‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎168v] (341/722)

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(2 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. ) per diem in turquoises. Work in the mines is difficult, but sure.
A miner never returns empty-handed. In the digging's the work is com
paratively easy; hut a man is never sure o£ finding a turquoise. It often
happens that a miner after working hard for a few months in the mines,
and having saved a few tumans, tries his chance at the diggings and works
there • findino- nothing, until his money is finished, sells and pawns his goods
and chattels; still finds nothing, and finally, to keep starvation out of his
doors, has to return to the mines. Good workmen never go to the khaki
dio-p-ings, hut send their children-there. Of the 200 miners in the village,
quite 130 work in the mines. The old and weak, or those who possess a little
property and are in no certain want of daily gain, and the lazy, work in
the khaki. During the summer many strangers come to the mines and
try their chance in the diggings. The Rish-i-Safids generally buy their
turquoises direct from the workmen, and then sell them to the merchants
at Mashhad, or to ' dalals' (commission agents), who visit the mines.
The first profit on all turquoises is never less than 10 per cent., and gener
ally amounts to about 20 per cent. It is calculated that turquoises bought
for ten tumans at the mines sell for 25 tumans in Europe.
The miners themselves rarely cut their turquoises, and they, therefore,
seldom know if they have found good stones or not. The Rish-i-Saffd,
who first buys the stone, often half-cuts the stone, and is then able to sort
them. The angushtari stones are put aside and sold singly, and enormous
profits are made. The annual outturn of the mines, mountains, and dig
gings averaged for the last few years 25,000 tumans worth of turquoises
valued at the mines. The final purchasers probably pay three times this
amount.
The turquoises are now cut generally by wheels made of a composition
of emery and gum. The emery is brought from Badakhshan ; the gum,
from India. The cutter drives his wheel with his right hand by means
of a stick and piece of string, which latter is twisted round the axle of the
wheel. He holds the stone with his left hand against the wheel, the thumb
and finger holding the stone being protected by rags, leather, or flat pieces
of wood. Wheels have not been long in use—perhaps only thirty years; for
nearly all turquoises were cut on slabs of sandstone. The turquoise was
held by a slit in a piece of wood, and was rapidly rubbed up and down the
slab. Even now many stones are cut in this manner. Very small stones
are never cut on the wheel, but always on the slab. After the turquoises
have been cut, they are polished by being rubbed—first, on a slab of very
fine sandstone ( c margal’), and then on a piece of soft leather with tur
quoise dust that has been collected from the wheels. The polishing process
is called c jala dadan/
The pay of a turquoise-cutter, either at the mines or at Mashhad, is one
to two krans per diem, the cutter providing wheel and other necessaries.
A cutter on stone never receives more than one kran per diem. The final
polishing is generally done by children, who receive from I to ^ a kran
per diem. One man can cut a handful of turquoises a day. One polisher
does for three cutters. Turquoises are cut in various shapes. The shape
depends on the size and original shape of the stone, as well as on its
quality. The two principal shapes are the ‘ peikani and the ‘ mussatah , —
that is, the conical and the flat. The less the cone is. truncated, the more
the turquoise is prized; and again a conical turquoise with an elliptical,
is worth more than one with a circular, base. Turquoises not having