in the Sunk river ' is pointed out by the
inhabitants as the place where the diamonds were washed for. In the
year 1878 Captain Lowis, Guardian of the Chutia Nagpur estate, pointed
out to me this locality on the map.
As
I have pointed out 011 a previous page, Tavernier's Soumelpour on the
Gouel was probably a town on the Koel, in the district of Palamow.
Mr.
Blochmann also gives a quotation from a history of the Maharajas of
Chutia Nagpur, in which is described a method of testing diamonds for
flaws by affixing them to the horns of fighting rams, and states that :—
Jahangiri
says the diamonds which Ibrahim Khan had brought from Kokrah had been
given to the grinders. "They were now submitted to me, and among them
is one which looks like a sapphire. I have never seen a diamond of such
a colour. It weighs several ?'attis, and my lapidaries fix its
value at 3,000 rupees, though they would give 20,000 for it if it were
quite white and stood the full test."
Colonel
Dalton ("Ethnology of Bengal," p. 163N), states that the Raja of Chutia
Nagpur's family still possesses a diamond valued at 40,000 rupees, from
these now fabulous mines. As illustrating the methods by which English
officials in the olden time shook the pagoda tree, the following will
be read with interest. In the year 1772 the Raja appeared before
Captain Camar, commanding a force in Palamow, and after exchange of
turbans acknowledged himself as a vassal of the Company.
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