about
six hundred thousand dollars. It was on his return from his last
voyage, namely in 1668, that Tavernier sold the Blue Diamond to Louis
xiv. Unfortunately he does not give any parÂticulars of the purchase of
this stone, which is singular as he was a very chatty writer and filled
his book with a quantity of delightful little passages beginning " I
remember once." He describes at great length the Eastern manner of
buying and selling diamonds. Their methods seems greatly to have
impressed him, accusÂtomed as he was to the noisy bartering of European
markets. He says :
" 'Tis very pleasant to see the young children of the merchants
(at the diamond mines) from the age of ten to sixteen years, who seat
themselves upon a tree that lies in an open space of the town
(Raolconda, a diamond region near Golconda). Every one of them has his
diamond-weight in a little bag hanging on one side and his purse with
five or six hundred pagods in it. There they sit waiting for anyone to
come and sell them some diamonds. If any one brings them a stone they
put it into the hand of the eldest boy among them who is, as it were,
thei;-
