Introduction

Indian Diamonds 161
lish country life.” (Carens 247) However, the parallels between his own use of
Robinson Crusoe for divination and his ‘belief’ in “that immortal book” (Collins,
Moonstone 178) is not too far removed from the Brahmins’ practice of clairvoyance
(Mehta 622).
Murthwaite shares Betteredge’s stereotypical assumptions, but he bases them
on “his superior knowledge of the Indian character” (Collins, Moonstone 287)
which he has acquired in “the wild places of the East” (74). He also describes the
Indians as having the “patience of cats” and the “ferocity of tigers” (80), reiterating
Betteredge’s image of their “tigerish quickness” (79). Yet, Murthwaite’s description
of the Indians largely relies on generalisations of pseudo-science: He
knows that “no Indian […] ever runs an unnecessary risk” (286). Through his
knowledge he rationalises their séance with the English boy: “The clairvoyance in
this case is simply a development of the romantic side of the Indian character […]
We have nothing whatever to do with clairvoyance, or with mesmerism, or with
anything else that is hard of belief to a practical man” (285-286). Rather than dismissing
mesmerism as “hocus-pocus”, Murthwaite offers Bruff an explanation for
the Indians’ behaviour, distinguishing the Brahmins’ efforts at detection from his
own rational method, which “trace[s] results back, by rational means, to natural
causes” (286). For Murthwaite the Brahmins present the confirmation of preset
rules, similar to the description of Tonga in The Sign of Four. But Murthwaite is also
sympathetic to them, calling them “a wonderful people”, while Betteredge insists
on “murdering thieves” (81-82).
The evangelical Miss Drusilla Clack fashions the Indians into protagonists of
her religious allegory: “How soon may our own evil passions prove to be Oriental
noblemen who pounce on us unawares!” (203) For her, they are evil personified
as opposed to the “Christian Hero” Godfrey Ablewhite and his natural antagonists.
Through the satiric representation of Miss Clack these ascription have to be
immediately questioned by the reader.
The Indians are further present in the text by the things they carry into London:
In their assaults on Mr. Luker and Godfrey Ablewhite the Brahmins engage
their attention through “two unusual things” (201): A manuscript laid out on a
table and the smell of “musk and camphour” (201). Both evoke a mysterious and
sensual Oriental atmosphere. The manuscript, “richly illuminated with Indian
figures and devices” (201), seems to mesmerise the onlooker in a similar way as
the Moonstone which draws all attention to it on its first presentation (70). Furthermore,
the manuscripts are a symbol for the Indians’ silence in the text which
is constituted of letters but only contains one short written note by one of the
Brahmins’ collaborators in London (288). The manuscripts belong to the group of
writing which remains unreadable like Franklin’s “hieroglyphics” (178). Another
signifier of the Indians’ presence is a “morsel of torn gold thread […] which persons
expert in such matters declare to be of Indian manufacture, and to be a species
of gold thread not known in England” (446) at the site of Godfrey Able-