44 Field Museum of Natural History — Antii., Vol. XIII. 



at the T'ang period, and likewise from the regions of the Western Turks. ^ 

 As it has a name of its owfl (kin tsing),^ and as besides it no other 



NER (/. c, Vol. Ill, p. 275) basing his opinion on Pliny's statement that the best kina 

 occurs in Media (apud Medos) is inclined to think of Tibet where it is found at present. 

 This fact is certainly correct (see p. 17, note 2), but Tibet cannot come into question 

 in the times of antiquity, and it seems preferable, at least for the present, to join Max 

 Bauer in the opinion that the mines of Badakshan are responsible also for Babylonian 

 lapis lazuli. Prehistoric occurrence of lapis lazuli in Beluchistan is mentioned by 

 NoETLiNG {Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, Vol. XXX, 1898, Verhandlungen, p. 470); in 

 Armenia by Belck and Lehmann {ibid, p. 590). R. Lepsius (Les metaux dans les 

 inscriptions ^gyptiennes, p. 31, Paris, 1877) derives the lapis lazuli used by the 

 ancient Egyptians from Badakshan. As to India, the case may be more precisely 

 made out. There, the stone does not seem to be indigenous. G. Watt (A Diction- 

 ary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. IV, p. 587) says: "Though not known 

 with certainty to occur in India, it is imported into the country, where it is employed 

 for several purposes." The Sanskrit word rdjavarta or lajavarta (Hindustani Idjward, 

 Behar Idjburud, Guzerati rajdvaral) is plainly derived from Persian Idzuward 

 (L. FiNOT, Les lapidaires indiens, p. XVIII, connects it with Arabic lazurd), and the 

 five names enumerated for the stone in the Rajanighantu (R. Garbe, Die indischen 

 Mineralien, p. 90), though all couched in a Sanskrit form (with the meaning "suitable 

 for a king's forehead, forehead-jewel") are re-interpretations based on that foreign 

 word (the Petersburg Sanskrit Dictionary, smaller edition, has still another composite 

 name suvarndbha). Ta vernier (ed. by V. Ball, Vol. II, p. 156, London, 1889) who 

 wrote in 1676 makes a somewhat vague statement: "Towards Tibet, which is 

 identical with the Caucasus of the Ancients, in .the territories of a Rdja beyond the 

 Kingdom of Kashmir, there are three mountains close to one another, one of which 

 produces gold of excellent quality, another grenat, and another lapis." The editor 

 Ball is inclined to think that the lapis mine here referred to is near Firgamu in 

 Badakshan. Lapis lazuli occupies a place in Indian antiquity, particularly among 

 the Buddhists, but this subject is still in need of special investigation. 



' Chavannes, Documents, p. 159, and T'oung Pao, 1904, p. 66. But lapis lazuli 

 was perhaps known to the Chinese to a certain extent from the second century a. d. 

 (compare F. Hirth, Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, Vol. XXI, 1889, Verhandlungen, p. 500, 

 or Chinesische Studien, p. 250). Hirth refers to the "gold girdles set with blue 

 stones from Hai-si" presented to the Chinese Court in 134 A. d. by the king and 

 minister of Kashgar, further to a definition in the glossary T'ung su wen from the 

 end of the second century where the expression ' ' to paint the eyebrows .' ' is explained 

 as a cosmetic yielded from blue stone {ts'ing shi) where ultramarine, a pigment ob- 

 tained from lapis lazuli, is evidently in question. This is well confirmed by the 

 report of the Sui shu on the country of Ts'ao identified by Hirth with Badakshan or 

 the plateau of the Pamir (an identification overlooked by Chavannes, Documents, 

 p. 130), where it is said that Ts'ao produced among other articles ts'ing tai, that is, 

 ultramarine for cosmetic purposes. Hirth does not state the fact that Badakshan 

 is the old classical land of lapis lazuli; but just this lends force to his conclusion that 

 the ancient cosmetic used by the Chinese was of mineral, and not, as later Chinese 

 authors believed, of vegetal origin. 



^ As I expect to show on another occasion, there is, besides kin tsing, an ancient 

 term kin sing shi, "stone with golden stars," for the designation of lapis lazuli. This 

 is mentioned as a product of Tibet (T'u-po) in Kiu Wu tai shi (Ch. 138, p. i b), as a 

 product of Khotan in the Geography of the Ming Dynasty {Ta Ming i t'ung chi, 

 edition of 1461, Ch. 89, fol. 25 a), and as a product of Sze-chou fu (in the province of 

 Kuei-chou) in the Geography of the Ts'ing Dynasty {Ta Ts'ing i t'ung chi, Ch. 398, 

 p. 3 b); compare further Pen ts'ao kang mu, Ch. 10, p. 10 a. The word kin sing 

 reflects the same notion as connected by the ancients with the same stone (called 

 sappheiros, sapphirus, a word of Semitic origin: O. Schrader, Reallexikbn, p. 152), 

 described by them as a blue stone with brilliant dots of gold (the small quantity 

 of sodium sulphide present in the stone being taken for gold), and likened to the 

 starry sky (compare Bliimner, /. c). The modern Chinese name for lapis lazuli is 

 ts'ing kin shi, that is, "dark-blue gold stone." In the Dictionary of Four Languages 

 by the Emperor K'ien-lung, this word is rendered into Manchu by nontin, Tibetan 



