Portal logo
have stayed there. God knows the requirements of His creatures.
Extremely slender gold wires measuring a few yards are found to
occur naturally in Zaruban, and seem to have been formed as if they
look like wires employed in joining beads, the upper parts of boxes and
socks.
The Indians from Kashmir reported that the residents of the Dardar
country are called Buhtawaran and that these people are near Kashmir
from the direction of Turkestan. Sometimes gold accumulates in the
fields within the (shallow cavities) left by the impressions of the oxen's
steps. These gold pieces, however, are light and less expensive. These
people say that the ox owned by Mahadiv, the chief of the angels, gave
this gift to the ox of the cultivator. However, rarely are such pieces
found and they are admixed with earth. As they are extremely rare and
are encountered but very rarely, they cannot be located through search.
Nor does it frequently happen that the hoofed animal of any cultivator
or shepherd should step over the site, and slip so that the nugget is
manifested in whole or part, and then gradually collected.
A drum-shaped small stone, the size of the finger, was found in Zaruban. The middle part of it was constricted and it had a gold ring like an
anklet. There was another long stone like an emerald pipe with its elongated portion perforated and a gold piece was threaded to it.
An indented gold piece weighing 14 rath was found in a valley at the
foot of the Shiknan Mountain, where there is one of the fountain-heads
of the Jayhun. Likewise a gold piece weighing 60 rath was found in a
valley facing Shah Wakhan. A prospector of gold found a gold piece
which weighed 80 rath in the valley of Sharasht. The chieftain of this
place wished to purchase it, but the owner refused to part with it till the
chieftain offered all the gold he had at a great loss to himself in exchange
for it, and took the piece from him. He then had this piece suspended in
front of his house by a chain to display his possession and proud boast.
In the Sarshanak mines of Zaruban was found a gold piece measuring
one cubit in length and one cubit in width. Its weight can be estimated
to be in the neighbourhood of six thousand rath. Now weight of the
cube of water, the one side of which measures a cubit, will be one
nineteenth part of cube if it were of gold.
The Jews located in the Sankzariz mines in Zaruban a gold piece
which looked like an erect and forged tablet. It measured ten dhiras.
There is a vein of gold in the al-Muhib gold mines which would get wider
and wider as one digs it or narrower and narrower, if the vein runs
according to the latter trend, it would end when excavated. On the
other hand, if it becomes wider, it would take the prospector to the
source. If this vein is not continuous but dispersed, it may either be long
or short, and the same position would obtain as described earlier. As for
204