A YOUNG NATIVE AT BREAKFAST.
Doctor Bronson and the youths had hardly set foot on land before they were pestered with natives offering precious stones for sale. Ceylon is famous for its real gems, and as there is rarely a good thing in this world without a counterfeit, there are plenty of imitation gems in the hands of the peddlers. In fact, it may be set down that nearly all that are offered are false, for the reason that the profit on their sale is greater than can possibly happen with real stones. The stones for which Ceylon is famous are the sapphire, ruby, topaz, and garnet, but they are not sufficiently abundant to yield fortunes to those who dig for them. Some of the rivers flowing from Adam's Peak are literally paved with garnets, but they are nearly all so small as to be worthless. The only use for these garnet-sands is for sawing elephants' teeth into plates, and for polishing other gems.
The annual exportation of precious stones from Ceylon is about $50,000; this does not include the stones, nearly all false, that are sold to passengers on the steamers touching at Galle. When there is a goodly number of verdant travellers on a steamer, the harvest is likely to be a rich one. The European naturally thinks there is a relation between the asking and the selling price of an article, and when a native demands a hundred dollars for a gem, the stranger is very apt to offer five or ten dollars for the stone, and even then he thinks he has acted meanly. He is astonished to find his offer accepted, and still more astonished to find that, his purchase is not worth twenty-five cents.
A couple of natives followed our friends in their walk on shore, and persisted in offering a select assortment of rubies, sapphires, and other stones. One of them urged Frank to buy a fine ruby for ten pounds, and a sapphire for fifteen, with the guarantee of his word of honor that they were genuine. Frank thought of his sister and Miss Effie, and how much these gems would please them, and finally asked the dealer his lowest price.
The man meditated a moment, as if balancing in his mind the figure that came as nearly as possible to the actual cost, and then said he would sell the two for twenty pounds, or one hundred dollars.
Frank referred the matter to Doctor Bronson, and asked how much it would be wise to offer. The latter looked at the stones for a moment, and suggested that a rupee (fifty cents) would be about the thing.
Frank was rather taken aback at this difference in figures, but gravely followed his mentor's advice. He tendered the rupee, which was refused with indignation; but when he held the stones in one hand and the rupee in the other, for the man to take his choice and be gone, the rupee was accepted, and Frank was the happy owner of a sapphire and a ruby of excellent color and "finest water," that had their origin among the makers of false gems in Paris or London. The native makers are, however, quite as skilful as the Europeans, and it is said that some of the best fictions in the way of precious stones are produced in India.