Feb., 1912. 



Jade. 



221 



bestowed as gifts upon Turkish princes (Chavannes, I. c, pp. 30, 32, 

 36 etc.). A well illustrated article on these fish-purses will be found 

 in No. 58 of the Kokka. Bronze tallies in the forms of a fish, a tortoise, 

 a tiger, and a seal are in our collection. 



Figures 120 and 121 are styled girdle -ornaments with double phenixes 

 (shuang luan p'ei). The luan is a fabulous bird, related in design to 

 the feng and huang. The former has been identified by Prof. Newton l 



<3> 



M m 



Fig. 120. 



Jade Girdle-Pendant, Pair of Phenixes or Peacocks 



(from Ku yii t'u p'u). 



Fig. 121. 



Jade Girdle-Pendant, Pair of Phenixes or 



Peacocks (from Ku yii t'u p'u\. 



with the Argus pheasant of Borneo and Malacca, the latter with the 

 peacock of India. These identifications seem quite plausible, especially 

 as far as the more recent elaborate representations of these birds are 

 concerned. The text explains only that they are holding flowers in 

 their beaks, and refers us to Shih Ts'ung who is known as a practical 

 joker, and who died in 300 a. d. (Giles, Biographical Dictionary, p. 651) ; 

 he is said to have kept in his seraglio a hundred beauties who all carried 

 in their girdles ornaments of fine jade in the shape of phenixes (fing 

 luan); the present one, thinks the Ku yii t'u p'u, is one of that lot. 

 While nothing can force us to make this conclusion our own, it is quite 



1 See Giles, Adversaria Sinica, No. I, p. 9. 



