summit of each of these beams is each day placed a man of pious aspect,
dedicated to religion, capable of enduring all things with equanimity,
who is to pray for the favour of God. These men are assailed by the
people, who pelt them with oranges, lemons, and other odoriferous
fruits, all which they bear most patiently. There are also three
other festival days, during which they sprinkle all passers-by, even
the king and queen themselves, with saffron water, placed for that
purpose by the wayside. This is received by all with much laughter."

The first of these festivals may be the Kanarese New Year's Day,
which Domingo Paes in his chronicle asserts to have fallen, during
his visit to Vijayanagar, on October 12 -- "FESTAS EM QUE TODOS VESTEM
PANOS NOVOS E RICOS E GALANTES, E CADA HUU COMO O TEM, E DAO TODOS OS
CAPITAEES PANOS A TODA SUA GNETE DE MUYTAS CORES E GALANTES."[127]
The second should be the Dipavali festival, which occurs about the
month of October, when lamps are lighted by all the householders,
and the temples are illuminated. The description of the third answers
to the nine-days' festival, called the MAHANAVAMI, at Vijayanagar,
which, during the visit of Paes, took place on September 12. The
other feast of three days' duration answers to the HOLI festival.

Conti next describes the finding of diamonds on a mountain which
he called "Albenigaras" and places fifteen days' journey beyond
Vijayanagar "towards the north." He repeats the story which we
know as that of "Sinbad the Sailor," saying that the diamonds lie
in inaccessible valleys, into which lumps of flesh being thrown, to
which the precious stones adhere, these are carried up TO the summits
by eagles, which are then driven off and the stones secured. The
direction given, though it should rather be east than north, points to
the mines on the Krishna river being those alluded to -- mines which