time when the Persians got the upper hand
in Asia, they used to concede to such persons as brought spring-water to
places previously destitute of irrigation, the usufruct for five
generations. And Taurus being rife with springs, they incurred all the
expense and trouble that was needed to form these underground channels to
great distances, insomuch that in these days even the people who make use
of the water don't know where the channels begin, or whence the water
comes." (X. 28.)

CHAPTER XXI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF COBINAN AND THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE THERE.

Cobinan is a large town.[NOTE 1] The people worship Mahommet. There is
much Iron and Steel and _Ondanique_, and they make steel mirrors of great
size and beauty. They also prepare both _Tutia_ (a thing very good for the
eyes) and _Spodium_; and I will tell you the process.

They have a vein of a certain earth which has the required quality, and
this they put into a great flaming furnace, whilst over the furnace there
is an iron grating. The smoke and moisture, expelled from the earth of
which I speak, adhere to the iron grating, and thus form _Tutia_, whilst
the slag that is left after burning is the _Spodium_.[NOTE 2]

NOTE 1.--KUH-BANAN is mentioned by Mokaddasi (A.D. 985) as one of the
cities of Bardesir, the most northerly of the five circles into which he
divides Kerman. (See _Sprenger, Post- und Reise-routen des Orients_, p.
77.) It is the subject of an article in the Geog. Dictionary of Yakut,
though it has been there mistranscribed into _Kubiyan_ and _Kukiyan_. (See
Leipzig ed. 1869, iv. p. 316, and _Barbier de Meynard_, _Dict. de la
Perse_, p. 498.) And it is also indicated by Mr. Abbott (_J. R. G. S._
XXV. 25) as the name of a district of Kerman, lying some distance to the
east of his route when somewhat less than half-way between Yezd and
Kerman. It would thus, I apprehend, be on or near the route between Kerman
and Tabbas; one which I believe has been traced by no modern traveller. We
may be certain that there is now no place at Kuh-Banan deserving the title
of _une cite grant_, nor is it easy to believe that there was in Polo's
time; he applies such terms too profusely. The meaning of the name is
perhaps "Hill of the Terebinths, or Wild Pistachioes," "a tree which grows
abundantly in the recesses of bleak, stony, and desert mountains, e.g.
about Shamakhi, about Shiraz, and in the deserts of Luristan and Lar."
(_Kaempfer_, 409, 413.)