India revisited . of them,and who pressed upon my acceptance such a selectionof death-dealing implements as I should have hesitatedto carry through the country of my gentle Buddhistfriends. In fact a volume might be written uponthe varieties of deadly inventions to be seen in theHyderabad bazaars. I have spoken of Golcondah and its great rock asbeing near the capital, and may mention that we hada memorable little dinner at this retreat of his High-ness, the table being laid in the outer hall of a magni-ficent tomb of granite, erected to the memory of oneof the Koolub Shah kings. The splendid m
India revisited . of them,and who pressed upon my acceptance such a selectionof death-dealing implements as I should have hesitatedto carry through the country of my gentle Buddhistfriends. In fact a volume might be written uponthe varieties of deadly inventions to be seen in theHyderabad bazaars. I have spoken of Golcondah and its great rock asbeing near the capital, and may mention that we hada memorable little dinner at this retreat of his High-ness, the table being laid in the outer hall of a magni-ficent tomb of granite, erected to the memory of oneof the Koolub Shah kings. The splendid monumenthad been unhappily whitewashed inside and out, butthis could not spoil its stately proportions, its majesticvault, and grand outlook over the rugged hills. Thissame district, lighted up for our pleasant repast bythe moon and the fire-flies, as well as by colouredlamps, was that which Marco Polo describes when hevisited Queen Eudrama Devi in 1292. Therebe certain lofty mountains in these parts, and when. HYDERABAD OF THE NIZAM. 313 the rains fall, which be very heavy, the waters comeroaring down tliem in huge torrents. When the rainsare over, and the waters have ceased to flow, theysearch the beds of the torrents and find plenty ofdiamonds. In summer, also, there are plenty to befound in these hills, but the heat of the sun is sogreat that it is scarcely possible to go thither. Thenthe old traveller also tells Sinbads story of the eaglesand the joints of mutton. Tavernier, too, came hitherlor diamonds, and noticed as many as sixty thousandpeople, in and about the district, engaged in diggingfor them. The Koh-i-noor was one of the famousstones thus discovered, and doubtless there are manynoble jewels yet to be unearthed in the vicinity; butthe clue seems lost to their precise whereabouts, andthe last renowned diamond found was the Nizam,which, after a peasant had rashly splintered it by ablow on the apex, still furnished a fragment valuedat seven hundred and twenty th
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