60 The Diamond 



Sui," "gem of the spiritual snake," or "moonlight pearl." 1 The same 

 Chinese work offers another parallel that is still closer to Aelian, inas- 

 much as the bird in question is a crane, which would naturally take the 

 place of the stork not occurring in China. "K'uai Ts'an nursed his 

 mother in a most filial manner. There nested on his house a crane, 

 which was shot by men practising archery, and in a wretched condition 

 returned to Ts'an's place. Ts'an nursed the bird and healed its wound, 

 and, the cure being effected, released it. Subsequently it happened 

 one night that cranes arrived before the door of his house. Ts'an 

 seized a torch, and, on examination, noted that a couple of cranes, male 

 and female, had come, carrying in their beaks moon-bright pearls 

 (ming yiie chu) to recompense his good deed." 2 The coincidences in 

 these three Chinese versions and the story of the Greek author, even in 

 unimportant details, are so striking, that an historical connection be- 

 tween the two is obvious. The dependence of the Chinese upon the 

 Greek story is evidenced by the feature of the moon-bright pearls, 

 whose actual existence is ascribed by the Chinese to the Hellenistic 

 Orient. 8 



Hirth has conjectured that the Chinese name "jewel that shines 

 at night" possibly is an allusion to the ancient name carbunculus, cor- 

 responding to Greek anthrax (the ruby). Pliny, however, in the chapter 

 devoted to this stone, has no report about its shining at night. He 

 insists, quite naturally, on its "fire," from which it has received its 

 name, carbunculus meaning "a red-hot coal." 4 The only blade of 

 straw to which the above hypothesis might cling may be found in the 

 words quoted by Pliny from Archelaus, who affirmed that these stones 

 indoors appear purple in color; in the open air, however, flaming. 6 

 What I translate by "indoors" means literally, "when the roof over- 

 shadows one." This phrase evidently implies no allusion to a dark 

 room, but is used in the sense of "in the shadow of a house," in opposi- 

 tion to the following open-air inspection of the stones. The only 

 ancient text known to me, that mentions a ruby shining at night (and 

 styled "color of marine purple"), is a small Greek alchemical work 



1 Compare A. Forke, Lun-h6ng, pt. I, p. 378; and Petillon (Allusions litteraires, 

 p. 243), who quotes this story from Huai-nan-tse. 



8 L. c, ki shi, 1, p. 6 b. 



s In a wider sense this typical story belongs to the cycle of the grateful animals, 

 a favorite subject of the Greeks in the Alexandrian epoch (compare A. Marx, 

 Griechische Marchen von dankbaren Tieren; and F. Susemihl, Geschichte der 

 griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, Vol. I, p. 856). 



4 Compare Theophrastus, De lapidibus, 18 (opera ed. Wimmer, p. 343). 



6 Eosdem obumbrante tecto purpureos videri, sub caelo flammeos (xxxvn, 25, 

 §95)- 



