12 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XIIL 



nese by the Peking apothecary Wan 7/ turquois is listed as a medicament, 

 in the same series as given above. 



A curious utilization of turquois is mentioned in the Biography of 

 Padmasambhava (Ch. 53) who is said to have availed himself of gold, 

 silver, copper, iron, lapis lazuli, turquois and minium inks for writing 

 on light-blue paper of the palmyra palm and on smoothed birchbark.^ 

 Whether it is technically possible to use turquois for the coloring of 

 ink I am not prepared to say; perhaps "turquois" is merely a designa- 

 tion for the blue or green color of the ink. 



It seems doubtful whether in ancient times the turquois was con- 

 sidered a precious stone by the Tibetans. There is an old enumeration 

 of jewels in the Annals of the Tibetan Kings (rgyal robs, fol. 7) where 

 the two classes, jewels of the gods and jewels of men, are distinguished, 

 each class forming a series of five. The former comprises: i. indranlla, 

 2. indragopi, 3. mt'on-ka, 4. mt'on-ka ch'en-po, and 5. skong-mdzes. The 

 first two are Sanskrit words; No. i is the sapphire; No. 2 a kind of 

 ruby; the word under 3 denotes the color of indigo and corresponds to 

 Sanskrit nlla which is a general designation of the sapphire; also the 

 next under No. 4 meaning "the great blue one " = Sanskrit mahdnlla, 

 denotes a superior quality of sapphire;^ the signification of the stone 

 No. 5 is unknown. The five jewels of men are gold, silver, pearls, lapis 

 lazuli (mu-men), and coral. The turquois does not occur in this 

 group, presumably for the reason that it was not classed among precious 

 stones. It has never been, even in times of old, a stone of any exag- 

 gerated value. Among the presents made by the ancient kings of 

 Tibet to the emperors of China we find stones like lapis lazuli and rubies 

 (padmardga) , but no mention of turquois; likewise, in the lists of tribute 



^Regarding this work compare Bretschneider, Botanicon Sinicum, pt. i, 

 p. 104 (Shanghai, 1882). There are several editions of this interesting small work, 

 in Chinese and Tibetan style. 



2 Laufer, Roman, p. 249. Also in the History of the Kings of Ladakh (A. H. 

 Francke's translation in Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, N. S., Vol. VI, 1910, 

 p. 405) writings in gold and turquois are attributed to five wise men in mythical 

 times. 



' Buddhabhatta (Finot, Les lapidaires indiens, p. 41) explains indranlla as a 

 sapphire the interior of which has the lustre of the rainbow colors, and which is rare 

 and highly priced, and mahdnlla as a sapphire with a color so intense that, thrown 

 into milk of a volume a hundred times larger, it colors it like indigo. — "Sapphires of 

 various colors occur in India. Thus, there is the blue or true sapphire of .popular 

 language, the color of which may be any shade of blue, from the palest to a deep indi- 

 go, the most esteemed tint being that of the blue cornflower. Violet sapphires 

 (oriental amethysts) are also found in the same localities as those in which the true 

 sapphire is met with. The most valuable sapphire found in the East Indies is the 

 yellow sapphire or oriental topaz. A green gem, called by the Europeans in India an 

 emerald, is often seen. It is, however, a green sapphire, and is much harder than the 

 true emerald, which is a green beryl" (G. Watt, A Dictionary of the Economic 

 Products of India, Vol. VI, p. 474). 



