204 ARMENIAN MERCHANTS book iii
crystal
beads. Finally, those who return by Gorakhpur, and have an
understanding with the customs officer, take from Patna and Dacca
coral, yellow amber, tortoise-shell bracelets, and others of sea shells,1
with numerous round and square pieces of the size of our 15-sol coins,
which are also of the same tortoise-shell and sea shells. When I was at
Patna four Armenians, who had previously made a journey to the Kingdom
of Bhutan, came from Dantzic, where they had had made numerous images
of yellow amber, which represented all kinds of animals and monsters ;
these they were taking to the King of Bhutan to place in his pagodas,
he being, like his people, exceedingly idolatrous. Wherever the
Armenians see that money is to be made they have no scruple about
supplying materials for the purposes of idolatry,2 and they
told me that if they had been able to get an idol made which the King
had ordered from them they would have been enriched. It was a head in
the form of a monster, which had six horns, four ears, and four arms,
with six fingers on each hand, the whole to be of yellow amber,3
but the Armenians could not find sufficiently large pieces for the
•purpose. I was inclined to believe that they lacked money, for it did
not appear that they had much of it; it is, however, an infamous trade
to furnish the instruments of idolatry to these poor people.4
Coming now to the road which must be followed from
1 For the Chank or Conch fishery and industry see J. Hornell, The Sacred Chank of India, Madras, 1914 : Watt, op. cit., 989.
1 Ball
notes that ' Bohemia, it is said, at present sends idols made of cast
glass to India, which undersell the marble images of Agra.'
3
Huge pieces of amber were employed in the manufacture of the boxes made
in the shape of geese included in the King of Burma's treasure, which
is in the South Kensington Museum. It has been stated that the largest
piece of amber ever known was recently discovered near the Nobis Gate
at Altona. It weighed 850 grammes. Dr. Meyer of Dresden (Nature, 29th
November 1888), commenting on this, says that besides smaller pieces,
elsewhere, there are specimens in the Berlin Mineralogical Museum
weighing 6-5 and 9-5 kilogrammes; they were obtained on the sea-coast
of North Germany.
* For an example of a form of trade equally disgraceful see A. HamilÂton, New Account of the East Indies, in Pinkertom, Voyages and Travels, viii. 439.
