Text, "Roze de l'acur,"
and in Pauthier's "de rose et de l'asur." Rose Minerale, in the
terminology of the alchemists, was a red powder produced in the
sublimation of gold and mercury, but I can find no elucidation of the term
Rose of Azure.
The Crusca Italian has in the same place Terra dello
Azzurro. Having ventured to refer the question to the high authority of
Mr. C. W. King, he expresses the opinion that Roze here stands for
Roche, and that probably the term Roche de l'azur may have been used
loosely for blue-stone, i.e. carbonate of copper, which would assume a
green colour through moisture. He adds: "Nero, according to Pliny,
actually used chrysocolla, the siliceous carbonate of copper, in powder,
for strewing the circus, to give the course the colour of his favourite
faction, the prasine (or green). There may be some analogy between this
device and that of Kublai Khan." This parallel is a very happy one.
[Illustration: Mei Shan]
NOTE 13. - Friar Odoric gives a description, short, but closely agreeing in
substance with that in the Text, of the Palace, the Park, the Lake, and
the Green Mount.
A green mount, answering to the description, and about 160 feet in height,
stands immediately in rear of the palace buildings. It is called by the
Chinese King-Shan, "Court Mountain," Wan-su-Shan, "Ten Thousand Year
Mount," and Mei-Shan, "Coal Mount," the last from the material of which
it is traditionally said to be composed (as a provision of fuel in case of
siege).[1] Whether this is Kublai's Green Mount does not seem to be quite
certain.
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