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240
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1884.
was situated on the border of Negroland, in of red yáqút (ruby), or to five dank and two Egyptian territory. The matrix of the gem and a half tasů of la'l (spinel), and that four was tale and red earth. It seems probable that dank, minus a tasů of coral, are equal in size to this was the source of the emeralds which four dank, minus two tasû of onyx and crystal. went to India, and also supped the Greeks The mode of discovering the size and weight and Romans. A soap-green emerald was also is the following :- A vessel is filled with water, found at Hejas, in Arabia.
and the stones thrown singly into the water; Owing to the fact that jade was not recog- the quantity of water which is expelled from nised as a distinct mineral until introduced the vessel by means of each stone is equal to into Europe from the New World, the older the room it occupies." writers sometimes, on account of its bardness MARCO POLO.-A notable authority on the and transparency, spoke of it as emerald, while mineral production of India during this same others applied to it the term jasper. There thirteenth century is the famous Venetian can be no doubt that jade is meant by the traveller, Marco Polo. In reference to the following, not jasper, as his translator has it :- diamond, he states that it was only obtained in
Yasheb, or Nussz.-Five kinds: (1) white what he designates as the kingdom of Mutand light; (2) whitish yellow; (3) black-green; fili-a name which has been identified by (4) transparent black; (5) dast-colour. Mu- Colonel Yule with Motapalle, a still existing hammad adds that in China they make false port in the Guntur district of Madras. The yashb, which is distinguished by its smoky proper name of the kingdom was Telingana, smell, and that there are two mines in China which therefore included the so-called Golcalled respectively Ak-Kash which produces conda mines of the Krishna Valley; but Marco light, and Kut-Kash which produces dark yashb. Polo extended to it that of the town or post It is found on the frontiers of Kashgar, Kerman, which he visited. It is noteworthy, as testiand Arabia.
mony of an early trade, that Marco Polo states Kash is the name for jade current in East- that those diamonds brought to Europe are, ern Turkistân, and su or eu is the name by as it were, the refuse of the finer stones, which which it is known to the Chinese, who esteem go to the Great Kaan and the other kings it more highly than do the people of any other and princes of India." He describes three nation."
methods as being followed in the search for Chrysolite ? (Sheberjed). This is said by diamonds :Muhammad to be obtained in the same mine as First: After the rains the beds of torrents the emerald, of which it is a variety according from the mountains were searched; these to some anthorities. If so, it cannot be what localities were infested with venomous snakes. is now known 8 chrysolite, which is the trans- Second: Pieces of meat were thrown down parent variety of olivine. Muhammad mentions from the tops of mountains into inaccessible a number of other minerals, among them seve- valleys; these pieces of meat were pounced ral ores. Of the magnet he says there are upon and carried up to the tops of mountains four kinds, namely, the iron, gold, silver, and by white eagles, and, when recovered, distin, which attract these metals respectively, monds were found sticking to them. This possibly by this it is meant to be conveyed that story, made familiar to all by the travels of ores ascertained to contain these metals exhi. Sindbad the Sailor, is one of great antiquity. bited magnetic properties.
The earliest mention of it, according to The following statements, regarding the Colonel Yule, is by St. Epiphanius, Bishop of knowledge possessed by the Persians of the Salamis, in Cyprus, who, in the fourth cenrelative specific gravities of some precious tary, wrote a treatise on the twelve jewels in stones, are of interest:
the breastplate of the High Priest. The tale, " Abu Rihan is said to have found by experi- as told by him, however, refers to the jacinth, ment that a miskal (= 1; drachm) of blue | not to the diamond. yaqut (sapphire) is equal to five dank and a tasů list of the authors who have alluded to
Economic Geology, p. 616, et seq.
