246 Dr. J. Schmidt on the 



were everything clearly and distinctly designated there would 

 be at once an end of all obscurity and conjecture. How com- 

 mon it is, in speaking of precious stones, to call them by their 

 own particular names ! 



Lapis lazuli is often made to perform an important part in 

 the Indian cosmogony and mythology, and in those of Thibet 

 and Mongul, which are borrowed from the Indian. Its 

 Sanscrit, and also its Thibet name is Veidurya, or Veiduryah, 

 which probably gave rise to its Mongul name — Bedurya. In 

 this appellation of lapis lazuli the Mosaic Bedolach may be 

 found without the least difficulty ; for languages in general, 

 and more particularly the Asiatic, afford so many examples of 

 the conversion of R into L, and of V into B, or rather of the 

 confounding of those letters, that no linguist can hesitate 

 to admit the fact. Moreover, I am not ignorant that the 

 sapphire of the ancients is pretty generally supposed to be 

 lapis lazuli. This opinion, however, has no foundation in 

 authority ; but I am willing to leave to it all the credit to which 

 it may be entitled. 



Of the valuable productions of the mineral kingdom men- 

 tioned in the Buddah books, the following four may be 

 regarded as the principal : namely, Gold, Silver, Veiduryah, 

 and Padmaraga (ruby). The Ugyu, or Gyu (the oriental Zode), 

 Marakata, or Marakta (Emerald), Crystal, and others, occur 

 less often. According to those books, also, the eastern decli- 

 vity of Sumeru, the fabulous mountain of the world and seat of 

 the gods (by which some understand the high land of Thibet 

 and Great Tartary), consists of silver ; the southern, of veidu- 

 ryah ; the western of padmaraga, or ruby; and the northern 

 declivity, of gold. In these books crystal is sometimes put for 

 ruby, and, according to them, the principal eastern river, or 

 the Ganga (Ganges), flows on silver sand; the southern, or 

 the Sindhu (Indus), on veidurya sand; the western, or the 

 Backtschu (perhaps, from baktra and chu, a Thibet word sig- 

 nifying " water"), on crystal sand; and the northern, or Sisita, 

 on gold sand. It is said of these four streams that they spring 

 at a short distance from each other, — from the sides, indeed, of 

 the square Lake Map'am, in the centre of which grows the 

 tree Jambu (rose-apple : it takes its name from that part of 



