duals ready to act
as guides to those strangers disposed to try their luck in searching
for sparkling stones. Many casual visitors to the island do this, and
they are sometimes reasonably rewarded, but "big finds" do not often
come to such parties. There is another famous place besides Ratnapura
which produces gems. It is the flat country contiguous to Ballomgodde,
fifteen miles southeast of the City of Gems. Nearly all the valleys of
this, region have been receptacles at one time or another of the
gem-impregnated soil of the mountains, washed down by flooding rains
and former rivers, whose courses have since been diverted to further
the extended system of irrigation.

The valuable stones come into the dealers' hands in the rough state,
and to an inexperienced eye appear to be of little value. They receive
what may be called a preliminary cutting by natives who have acquired
some degree of skill at this business, but they are not really
marketable until they are recut by Europeans in London, Vienna, or
Hamburg, in an artistic and scientific manner. Probably far the
largest number of precious stones which are sold in Paris, or London,
or in America, excepting those we have already named, come from this
Indian island, but the reader may rely upon it that they can as a
rule be much more advantageously purchased elsewhere than in Colombo.
Let no person, unless he be an expert, trust to his own judgment in
purchases on the spot. The Moormen, in whose hands the trade almost
entirely rests, are a set of confirmed knaves and adroit swindlers,
whose cunning and dishonesty have become proverbial. If they cannot
cheat a purchaser in any other way, they will slyly substitute a piece
of worthless glass for a true stone at the last moment, after the
bargain has been made, and then disappear.

We heard some exasperating stories of these transactions, which should
put visitors on their guard. Almost every one who visits Ceylon,
whether he lands in the north or the south, is a witness of, or a
victim to, similar transactions.

For instance, you have been shown a really fine sapphire by a Moorman,
for which a sum is demanded which seems exorbitant. You would like to
possess the stone, and, after careful examination, offer forty pounds
for what was priced to you at sixty. It was a fair offer on your part,
and probably was very near its intrinsic value in the market. The
Moorman declares that he will not take one penny less than his
or