Introduction. 5 



of searching for jade, working it and valuing it so highly, originate 

 independently in all these quarters? Is it not possible, at least the- 

 oretically, that such an idea once arising was diffused from tribe to 

 tribe or group to group, as the agency in the search for the prized 

 material? Even in the present state of the question, it cannot be 

 denied that the possibilities of a trade in jade pieces existed, as sug- 

 gested by O. Montelius and Sophus Muller, whom Herman Hirt 

 (Die Indogermanen, Vol. I, p. 317, Strassburg, 1905) joins in their 

 view, as the sources from which they are derived are restricted to 

 a few localities. Such a commerce in Europe was an easy transaction, 

 if compared with the striking parallel in Asia moving on a much larger 

 scale. For the last two millenniums, Turkistan has furnished to China 

 the greater supply of her jade, wrought and unwrought, and the most 

 colossal bowlders of the mineral were constantly transported from 

 Khotan to Si-ngan fu and Peking over a trade-route unparalleled in 

 extent and arduousness in Europe and requiring a four to six months' 

 journey. There is, further, the example of the lively trade in jadeite 

 from Burma overland into Yunnan Province, and the transportation 

 of jeweled nephrite objects from India into China in the eighteenth 

 century. These are all achievements of commerce and transportation 

 compared to which the difficulties in the limited area of Europe dwindle 

 into a nothingness. If bronze was bartered from the Orient into the 

 northernmost part of Europe, if Prussian amber found its way to Italy, 

 Greece and anterior Asia, and if obsidian was everywhere propagated 

 by trade (Sophus Muller, /. c, p. 48; R. Dussaud, Les civilisations 

 prehelleniques, p. 77), it is reasonable and logical to conclude that 

 the same opportunities were open to jade. 



Nothing could induce me to the belief that primitive man of central 

 Europe incidentally and spontaneously embarked on the laborious task 

 of quarrying and working jade. The psychological motive for this act 

 must be supplied, and it can be deduced only from the source of his- 

 torical facts. From the standpoint of the general development of 

 culture in the Old World, there is absolutely no vestige of originality 

 in the prehistoric cultures of Europe which appear as an appendix to 

 Asia. Originality is certainly the rarest thing in this world, and in 

 the history of mankind the original thoughts are appallingly sparse. 

 There is, in the light of historical facts and experiences, no reason to 

 credit the prehistoric and early historic populations of Europe with 

 any spontaneous ideas relative to jade; they received these, as every- 

 thing else, from an outside source ; they gradually learned to appreciate 

 the value of this tough and compact substance, and then set to hunting 

 for natural supplies. 



