arantulas is assuredly, a mistake here for centipedes and scorpions,
which are common all over India.--E.

SECTION XX.

_Of the Kingdom of Murfili, and the Diamond Mines, and some other Countries
of India_.

Murfili or Monsul[1], is five hundred miles northwards from Moabar, and is
inhabited by idolaters. In the mountains of this country there are
diamonds, which the people search for after the great rains. They
afterwards ascend these mountains in the summer, though with great labour,
on account of the excessive heat, and find abundance of these precious
stones among the gravel; and are on these occasions much exposed to danger
from the vast numbers of serpents which shelter themselves in the holes and
caverns of the rocks, in which the diamonds are found in greatest
abundance. Among other methods of obtaining the diamonds, they make, use of
the following artifice: There are great numbers of white eagles, which rest
in the upper parts of these rocks for the sake of feeding on the serpents,
which are found at the bottom of the deep vallies and precipices where the
men dare not go. They therefore throw pieces of raw meat down into these
deep places, which the eagles seeing, stoop for, and seize with all the
little stones and gravel which adhere to them. The people afterwards search
the eagles nests when they leave them, and carefully pick out all the
little stones they can find, and even carefully examine the eagles dung in
quest of diamonds[2]. The kings and great men of the country keep all the
largest and finest diamonds that are procured from these mines, and allow
the merchants to sell the rest.

Lac is westwards from the shrine of St Thomas, from whence the Bramins have
their original, who are the honestest merchants in the world, and will not
lie on any account. They faithfully keep any thing committed to their
charge, or as brokers, they will sell or barter merchandize for others,
with great fidelity. They are known by a cotton thread, which they wear
over their shoulders, and tied under their arms across their breast. They
have but one wife, are great astrologers, of great abstinence, and live to
great ages. They constantly chew a certain herb, which keeps their teeth
good and helps digestion. There are certain religious persons among them
called _Tangui_, who live with great austerity, going altogether naked;
their principal worship is addressed to cows, of which they wear a small
brass image on thei