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.'_)

"L'altra letizia, che m'era gia nota,
Preclara cosa mi si fece in vista,
Qual fin _balascio_ in che lo Sol percuoto."
(_Paradiso_, ix. 67.)

Some account of the Balakhsh from Oriental sources will be found in _J.
As._ ser V. tom. xi. 109.

(_I. B._ III. 59, 394; _Alb. Mag. de Mineralibus; Pegol._ p. 307; _N. et
E._ XIII. i. 246.)

["The Mohammedan authors of the Mongol period mention Badakhshan several
times in connection with the political and military events of that period.
Guchluk, the 'gurkhan of Karakhitai,' was slain in Badakhshan in 1218
(_d'Ohsson_, I. 272). In 1221, the Mongols invaded the country (l.c. I.
272). On the same page, d'Ohsson translates a short account of Badakhshan
by Yakut (+ 1229), stating that this mountainous country is famed for its
precious stones, and especially rubies, called _Balakhsh_."
(Bretschneider, _Med. Res._ II. p. 66.)--H. C.]

The account of the royal monopoly in working the mines, etc., has
continued accurate down to our own day. When Murad Beg of Kunduz conquered
Badakhshan some forty years ago, in disgust at the small produce of the
mines, he abandoned working them, and sold nearly all the population o