The population of this city with its extensive suburbs, though not exactly stated, must have been very considerable, since the number of licensed courtesans amounted, as he was informed, to twenty thousand, the majority of whom inhabited small huts, where by day they might always be seen standing at the door, while a lamp or lighted candle was placed by night to light the passenger to his ruin. The principal of these women presented themselves every Friday before the king, as was, according to Bernier, the custom likewise at Delhi, when, if his majesty permitted, they exhibited their skill in dancing; but if he were better employed they were commanded by the principal eunuch to retire. These ladies, who were under the especial protection of the monarch, appear to have been peculiarly devoted to their illustrious patron: for when his majesty was upon one occasion returning to his capital from Masulipatam, nine of these faithful servants contrived to imitate with their bodies the form of an elephant; four enacting the legs, another four the body, and one the proboscis; and, receiving their prince upon their back, bore him in triumph into the city! Both sexes here possessed a high degree of personal beauty; and, excepting the peasantry, who of course were rendered somewhat swarthy by their exposure to the sun, were distinguished for the fairness of their complexions. Though he had undertaken this long journey expressly for the purpose of visiting the diamond-mines, many persons, apparently, both here and elsewhere, endeavoured to dissuade him from carrying his design into execution, by fearful pictures of the mine districts, which, it was said, could only be approached by the most dangerous roads, and were inhabited by a rude and barbarous population. However, as he was never deterred by the fear of danger from pursuing his plans, these representations were ineffectual. The first mine which he visited was that of Raolconda, five days’ journey distant from Golconda, and eight or nine from Beajapoor. The country in the environs of Raolconda, where, according to the traditions of the inhabitants, diamonds had been discovered upwards of two hundred years, was a sandy waste, strewn with rocks, and broken by chasms and precipices, like the environs of Fontainbleau. These rocks were traversed by veins from half an inch to an inch in breadth, which were hollowed out with small crooked bars of iron by the workmen, who put the earth or sand thus scraped into vessels prepared for the purpose, where, after the earth had been washed away, the diamonds were found. Many of the gems obtained at this mine were flawed by the blows which were necessary for splitting the hard rocks, and various were the arts resorted to by the miners for concealing these defects. Sometimes they cleaved the stones in two, at others they ground them into as many angles as possible, or set them in a peculiar manner. Tavernier, who was a