360 Oriental Accounts of [Aug. 



The first rubies that present themselves are small, and of bad colour : 

 these the miners called piadehs (foot soldiers ) : further on some larger 

 and of better colour are found, which are called sawars (horse sol- 

 diers) ; the next, as they still progress in improvement, are called 

 amirs, bakshis, and vazirs, until at last they come to the king 

 jewel, after finding which, they give up working the vein : and this 

 is always polished and presented to the king. The author proceeds 

 to describe the finest ruby of this kind that had ever fallen under his 

 observation. It belonged to the Oude family, and was carried off 

 by Vizir Ali ; he was afterwards employed in recovering it from 

 the latter : it was of the size of a pigeon's egg, and the color 

 very brilliant ; weight, about two tolas ; there was a flaw in it, and 

 to hide it, the name of Julal-ud-din was engraved over the part ; 

 hence the jewel was called the lal-i-jalali. A similar ruby to this, 

 but considerably larger, is in the possession of Runjit Sink, and has 

 the names of five emperors engraved upon it. 



The bright-red spinelle ruby, lal ramdni, is called by modern jewel- 

 lers yaqut narm, or simply, in Hindustani, narmeh < also lalri : it comes 

 from Pegu* and Ceylon, and less frequently from the north. 

 The rhombohedral Emerald, 

 p. zamarud ; g. ff/xapaydos ,' s. markat ; h. panna. 



The mines of this gem are stated in the Persian works to be situated 

 in the " extreme west," in Barbary, and the upper parts of Egypt. It 

 bears a higher value in India, on account of its entirely foreign origin ; 

 it is soft and seldom free from flaws, sp. gr. 2.70. The medical and talis- 

 manic properties of the emerald are, averting bad dreams, giving courage, 

 curing palsy, cold, and bloody flux. There is a close connection be- 

 tween the zamarud and the zctbarjad. Zakarya says, the names are 

 synonymous, and that the true color of the emerald is a brilliant yellow^ 

 (chryso-beryl ?) adding on the authority of Aristotle, that it is frequently 

 met with in gold mines. — Mahomed of Berar says, that " the zabarjad, 

 although reckoned the best kind of emerald, is, in fact, another stone 

 of higher value, and now scarce." The Khawds-ul-hejdr describes it 

 as possessing none of the qualities of the emerald, and of an inferior 

 greenish color. The name of zabarjad is therefore probably applied 

 indiscriminately to varieties of the beryl, the chrysolite, and the topazt. 



As no separate mention is made of the topaz, it must be consi- 

 dered as really classed in the same family with the emerald and za- 



* Taht-ul-Suraa, mentioned in a former page, maybe a corruption of Syriam in 

 Pegu, the great mart for spinelles and yaquts from the Capellan mountains. 



+• The topaz of the ancients is supposed to have been the chrysolite of moderns, 

 and vice versa. Pliny classes it among his gemmis viridibus non translucentibus. 

 " Egregia etiamnum topazio gloria est suo virenti genere." 



