A piece of Tutia-i-zard
(yellow Tutia) shown to me was alum, generally called Zaj-i-safid; and a
piece of Tutia-i-safid (white Tutia) seemed to be an argillaceous zinc
ore. Either of these may have been the earth mentioned by Marco Polo as
being put into the furnace. The lampblack used as collyrium is always
called Surmah. This at Kerman itself is the soot produced by the flame of
wicks, steeped in castor oil or goat's fat, upon earthenware saucers. In
the high mountainous districts of the province, Kubenan, Pariz, and
others, Surmah is the soot of the Gavan plant (Garcia's goan). This plant,
a species of Astragalus, is on those mountains very fat and succulent;
from it also exudes the Tragacanth gum. The soot is used dry as an
eye-powder, or, mixed with tallow, as an eye-salve. It is occasionally
collected on iron gratings.
"Tutia is the Arabicised word dudha, Persian for smokes.
"The Shems-ul-loghat calls Tutia a medicine for eyes, and a stone used for
the fabrication of Surmah. The Tohfeh says Tutia is of three kinds - yellow
and blue mineral Tutia, Tutia-i-qalam (collyrium) made from roots, and
Tutia resulting from the process of smelting copper ore. 'The best
Tutia-i-qalam comes from Kerman.' It adds, 'Some authors say Surmah is
sulphuret of antimony, others say it is a composition of iron'; I should
say any black composition used for the eyes is Surmah, be it lampblack,
antimony, iron, or a mixture of all.
"Teixeira's Tutia was an impure oxide of zinc, perhaps the above-mentioned
Tutia-i-safid, baked into cakes; it was probably the East India Company's
Lapis Tutia, also called Tutty. The Company's Tutenague and Tutenage,
occasionally confounded with Tutty, was the so-called 'Chinese Copper,'
an alloy of copper, zinc, and iron, brought from China."
Major Sykes (ch. xxiii.) writes: "I translated Marco's description of
tutia (which is also the modern Persian name), to a khan of Kubenan, and
he assured me that the process was the same to-day; spodium he knew
nothing about, but the sulphate of zinc is found in the hills to the east
of Kubenan."
Heyd (Com. II. p. 675) says in a note: "Il resulte de l'ensemble de ce
passage que les matieres designees par Marco Polo sous le nom de 'espodie'
(spodium) etaient des scories metalliques; en general, le mot spodium
designe les residus de la combustion des matieres vegetales ou des os (de
l'ivoire)." - H. C.]
CHAPTER XXII.
OF A CERTAIN DESERT THAT CONTINUES FOR EIGHT DAYS' JOURNEY.
When you depart from this City of Cobinan, you find yourself again in a
Desert of surpassing aridity, which lasts for some eight days; here are
neither fruits nor trees to be seen, and what water there is is bitter and
bad, so that you have to carry both food and water.
