"The Russians
have in their country a silver-mine similar to that which exists in
Khorasan, at the mountain of Banjhir" (i.e. Panjshir; II. 15; and see
supra, vol. i. p. 161). These positive and concurrent testimonies as to
Russian silver-mines are remarkable, as modern accounts declare that no
silver is found in Russia. And if we go back to the 16th century,
Herberstein says the same. There was no silver, he says, except what was
imported; silver money had been in use barely 100 years; previously they
had used oblong ingots of the value of a ruble, without any figure or
legend. (Ram. II. 159.)
But a welcome communication from Professor Bruun points out that the
statement of Ibn Batuta identifies the silver-mines in question with
certain mines of argentiferous lead-ore near the River Mious (a river
falling into the sea of Azof, about 22 miles west of Taganrog); an ore
which even in recent times has afforded 60 per cent. of lead, and 1/24 per
cent. of silver. And it was these mines which furnished the ancient
Russian rubles or ingots. Thus the original ruble was the saumah of
Ibn Batuta, the sommo of Pegolotti. A ruble seems to be still called by
some term like saumah in Central Asia; it is printed soom in the
Appendix to Davies's Punjab Report, p. xi. And Professor Bruun tells me
that the silver ruble is called Som by the Ossethi of Caucasus.[2]
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 920 of 1350
Words from 247238 to 247489
of 370046
