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



The word "turquois" (gyti) has become a favorite attribute to 

 designate a sky-blue color; " turquois-lake " {gyu mts'o) may be called 

 poetically any blue-glittering lake, but is also the constant epithet of 

 wells and certain favorite lakes, as, for example, for the sacred Mana- 

 sarovara Lake or the Lake of Yar-brog (Yamdog).^ Also flowers, the 

 manes of horses, and even bees and tadpoles are described in the same 

 manner; the hair of goddesses and the eyebrows of children bom in a 

 supernatural way are called turquois-blue ; also the beauty of the body 

 of such beings is compared to the turquois. In Spiti the forget-me-not 

 is called yu-hmg men-tog, that is, the flower whose essence or main 

 substance is turquois.^ In ancient mythology "thirteen turquois 

 heavens" are- mentioned, and as we speak of the Blue of Heaven, or 

 the sky, the Tibetans say poetically "the turquois of Heaven." In a 

 Tibetan legend, a poetical description of the country is given as follows:* 



"At the foot of the giant mountains (the Himalaya) supporting the sky, lakes and 

 flowing streams gather, forming plains of the appearance of turquois, and glittering 

 pyramids of snow-clad crystal rise. This mountain range spreading like a thousand 

 lotus flowers is white and like crystal during the three winter-months; during the 

 three months of the summer it is azure-blue like turquois ; during the three months of 

 the autumn it is yellow like gold, and in the moons of the spring, striped like the skin 

 of the tiger. This chain of mountains, excellent in color and form, and of perfect 

 harmony, is inexhaustible in auspicious omens." 



This passage is very interesting as revealing the innate nature-love 

 of the Tibetan people and showing the connection of the colors of 

 their favorite gems with the general colors of nature in the course of the 

 seasons.'* With the majority of the people, turquois is favorite, coral 



1 Also in the ancient Egyptian texts, the word turquois is used as a designation 

 for the color of water. "Praises shall be offered unto thee in thy boat, thou shalt be 

 hymned in the Atet boat, thou shalt behold Ra within his shrine, thou shalt sit to- 

 gether with his disk day by day, thou shalt see the Ant fish when it springeth in.to 

 being in the waters of turquoises, and thou shalt see the Abtu fish in his hour." — 

 Hymn to the God Ra, in the Book of the Dead, by E. A. Wallis Budge, Vol. I, 

 1901, p. 78. Interesting studies pertaining to the color of Tibetan lakes and rivers 

 have been made by Hermann v. Schlagintweit, Untersuchungen liber die Salzseen 

 im westlichen Tibet, pp. yi et seq. {Abhandlungen der bayerischen Akademie, Munchen, 

 1871). 



^ In this case the word zung is to be written gzung. A. H. Francke (Ladakhi 

 Songs, p. 13. Reprinted from Indian Antiquary, 1902) has proposed to adopt the 

 spelling iung in the sense of chung "small," so that the name would mean "flower of 

 small turquoises." 



* Compare I. J. Schmidt, Geschichte der Ost-Mongolen, p. 465 (St. Petersburg, 

 1829). In another passage (p. 439) it is said: "On the plain where diamond rocks 

 glitter is a lake with a mirror like turquois and gold." See also p. 484. 



■• In a Tibetan poem depicting the labors of husbandry {So-nam bya ts'ul-gyi leu, 

 published in the Tibetan School Series, No. II, Calcutta, 1890), the awakening of 

 the spring is described, and the first buds on the uppermost branches of the trees are 

 compared with the glimmer of emeralds ; the flowers with antlers appear as vomiting 

 sapphires; the great earth is teeming with sap, and resembles the malachite in its 

 medley of blue and green colors. 



