26 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XIII. 



"The officers in full costume wear as ornaments — those of the highest rank 

 si-sS, the next gold, then gilded silver, then silver, and the lowest copper — which 

 hang in large and small strings from the shoulder, and distinguish the rank of the 

 wearer."* 



BusHELL comments that se-se is a kind of precious stone found in the 

 high mountains north-east of Tashkend. At the outset, it does not 

 seem very likely that in the latter passage the word has the significance 

 of turquois, for it outranks gold (compare above p. ii) and however 

 much appreciated in Tibet, a turquois could never outshine gold nor 

 have any value equivalent to it, as was and is the case everywhere else; 

 and as shown above, it was not even looked upon as a precious stone by 

 the ancient Tibetans. There was still less reason for the Tibetans to 

 import their turquoises from Tashkend — if se-se should denote espe- 

 cially the turquoises of that locality — as they found them in great 

 abundance in their own country. Nor was the turquois apt to serve 

 for the distinction of the first official rank in Tibet, as it has always been 

 there part and parcel of the adornment of all classes of people and par- 

 ticularly the ornament of women who are loaded with it. The se-se 

 of the Tibetan officials must, therefore, have been something else, a 

 much scarcer and more valuable gem. An idea of its value is afforded 

 by a notice in the Annals of the Five Dynasties {Sin Wu tai shi, Ch. 74, 

 p. 4b) where it is said that the women of the T'u-po (Tibetans) wear beads 

 of se-se in the plaited tresses of their hair, and thdt, as regards the best 

 quality of these beads, a single one is bartered for, or has the exchange 

 value of, a noble horse. ^ This seems to me to be sufficient evidence 

 militant against the identification of se-se with the turquois, as far as 

 Tibet is concerned, for a single turquois, whose value in Tibet may range 

 from a few cents up to a dollar or so, could never have had nor has a 

 valuation equivalent to a good horse.^ 



1 See S. W. BusHELL, The Early History of Tibet, p. 8 {Journal Royal Asiatic 

 Society, 1880). The T'ang shu (K'ien-lung edition, Ch. 216 A, p. i b) has instead of 

 se-sS the reading k'in-se, a frequent compound meaning "lute and harp" (Giles's 

 Dictionary, No. 2109). It is evident that this way of writing is erroneous, and was 

 perhaps suggested to a copyist who did not understand the unusual word s^-se. The 

 passage is not contained in the Old History of the T'ang dynasty {Kiu T'ang shu), 

 but only in the New History (Sin T'ang shu). 



^ This passage occurs in the report of the embassy of Kao Kiii-hui of 938 A. D. 

 Abel-Remusat (Histoire de la villedeKhotan, p. 77, Paris, 1820), who has translated 

 this account, rendered the word s^-si by "pearls." 



^ In the History of the Kingdom of Nan-chao {Nan-chao ye shi, published in 1550), 

 a tribute of se-s^ is mentioned for the year 794 as being sent from Nan-chao, com- 

 prising the territory of the present province of Yiin-nan, to the court of China (C. 

 Sainson, Histoire particuli^re du Nan-Tchao, p. 54, Paris, 1904). At first sight, the 

 s&-se in this instance might be regarded as turquoises. R. Pumpelly, as will be noted 

 below, has referred to Yiin-nan as a locality producing a mineral similar to turquois, 

 though this report requires confirmation. There is further evidence in the Annals 

 of the Yuan Dynasty (Yiian shi, Ch. 16, p. 10 b) that in 1290 turquoises {pi tien-tse) 



