The operation was performed by means of a stone of magical virtues, called Yadah or Jadah-Tash, which was placed in or hung over a basin of water with sundry ceremonies.  The possession of such a stone is ascribed by the early Arab traveller Ibn Mohalhal to the Kimak, a great tribe of the Turks.  In the war raised against Chinghiz and Aung Khan, when still allies, by a great confederation of the Naiman and other tribes in 1202, we are told that Sengun, the son of Aung Khan, when sent to meet the enemy, caused them to be enchanted, so that all their attempted movements against him were defeated by snow and mist.  The fog and darkness were indeed so dense that many men and horses fell over precipices, and many also perished with cold.  In another account of (apparently) the same matter, given by Mir-Khond, the conjuring is set on foot by the Yadachi of Buyruk Khan, Prince of the Naiman, but the mischief all rebounds on the conjurer’s own side.

In Tului’s invasion of Honan in 1231-1232, Rashiduddin describes him, when in difficulty, as using the Jadah stone with success.

Timur, in his Memoirs, speaks of the Jets using incantations to produce heavy rains which hindered his cavalry from acting against them.  A Yadachi was captured, and when his head had been taken off the storm ceased.

Baber speaks of one of his early friends, Khwaja Ka Mulai, as excelling in falconry and acquainted with Yadagari or the art of bringing on rain and snow by means of enchantment.  When the Russians besieged Kazan in 1552 they suffered much from the constant heavy rains, and this annoyance was universally ascribed to the arts of the Tartar Queen, who was celebrated as an enchantress.  Shah Abbas believed he had learned the Tartar secret, and put much confidence in it. (P.  Delia V. I. 869.)

[Grenard says (II. p. 256) the most powerful and most feared of sorcerers [in Chinese Turkestan] is the djaduger, who, to produce rain or fine weather, uses a jade stone, given by Noah to Japhet.  Grenard adds (II. 406-407) there are sorcerers (Ngag-pa-snags-pa) whose specialty is to make rain fall; they are similar to the Turkish Yadachi and like them use a stone called “water cristal,” chu shel; probably jade stone.

Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, p. 245, note) writes:  “Rashideddin states that when the Urianghit wanted to bring a storm to an end, they said injuries to the sky, the lightning and thunder.  I have seen this done myself by Mongol storm-dispellers. (See Diary, 201, 203.) ’The other Mongol people,’ he adds, ’do the contrary.  When the storm rumbles, they remain shut up in their huts, full of fear.’  The subject of storm-making, and the use of stones for that purpose, is fully discussed by Quatremere, Histoire, 438-440.” (Cf. also Rockhill, l.c. p. 254.)—­H.  C.]