It is now in the India Museum. On the bottom is
punched a word or two in Pehlvi, and there is also a word incised in
Syriac or Uighur. It is curious that a pair of paterae were acquired by
Dr. Lord under the circumstances stated. The other, similar in material
and form, but apparently somewhat larger, is distinctly Sassanian,
representing a king spearing a lion.
Zu-'lkarnain, "the Two-Horned," is an Arabic epithet of Alexander, with
which legends have been connected, but which probably arose from the
horned portraits on his coins. [Capus, l.c. p. 121, says, "Iskandr
Zoulcarnein or Alexander le Cornu, horns being the emblem of strength."
- H. C.] The term appears in Chaucer (Troil. and Cress. III. 931) in the
sense of non plus: -
"I am, till God me better minde send,
At dulcarnon, right at my wittes end."
And it is said to have still colloquial existence in that sense in some
corners of England. This use is said to have arisen from the Arabic
application of the term (Bicorne) to the 47th Proposition of Euclid.
(Baber, 13; N. et E. XIV. 490; N. An. des V. xxvi. 296; Burnes,
III. 186 seqq.; Wood, 155, 244; J. A. S. B. XXII. 300; Ayeen Akbery,
II. 185; see N. and Q. 1st Series, vol. v.)
NOTE 2. - I have adopted in the text for the name of the country that one
of the several forms in the G. Text which comes nearest to the correct
name, viz. Badascian. But Balacian also appears both in that and in
Pauthier's text. This represents Balakhshan, a form also sometimes used
in the East. Hayton has Balaxcen, Clavijo Balaxia, the Catalan Map
Baldassia. From the form Balakhsh the Balas Ruby got its name. As Ibn
Batuta says: "'The Mountains of Badakhshan have given their name to the
Badakhshi Ruby, vulgarly called Al Balaksh." Albertus Magnus says the
Balagius is the female of the Carbuncle or Ruby Proper, "and some say it
is his house, and hath thereby got the name, quasi Palatium Carbunculi!"
The Balais or Balas Ruby is, like the Spinel, a kind inferior to the real
Ruby of Ava. The author of the Masalak al Absar says the finest Balas
ever seen in the Arab countries was one presented to Malek 'Adil Ketboga,
at Damascus; it was of a triangular form and weighed 50 drachms. The
prices of Balasci in Europe in that age may be found in Pegolotti, but
the needful problems are hard to solve.
"No sapphire in Inde, no Rubie rich of price,
There lacked than, nor Emeraud so grene,
Bales, Turkes, ne thing to my device."
(Chaucer, 'Court of Love.')
