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134 APPENDIX.
Note on Myth regarding the Method of
Obtaining Diamonds described in the Travels
of Marco Polo, Sindbad, etc.
As
not improbably referring to Beiragurh, the modern Weiragurh, it may be
of interest to add the following from the account* of the " Travels of
Nicolo Conti" in the early part of the fifteenth century. I cannot
agree with the writer of the Introduction to the volume containing the
account that Golconda was intended. Nicolo Conti says that at fifteen
days' journey north of Bizengulia (by which Vijayanagar, the modern
Bijapur is perhaps meant) there is a mountain which produces diamonds
called Albeni-garas. Now Beiragurh, the modern Weiragurh, is, as the
crow flies, about 324 miles north-eastwards of Bijapur, and therefore
within a possible fifteen days' journey, though as the actual distance
traversed would be greater, it would mean very hard travelling.
However, Al-benigaras looks so like Beiragurh with the Arabic prefix
El' or Al, that I am inclined to believe that it was the place
intended. He goes on to say that the mountain being infested with
serpents, it is inaccessible, but is commanded by another mountain
somewhat higher. " Here at a certain period of the year men bring oxen,
which they drive to the top, and having cut them into pieces, cast the
warm and bleeding fragments upon the summit of the other mountain by
means of machines, which they construct for the purpose. The diamonds
stick to these pieces of flesh. Then come vultures and eagles flying to
the spot, which seizing the meat for their food fly away with it to
places where they may be safe from the serpents. To these places the
men afterwards come and collect the diamonds
* " India in the Fifteenth Century," Hakluyt Soc. p. -29.
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