are at the small village Karik, a mile
from Medvar-i-Bala, 10 miles north of Shehr-i-Babek. They have two shafts,
one of which has lately been closed by an earthquake, and were worked up
to about twenty years ago. At another place, 12 miles from Shehr-i-Babek,
are seven old shafts now not worked for a long period. The stones of these
mines are also of a very pale blue, and have no great value."
(_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. 1881, p. 491.)

The finest turquoises came from Khorasan; the mines were near Maaden,
about 48 miles to the north of Nishapuer. (Heyd, _Com. du Levant_, II. p.
653; Ritter, _Erdk._ pp. 325-330.)

It is noticeable that Polo does not mention indigo at Kerman.--H. C.]

NOTE 3.--Edrisi says that excellent iron was produced in the "cold
mountains" N.W. of Jiruft, i.e. somewhere south of the capital; and _Jihan
Numa_, or Great Turkish Geography, that the steel mines of Niriz, on the
borders of Kerman, were famous. These are also spoken of by Teixeira.
Major St. John enables me to indicate their position, in the hills east of
Niriz. (_Edrisi_, vol. i. p. 430; _Hammer, Mem. lur la Perse_, p. 275;
_Teixeira, Relaciones_, p. 378; and see Map of Itineraries, No. II.)

["Marco Polo's steel mines are probably the Parpa iron mines on the road
from Kerman to Shiraz, called even to-day M'aden-i-fulad (steel mine);
they are not worked now. Old Kerman weapons, daggers, swords, old
stirrups, etc., made of steel, are really beautiful, and justify Marco
Polo's praise of them" (_Houtum-Schindler_, l.c. p. 491)--H. C.]

_Ondanique_ of the Geog. Text, _Andaine_ of Pauthier's, _Andanicum_ of the
Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since Ramusio's
time. The latter often asked the Persian merchants who visited Venice, and
they all agreed in stating that it was a sort of steel of such surpassing
value and excellence, that in the days of yore a man who possessed a
mirror, or sword, of _Andanic_ regarded it as he would some precious
jewel. This seems to me excellent evidence, and to give the true clue to
the meaning of _Ondanique_. I have retained the latter form because it
points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real word, viz.
_Hundwaniy_, "Indian Steel."[1] (See _Johnson's Pers. Dict._ and _De
Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe_, II. 148.) In the _Vocabulista Arabico_, of
about A.D. 1200 (Florence, 1871, p. 211), _Hunduwan_ is explained by
_Ensis_. Vuellers explains _Hundwan_ as "anything peculiar to I