70 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XIIL 



volume that the book in question seems to be still extant and is noticed in the Im- 

 perial Catalogue (Ch. 64, p. 5). Also M. Pelliot thinks that the work is extant, but 

 there are no modern editions of it. 



p. 55, note 5. As the emerald is not made mention of in the Bower Manuscript 

 of about 450 A. D., it would be justifiable to conclude that, taking the positive testi- 

 monies into consideration, the emerald was introduced into India not earlier than the 

 beginning of the sixth century A. D. The passage of Cosmas regarding the emerald 

 will be found on p. 371 of Mac Crindle's translation (Christian Topography, ed. of 

 Hakluyt Society, London, 1897). 



p. 56, note 3. T. Watters (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 352) believed 

 he recognized the Persian wovdfiruza in Chinese pi-liu (Nos. 9009 and 7245) or pi- 

 liu ski (stone) to which he ascribes the meaning of turquois (observation of M. 

 Pelliot). But the source from which the Chinese word is derived is not given. 



The discourse on se-se has furnished sufficient proof for the fact that the Chinese 

 designation of a stone may refer to different species according to different localities, 

 and that the significance of such a word may undergo changes in course of time. 

 Moreover, we observe that the name of a stone used with reference to a foreign 

 country does not necessarily denote the same species as the same name when applied 

 to the domestic variety. An interesting case of a similar bearing is presented by the 

 account on Japan in the Annals of the Later Han Dynasty {Hou Han shu, Ch. 115, 

 p. 5 b) where white pearls (pai chu) and (what from a Chinese point of view would 

 be a literal translation of the term) "green jade" {TsHng yil) are mentioned as prod- 

 ucts of Japan; indeed, the term has thus been translated, for instance, by E. H. 

 Parker {China Review, Vol. XVIII, p. 219 a). But it is evident that this translation 

 cannot be correct, for we know surely enough that Japan does not produce jade (see 

 Jade, pp. 351-4). It is therefore manifest that the word ts'ing yii in the above text 

 relates not to any kind of jade but to a Japanese stone, and that the term must be 

 taken from a Japanese, not a Chinese viewpoint, and it may be inferred also that it 

 must designate a mineral peculiar to Japan and absent in China. The Chinese 

 character yti is read in Japanese tama, and this Japanese word signifies any gem or 

 precious stone in general, or even more commonly a bead or ball of any stone. The 

 color name ts'ing (Japanese aoi, Sinico- Japanese sei) is of uncertain quality and refers 

 to the general color prevalent in nature, green, blue, black, gray, usually meaning any 

 dark neutral tint. Such a substance playing a large r61e in the antiquity of the 

 Japanese and the Ainu is obsidian. It is unknown in China, but found in several 

 localities of Japan (Bungo, Izu, Kai, Shinano, Tokachi: N. G. Munro, Prehistoric 

 Japan, p. 292, Yokohama, 1908). It was largely utilized, as in ancient Mexico, for 

 the manufacture of arrowheads, and abundant flakes scattered around in the sites 

 mentioned testify to its popylarity. As elsewhere, it was worked up also into beads 

 and balls to enter into personal adornment. 



P. F. v. SiEBOLD (Geogr. and Ethnogr. Elucidations to the Discoveries of M. G. 

 Vries, p. 175, Amsterdam, 1859) reports on obsidian balls received from Yezo, "from 

 two feet to two feet and a half in diameter, coal-black of color, and some small blue 

 pieces of stone, of which probably the so-called Krafto (properly Karajuto) tama, or 

 precious stone of Krafto is formed." It could appear from this statement that 

 obsidian and the blue Karafuto tama are considered by Siebold as different stones; 

 but, in another passage of the same book (p. 105), he comments on a blue bead chain 

 noticed by Vries in the ears of an Ainu woman of Saghalin that ' ' the most precious 

 are the blue obsidian which they call Krafto tama, precious stone from Krafto; these 

 blue corals [?] are found among all the peoples of the frigid zone, of the northern 

 hemisphere, from the Great Ocean up to Behring's Straits, where they were found by 

 von Kotzebue in the Sound which bears his name." A. J. C. Geerts (Les produits 

 de la nature japonaise et chinoise, p. 294, Yokohama, 1878) describes precious stones 

 under the name ruri-tama (written with the Chinese characters liu-li yii) as of deep- 

 blue color and entering into the necklaces of the ancient Japanese (the shitogi of the 

 Ainu). He identifies them with lapis lazuli, and says that these very rare stones 

 have been found on the Kurile Islands, several specimens of which are in the Museum 



