300 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. X. 



ivory-colored 1 material, probably marble, which is decomposed and 

 showing a rough surface in i and 3, while the original fine polish is 

 preserved in 2. The substance of 3 has withered away so much that 

 the ornamentation has disappeared and deep holes are eaten into the 

 surfaces. The lines engraved on 1 and 2 explain themselves by serving 

 the purpose of marking the parts of the tongue. In all these pieces, 

 the medial portion is high and gradually sloping down towards the edges. 

 In Fig. 1 the under surface is flat, and the tip is 

 slightly turned upward. In Fig. 2, the lower side 

 is shaped in the same manner as the upper one, 

 but laid out with a different design of lines, as 

 will be seen from Text-Figure 196. 



The piece in Fig. 4, Plate XXXVI is of a 

 uniformly pure milk-white jade, the two dark 

 lines showing in the photograph being yellow in 

 color. Rounded over the upper surface, it con- 

 sists of two slanting portions on its lower side 

 with a short incision cut horizontally into the 

 medial line, in the same way as will be seen in 

 Fig. 8 of this Plate. 



Figures 5-9 of the same Plate show five varia- 

 tions of the cicada type, that in 5 being the most 

 realistic, those in 8 and 9 being in an advanced 

 stage of conventionalization. In Fig. 5 a, the two wings and the body 

 are well designed ; 5 b displays the lower face of the same specimen. All 

 of this type have the two faces ornamented differently. The hardened 

 earth incrustations which have penetrated into No. 6 will be recognized 

 in the illustration. Both 5 and 6 are of grayish jade, and of excellent 

 workmanship. No. 7 is remarkable for its size, its color, and its elegant 

 technique. The color of jade is black in the two wings and the right 

 upper portion, and dark-gray in the central and upper part. In this, 

 as in so many other cases, we have occasion to admire the ingenuity and 

 the color sense of the artist in carving the jade block in such a way that 

 the colors were appropriately distributed, either to an artistic end, or as 

 here, to lend an object its real colors, a realism of color and a color of 

 realism. No. 8 is the smallest and plainest of this type which I know, 

 and not ornamented on the obverse; it is of lustrous white jade with a 

 slight greenish tinge. In the two slanting sides, it agrees with the plain 

 tongue-shaped type, but the style of carving shows that here also the 

 figure of the cicada is intended. No. 9 shows the specimen on its lower 

 face which is of grayish jade, but with a very peculiar chocolate-brown 



Fig. 196. 

 Lower Face of Tongue- 

 Amulet shown in Plate 

 XXXVI, Fig. 2. 



1 Called by the Chinese " chickenbone-white " (chi ku pai). 



