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The actual amount given should be as much as a travelling dealer would pay to the peasant, were he buying the object. For small and very saleable things a high rate should be given; for larger blocks, difficult to move, a lesser rate; and for larger things of some hundredweights a nominal present may be given without any relation to the market value. On the whole the bakhshish is usually 5 to 10 per cent of the wages; and as it is only about 1s. in the pound on the European values it is well worth while to secure better work by giving it. Moreover, it is not by any means overlooked in the estimate of the worth of the work, but—like the prizes of gold digging—it is more than discounted in the prospects which induce desirable men to come. The tenth of a chance of getting ten pounds is more attractive than the certainty of getting one pound in wages; so the extra payments secure willing workers, even better than the same amount spread in regular pay.

It is by no means only as a safeguard to honesty. The observation of things, and the care required to avoid breakages, are two very necessary habits for good workmen. Many a small thing would be overlooked and lost if it were no benefit to the finder. And digging carefully so as to avoid breakages, makes a great difference to the returns obtained. When giving bakhshish on a broken thing, it is well to say how much more would have been given had it been perfect. And if fragments are missing, a large deduction should be made, and the balance promised if the pieces can be found. A fine flint knife, anciently broken, was produced with several chips missing; I gave 4s. for it, but offered 16s. more for the chips, which induced the men to sit down and turn over twenty tons of earth by hand, fingering every grain; nearly every scrap was found, the men got the whole 20s., and I got the whole of the largest flint knife known. In another case I kept a lad sifting earth for three weeks, to find a minute head which he had lost. Nothing can ensure care better than paying for it; while any bad carelessness or disobedience to orders is met by degrading a man to unprofitable work or dismissing him. The principle that the holder gets the bakhshish must even be extended to cases where one man has taken things from another man’s hole; the man who has lost the things is merely told that he should have taken better care of his work.