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



smooth ones, those of India Hke the round ones with convex surface.^ 

 This is so far also the earHest testimony for the presence of the turquois 

 in India. 



The fact that turquois is absent from India is confirmed by the 

 negative testimony of the great merchant traveler Jean Baptiste 

 Tavernier ( 1 605-1 689), who, as a dealer and expert in precious stones, 

 repeatedly traveled in India and became thoroughly familiar with the 

 customs of that country. He writes in chapter nineteen of his Travels •} 



"Turquoise is only found in Persia, and is obtained in two mines. The one which 

 is called 'the old rock' is three days' journey from Meshed towards the north-west 

 and near to a large town called Nichabourg (Nishapur); the other, which is called 

 ' the new ' is five days' journey from it," etc. 



Tavernier would have certainly known about the existence of 

 turquoises in India if they ever occurred there in situ. The various 

 reports of modem travelers that turquoises are imported from India 

 into Tibet are therefore to be interpreted in the sense that these Indian 

 turquoises have been imported from Persia. 



Also Max Bauer ^ states that turquois is not found in India, Burma 

 and Ceylon. But the same author does not note its occurrence in 

 Tibet and China. 



Abul Fazl Allami * (1551-1602), in his history of Akbar, entmierates 

 among the precious stones in the treasury of the emperor rubies, dia- 

 monds, emeralds, and pearls, but not turquois. Turquois seems to 

 have been everywhere an ornament of the people, but not one of royal 

 personages.^ 



In the modem jewelry of India the turquois is utilized to some 



* The opinion formerly prevailed in Europe that the turquois was found in India 

 because it was exported from there. This was the view of Franciscus Rueus (De 

 gemmis aliquot, p. 54 b, Tiguri, 1565) ; but the turquoises exported from India were in 

 fact derived from Persia. 



2 Ed. of V. Ball, Vol. II, p. 103 (London, li 



'Precious Stones, p. 397 (London, 1904).^ G. Watt (A Dictionary of the 

 Economic Products of India, Vol. VI, p. 204, London, 1893) says after the Manual of 

 Geology of India: "The existence of the true turquois in India is doubtful. From the 

 presence of blue streaks in the copper ores of Ajmir, Mr. Prinsep suggested the possi- 

 bility of the stone being found there. Subsequently Dr. Irvine reported its existence 

 in these measures, but, according to Ball, the so-called turquoises of Ajmir are only 

 blue copper ore." 



^ The Ain I Akbari, translated from the Persian by H. Blochmann, Vol. I, p. 15 

 (Calcutta, 1873). The original was published in 1597. 



^ Compare p. 30, note 3. In the Arabic account of Abu Zeid of the ninth century 

 (translated by M. Reinaud, Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans 

 dans rinde et k la Chine, Vol. I, p. 151, Paris, 1845) it is said: "The kings of India 

 are in the habit of wearing ear-pendants consisting of precious stones mounted on 

 gold; they wear necklaces of the highest price composed of red and green stones of 

 the first quality. But it is the pearls on which they place a greater esteem, and 

 which are eagerly coveted by them; these now form the treasure of the sovereigns, 

 their principal wealth." 



