July, 1913. Notes on Turquois. 7 



of the work. From what has been said above regarding the history of 

 the turquois in India it is not very probable that the passage existed in 

 the Sanskrit original, and if we assume on the basis of the available 

 evidence that the Persian turquois spread in India between the tenth 

 and the fifteenth century, the clause of the Tibetan text relative to 

 Indian turquoises must be regarded as an interpolation, not older perhaps 

 than the sixteenth century. The one feature, however, is conspicuous 

 that the Tibetan terminology of the turquois varieties is not borrowed from 

 India, but created in Tibet; it distinctly refers to the native stones, in 

 opposition to those of India named last, and may well claim a certain 

 age. Altogether six kinds are enumerated, and in the plates illustrating 

 all objects of the materia medica described in the text, six kinds of 

 turquois are really pictured. 



The plates here referred to are twelve large scrolls or charts pre- 

 served in the Great Lama Temple {Yung ho kung) of Peking, exact 

 copies of which I had made by an experienced Lama painter; the anat- 

 omy and physiology of the human body, and all medicinal substances 

 derived from the three kingdoms are there figured in colors, labeled 

 with their Tibetan names and accompanied by references to the chap- 

 ters of the Four Tantra where they are described. The turquoises 

 are represented, like the other substances, as being placed in rectangular 

 trays supported by a standard or provided with three feet. The first 

 two kinds, drug dkar an.d drug dmar, are painted in a deep-blue color 

 and of oblong shape, no noticeable difference between the two being 

 visible ; the edge is marked by a blue line in gold (apparently to express 

 the high quality of the stone) bordered by a line of black ink. It is 

 curious to observe that in each case six stones have been outlined, and 

 it is therefore evident that the draughtsman was guided by a literal 

 interpretation of the two terms drug dkar and drug dmar, "White Six" 

 and "Red Six." It is hardly plausible that a set of six stones should 

 have been the fixed requirement in ancient times and resulted in this 

 peculiar nomenclature, and I am also inclined to think that the modem 

 Tibetan explanation as given above, — a stone containing one-sixth of 

 white or red tinge, — is a makeshift or an afterthought. It would seem 

 more reasonable to assume that drug in this case has no connection with 

 the numeral six, but is an ancient noun signifying this particular variety 

 of turquois. The third variety sbyad, also a group of six stones, is 

 painted light-blue; they are pear-shaped, almost globular, surmounted 

 by a curved tip. The two common kinds are each figured as one large 

 stone, the one light-blue, the other grayish-blue, both of curious and 

 fantastic outlines which it is hard to describe. On the second of the 

 two, cloud-patterns in Chinese style of drawing are delineated, probably 



