44 DIAMOND DIGGING book ii
diamonds. But as the veins do not always run straight,
as some ascend, while others descend, they are obliged to
break the rocks, always following the direction of the veins.
After they have opened them out, and have removed the
earth or sand which may be in them, they then commence
to wash it two or three times, and search it for whatever
diamonds it may contain. It is in this mine that the cleanest
and whitest-watered diamonds are found ; but the evil is
that in order to extract the sand more easily from the rocks
the miners strike such blows with a heavy iron crowbar that
it fractures the diamonds, and gives rise to flaws. This is
the reason why so many thin stones come from this mine,
for when the miners see a stone in which there is a flaw of
some size, they immediately cleave it, that is to say split
it, at which they are much more accomplished than we are.
These are the stones which we call thin (foible), which make
a great show. If the stone is clean they do not do more than
just touch it with the wheel above and below, and do not
venture to give it any form, for fear of reducing the weight.
But if it has a small flaw, or any spots, or small black or
red grit, they cover the whole of the stone with facettes in
order that its defects may not be seen, and if it has a very
small flaw they conceal it by the edge of one of the facettes.
But it should be remarked that the merchant prefers a black
point in a stone to a red one. When there is a red one
the stone is roasted, and the point becomes black. I
learned this trick at length so well that when I examined
a parcel of stones which came from this mine, and saw
that there were facettes on any of them, especially small
facettes, I was certain that there was some speck or flaw in
the stone.
There
are at this mine numerous diamond-cutters, and each has only a steel
wheel of about the size of our plates. They place but one stone on each
wheel, and pour water incessantly on the wheel until they have found
the ' grain' of the stone.1 The ' grain ' being found, they pour on oil
1
The word in the original is chemin, or ' way ' of the stone. It refers
to the discovery of the position of the lines of cleavage, which
determines the method to be adopted in the treatment of the stone. For
some
