July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 45 



important jewel is found within this dominion than the balas ruby or 

 spinel, no other alternative caa be seen at present than that, generally 

 speaking, the se-se is in all probability to be identified with the latter; 

 while in some cases where carvings and building material are mentioned, 

 as will be seen, the onyx might be conjectured. 



I have further arrived at the conclusion that, as far as precious 

 stones are concerned, two different species should be understood by 

 the name se-se, — as far as the Iranian regions are involved, the balas 

 ruby of Badakshan; and, as far as ancient Tibet comes into question, 

 in all likelihood the emerald. 



Further evidence may first be adduced for the proposed identifica- 

 tion with the balas ruby. The balas ruby is now called in Chinese 

 pi-ya-se,^ correctly translated as early as 1820 by Abel-Remusat ^ 

 with "le rubis balais"; the Chinese word, according to this author, is 

 derived from balash or badaksh, whence, as he says, the name of the 

 country Badakshan is derived; but more probably, the name of the 

 jewel is derived from the name of the locality.^ 



The recent valuable paper of E. Wiedemann,* allows us to trace 

 the etymology of this Chinese word. Discussing the balas ruby of 

 Badakshan (in Arabic al balachsh), al-BerunI maintains that the best 



by mu-men, Mongol by notnin or momin, all of which have the same meaning. Abel 

 Remusat (Histoire de la ville de Khotan, p. 168) adds the Uigur word nachiver 

 which he says is derived from Persian ladjiver {lazvard). The English and Chinese 

 vStandard Dictionary (Vol. I, p. 1308, Shanghai, 1910) translates lapis lazuli by Ian 

 liu-li. In the Mongol period the Chinese name for lapis lazuli was Ian ch^i (Bret- 

 SCHNEIDER, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 151, and Chinese Recorder, Vol. VI, 

 1875, p. 16) doubtless derived from the Persian or Arabic word. It seems to me that 

 the character Ian "orchid" (No. 6721) used by Ch'ang Te in writing this word is an 

 error for Ian "indigo, blue" (No. 6732) ; the name of the capital of Badakshan where 

 lapis lazuli was mined was Lan shi, "Blue Market" (Ch.wannes, T'oung Pao, 1907, 

 p. 188), a designation which apparently refers to the blue color of lapis lazuli. 



^ Giles, Dictionary, No. 9009, who translates "a kind of cornelian", which is not 

 correct. 



^ Histoire de la ville de Khotan, p. 168. The identification is based on the 

 Dictionary in Four Languages (see below p. 48, note). 



' Yule and Burnell (Hobson-Jobson, p. 52) state in regard to the word balas: 

 "It is a corruption of Balakhshl, a popular torm oi Badakhshl, because these rubies 

 came from the famous mines on the Upper Oxus, in one of the districts subject to 

 Badakshan," and quote also Ibn Ba^uta as saying that the mountains of Badakshan 

 have given their name to the Badakshi ruby. — Eitel (Handbook of Chinese Bud- 

 dhism, p. 131), I believe, is quite right in recognizing in rohitaka or lohitaka the 

 Sanskrit word for the balas ruby, for the other Sanskrit words employed for the 



'" ruby, as shown by L. Finot (Les lapidaires indiens, p. XXXIX), refer to such species 

 as are found in India. We are much in need of a careful and critical study of all the 



[ names of precious stones to be found in Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali literatures, and 

 these should certainly be examined in connection with the corresponding Chinese and 

 Tibetan renderings; the Buddhist nojtnenclature, in many cases, deviates from that 

 of the Indian mineralogists. 



■* Ueber den Wert von Edelsteinen bei den Muslimen {Der Islam, Vol. II, 191 1, 

 P- 349). 



