"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد I" [ظ‎‎٢‎٥‎٧] (٨٢٠/٥٣١)

494
MAD—MAD
and decreases the value of the stone. The best angushtdrl stones are found
in the khaki diggings and in the Abd-ur-Razaq mine.
(2) The hdrkhdneh stones are generally divided into four qualities and
sold by weight. The first quality costs at the mines between 1,500 and
1,600 tumdns per Tabriz man, equal to about £90 per lb. The fourth
quality is worth 70 to 80 tumdns per man. Only the first and part of the
second quality are sent to Europe ; the others are sold in the country to
Persian jewellers and goldsmiths, particularly at Meshed, and are employ
ed for encrusting Persian articles of jewellery, armlets, daggers, sword-
hilts and sheaths, horse trappings, etc. At Meshed small, cut turquoises
of the third quality can be bought at the rate of from Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 per iOO.
Many of the hdrkhdneh stones sent to Europe are employed by European
jewellers for rings ; but the mere fact of the miners themselves not classing
them with the angushtdrl stones proves them to be of an inferior quality.
(3) ’Arabi turquoises. —All stones not belonging to the first two kinds
are called 'arabi. Their name is of recent origin, and was first adopt-d
at the mines for bad, and in Persia, unsaleable, stones. Some of the miners,
when on a pilgrimage to Mecca, had taken with them a quantity of bad
turquoises, and sold them well to the Arabs. Since then any pale-gre n
or spotted turquoise is called "arabi. The whitish turquoises of this k nd
are called i shirbumi * or 'shirfam ’ and round pieces with a whie crest
are called chaghaleh. Many of the so-calltd 'arabi turquoise, are,,
however, bought by the Persians, and many go to Europe. The large
flat pieces and slabs used for armlets, brooches, etc., at the mines called
‘ tufal, are now classed with the arabi stones, although some of them are
very much esteemed ; pieces of 2 inches in length, 1 inch in width, and
k inch in thickness being sometimes valued at 10 tumdns. Stones of
a greenish colour, called gul-i-kasni (chickory), aie bought principally by
Afghans. 12 lb in weight of pale-coloured ‘ tufal ’ stones are sold at the
mines sometimes for as much as 180 tumdns.
About 200 men of the Ma dan village work in the mines and n the khaki
digging 8 * an d 25 or 30, the Rish Safids (the elders of the village) by the
turquoises and sell them to the merchants and jewellers, either at Meshed
or at the mines. The original finders of the turquoise do not gain much.
A man who works in the mines gains on an average about 5 krdns (2s.)
per diem in turquoises. Work in the mines is difficult, but sur \ A miner
never returns empty-handed. In the diggings the work s comparatively
easy : bnt a man is never sure of finding a turquoise. It oft n happens
that a miner after working hard for a few months in the mines, and having
saved a few tumdns, tries his chance at the diggings and works there ; find
ing nothing until his money is finished, he sells and paw .s 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
diggings, but send their children there. (P the 200 miners in the village,
quite lo0 work in the mines. Tne old and weak, or those who possess
a little property and are in no eeitain want of daily grain, 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 Safids generally buy their tur
quoises direct from the workmen, and then sell them to the merchants