The ore got here was kneaded with
water, and set to bake in crucibles in a potter's kiln. When well baked,
the crucibles were lifted and emptied, and the tutia carried in boxes to
Hormuz for sale. This corresponds with a modern account in Milburne, which
says that the tutia imported to India from the Gulf is made from an
argillaceous ore of zinc, which is moulded into tubular cakes, and baked
to a moderate hardness. The accurate Garcia da Horta is wrong for once in
saying that the tutia of Kerman is no mineral, but the ash of a certain
tree called Goan.
(Matth. on Dioscorides, Ven. 1565, pp. 1338-40; Teixeira, Relacion de
Persia, p. 121; Milburne's Or. Commerce, I. 139; Garcia, f. 21 v.;
Eng. Cyc., art. Zinc.)
[General A. Houtum-Schindler (Jour. R. As. Soc. N.S. XIII. October,
1881, p. 497) says: "The name Tutia for collyrium is now not used in
Kerman. Tutia, when the name stands alone, is sulphate of copper, which in
other parts of Persia is known as Kat-i-Kebud; Tutia-i-sabz (green Tutia)
is sulphate of iron, also called Zaj-i-siyah. 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.
