SHISHMUHULL, s. Pers. shīsha-maḥal, lit. 'glass apartment' or palace. This is or was a common appendage of native palaces, viz. a hall or suite of rooms lined with mirror and other glittering surfaces, usually of a gimcrack aspect. There is a place of exactly the same description, now gone to hideous decay, in the absurd Villa Palagonia at Bagheria near Palermo.
1835.—"The Shīsha-mahal, or house of glass, is both curious and elegant, although the material is principally pounded talc and looking-glass. It consists of two rooms, of which the walls in the interior are divided into a thousand different panels, each of which is filled up with raised flowers in silver, gold, and colours, on a ground-work of tiny convex mirrors."—Wanderings of a Pilgrim, i. 365.
SHOE OF GOLD (or of Silver). The name for certain ingots of precious metal, somewhat in the form of a Chinese shoe, but more like a boat, which were formerly current in the trade of the Far East. Indeed of silver they are still current in China, for Giles says: "The common name among foreigners for the Chinese silver ingot, which bears some resemblance to a native shoe. May be of any weight from 1 oz. and even less, to 50 and sometimes 100 oz., and is always stamped by the assayer and banker, in evidence of purity" (Gloss. of Reference, 128). [In Hissar the Chinese silver is called sillī from the slabs (sil) in which it is sold (Maclagan, Mon. on Gold and Silver Work in Punjab, p. 5).] The same form of ingot was probably the bālish (or yāstok) of the Middle Ages, respecting which see Cathay, &c., 115, 481, &c. Both of these latter words mean also 'a cushion,' which is perhaps as good a comparison as either 'shoe' or 'boat.' The word now used in C. Asia is yambū. There are cuts of the gold and silver ingots in Tavernier, whose words suggest what is probably the true origin of the popular English name, viz. a corruption of the Dutch Goldschuyt.
1566.—"... valuable goods exported from this country (China) ... are first, a quantity of gold, which is carried to India, in loaves in the shape of boats...."—C. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391b.
1611.—"Then, I tell you, from China I could load ships with cakes of gold fashioned like boats, containing, each of them, roundly speaking, 2 marks weight, and so each cake will be worth 280 pardaos."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, p. 155.
1676.—"The Pieces of Gold mark'd Fig. 1, and 2, are by the Hollanders called Goltschut, that is to say, a Boat of Gold, because they are in the form of a Boat. Other Nations call them Loaves of Gold.... The Great Pieces come to 12 hundred Gilders of Holland Money, and thirteen hundred and fifty Livres of our Money."—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 8.
1702.—"Sent the Moolah to be delivered the Nabob, Dewan, and Buxie 48 China Oranges ... but the Dewan bid the Moolah write the Governor for a hundred more that he might send them to Court; which is understood to be One Hundred shoes of gold, or so many thousand pagodas or rupees."—In Wheeler, i. 397.
1704.—"Price Currant, July, 1704, (at Malacca) ... Gold, China, in Shoos 94 Touch."—Lockyer, 70.
1862.—"A silver ingot 'Yambu' weighs about 2 (Indian) seers ... = 4 lbs., and is worth 165 Co.'s rupees. Koomoosh, also called 'Yambucha,' or small silver ingot, is worth 33 Rs. ... 5 yambuchas, being equal to 1 yambu. There are two descriptions of 'yambucha'; one is a square piece of silver, having a Chinese stamp on it; the other ... in the form of a boat, has no stamp. The Yambu is in the form of a boat, and has a Chinese stamp on it."—Punjab Trade Report, App. ccxxvi.-xxviii. 1.
1875.—"The yámbú or kúrs is a silver ingot something the shape of a deep boat with projecting bow and stern. The upper surface is lightly hollowed, and stamped with a Chinese inscription. It is said to be pure silver, and to weigh 50 (Cashghar) ser = 30,000 grains English."—Report of Forsyth's Mission to Kashghar, 494.