DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.644#0137
MOND.
114 EASTERN H1NDOOSTAN.
In orcier to attain the valuable objedts, thc merchants with great
labor afcend the mountains, and fling into the Valley great
pieces of flem, the eagles inftantly feize and carry them into
their nefts, with quantities of diamonds fticking to them; they
follow the eagle, and collect all they can find,, but. it fometimes
happens that the birds fvvallow the ftones with the meat; the
merchants watch the roofting places, and recover the djamonds,
which they find in the droppings. Part of this fable is adopted
foy the author of the Arabian Nigbts iales, the. only. book in.
which it ought to be found».
Pitt'sDia- I shall not detain my reader longer than to give him tue
iize of two of the moft capital ftones yet ever found ; the one
graced the hat of the two laft monarchs of France on days of
ftate. It is knovra by the name of the Regent, having been
purchafed by the Duke of Orkans in the minority of Louis XV.
Its weight in the rough was 410 carats, when cut 135, or ivoz..;
the cutting cofl £.4,500; the chips were worth £.8,000; the
diamond duft ufed in cutting it coli: £.1,400. This had beeil
the property of T/jomas Pitt, governor of Fort St. George,\vhom
. Pope chargcs with Coming by the diamond in the following
manner, exprefled in his admirable hiftory of Sir Balaam :
Afleep and naked as an Indian lay,
An honefl: faclor ftole the gern away;
He pledg'd it to the knight, the knight had wit,.
So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit.
I have little doubt but the poet in this inftance, as in many
others, gave way to his wafpifh humour, and having caught at
iöme
114 EASTERN H1NDOOSTAN.
In orcier to attain the valuable objedts, thc merchants with great
labor afcend the mountains, and fling into the Valley great
pieces of flem, the eagles inftantly feize and carry them into
their nefts, with quantities of diamonds fticking to them; they
follow the eagle, and collect all they can find,, but. it fometimes
happens that the birds fvvallow the ftones with the meat; the
merchants watch the roofting places, and recover the djamonds,
which they find in the droppings. Part of this fable is adopted
foy the author of the Arabian Nigbts iales, the. only. book in.
which it ought to be found».
Pitt'sDia- I shall not detain my reader longer than to give him tue
iize of two of the moft capital ftones yet ever found ; the one
graced the hat of the two laft monarchs of France on days of
ftate. It is knovra by the name of the Regent, having been
purchafed by the Duke of Orkans in the minority of Louis XV.
Its weight in the rough was 410 carats, when cut 135, or ivoz..;
the cutting cofl £.4,500; the chips were worth £.8,000; the
diamond duft ufed in cutting it coli: £.1,400. This had beeil
the property of T/jomas Pitt, governor of Fort St. George,\vhom
. Pope chargcs with Coming by the diamond in the following
manner, exprefled in his admirable hiftory of Sir Balaam :
Afleep and naked as an Indian lay,
An honefl: faclor ftole the gern away;
He pledg'd it to the knight, the knight had wit,.
So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit.
I have little doubt but the poet in this inftance, as in many
others, gave way to his wafpifh humour, and having caught at
iöme