July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 55 



regarding the high value of se-se in Tibet. Also the Tibetan word 

 mar-gad, derived from Sanskrit marakata, sufficiently shows that the 

 Tibetans were acquainted with the emerald. Capt. A. Gerard, 

 speaking of the people of Spiti in the extreme western part of Tibet, 

 remarks that they have beads of coral and other precious stones which 

 resemble rubies, emeralds and topazes.^ The surface of a mausoleum in 

 Yamdo Samding is studded over with large turquoises, coral beads, 

 rubies, emeralds and pearls.'^ Samuel Turner,^ in "a list of the usual 

 articles -of commerce between Tibet and the surrounding countries," 

 has registered emeralds exported from Bengal to Tibet. 



Abel-Remusat * has wrongly ascribed the meaning of emerald to 

 the word lu-sung shi, meaning "turquois"; on the other hand he errone- 

 ously translates by "chrysolith, or perhaps turquois" the Chinese word 

 tsie-mu-lu, corresponding to Manchu niowarimbu wehe (that is, greenish 

 stone), which is the emerald. This is proved by the Imperial Dictionary 

 in Four Languages, where this Chinese and Manchu term corresponds 

 to Tibetan mar-gad (written also ma-rgad, Taranatha 173, 19) and 

 Mongol markat, both derived from Sanskrit marakata which itself is 

 a loan word from Greek zmaragdos or maragdos} The Chinese word 



1 See RocKHiLL, The Ethnology of T!bet, p. 694. 



- S. Chandra Das, Journey to Lhasa, p. 183 (London, 1904). 



' An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet, p. 383 

 (London, 1800). On p. 261 he tells that he saw the rosaries owned by the deceased 

 Pan ch'en rin-po-ch'e, made of pearls, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires; and on p. 336, 

 he describes the necklace in the possession of a Lhasa lady of high rank, in which 

 were employed balas rubies, lapis lazuli, amber, and coral in numerous wreaths, and 

 in her hair she wore pearls, rubies, emeralds, and coral. 



■• Histoire de la ville de Khotan, p. 168 (Paris, 1820). 



^ A. Weber, Die Griechen in Indien {Sitzungsherichte der Berliner Akademie, 

 1890, p. 912). The oldest reference given in the Petersburg Sanskrit Dictionary as 

 to the occurrence of the word n^arakata is the Rajanighantu. It is found, however, 

 in the Sanskrit romances, for example, in the Vdsavadattd (edition and translation 

 of L. H. Gray, p. 109, Col. Un. Indo-Iranian Series, Vol. VIII, New York, 19 13) 

 of the seventh century. Also the Tibetan derivate mar-gad, appearing as equivalent 

 of marakata in the Sanskrit Buddhist dictionary Mahavyutpatti (ed. of Minayev 

 and MiRONOV, p. 77, St. Petersburg, 191 1), allows us to infer that the Sanskrit word 

 is older than the seventh century. It occurs likewise in Buddhabhatta (L. Finot, 

 Les lapidaires indiens, p. XLIV) who probably wrote before the sixth century A. D. 

 For the first part of the sixth century we have the testimony of Cosmas Indicopleustes 

 (J. W. McCrindle, Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, p. 164, 

 Westminster, 1901) who states that the White Huns living farther north than India 

 highly prize the emerald, and wear it when set in a crown, for the Ethiopians, who 

 traffic with the Blemmyes in Ethiopia, carry this same stone into India, and with the 

 price they obtain make purchases of the most beautiful articles. The tradition of 

 the Agastimata, as pointed out by Finot (p. XLIV), seems to allude likewise to Egypt 

 as to the derivation of the emerald. The Egyptian emerald has been studied by O. 

 Schneider and A. Arzruni {Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. XXIV, 1892, pp. 41-100). 

 The Greeks seem to have obtained their emeralds from Egypt; the Greek word is 

 connected with Semitic baraqt or bdreqet (Daremberg and Saglio, Vol. II, p. 1467, 

 and O. Schrader, Reallexikon, p. 153), but possibly also with Egyptian mafek-ma 

 or mafek-en-md (R. Lepsius, Les mitaux dans les inscriptions ^gyptiennes, p. 43, 

 Paris, 1877). The reports of the Arabic geographers on the Egyptian emerald-mines 

 are translated by Wiedemann (Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 239, Erlangen, 1912). 



