1869.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 253 



Appendix D. 

 Authorities. A list of the principal books and papers having refer- 

 ence to the Nicobars. 



III. — Note on some Agate Beads from North-Western India, 

 by W. Theobold, Esq., Jr. 



The beads which are represented in the accompanying plate (Plate 

 VI) were obtained by me many years ago in the Benares district, and 

 have lain by unnoticed till a short time since. Finding, however, du- 

 ring a late visit home, that no similar specimens exist, either in the 

 rich stores of the British Museum or among the collections at South Ken- 

 sington, and that no one to whom I showed them, had seen similar ones 

 or knew anything of their history, I deem them sufficiently curious to 

 bring before the notice of the Society. I procured them by purchase 

 from mendicants and others who, in Hindustan, are in the habit of 

 wearing beads of agate, glass, or other substances, and among a variety 

 of other beads as a necklace, one or two or perhaps more of these 

 would occur. The natives themselves do not seem to know much of 

 their origin, beyond what is implied by the vague term Sulaimdni, 

 which they apply to all antique looking beads of agate or onyx, of 

 which the brown onyx ones are best known and most valued. These 

 brown ones, I may add, are called (as I am told) a 3 cow-beads" in 

 Abyssinia, where that is their current value. 



The beads I am now describing are, however, of quite a distinct type 

 from any of the ordinary ' Sulairnani,' and are recognized at a glance 

 by being ornamented by a pattern seemingly traced on the surface, 

 but really engraved and subsequently filled in with some pigment 

 which adheres most intimately to the stone. In Multan or its neigh- 

 bourhood, I believe, a recent imitation is still made by painting the 

 required design on the surface with some pigment, having litharge as 

 its base ; but an examination of these antique bead stones shews, that 

 whatever the material of the pigment may be, the pattern was first 

 laboriously and often artistically sunk into the surface of the stone, 

 so that a considerable amount of wear and abrasion has not always 

 obliterated it. This is not obvious on all, but may be seen by closely 

 examining some part of the impressed pattern, where a chip has been 

 removed or where abrasion of the surface through wear has taken 

 place. Many varieties will doubtless turn up when attention has been 



