ETHNOLOGY. 4(/9 



divers, forming a line, plunge together into the water, and when one of 

 them discovers a piece of jade he throws it ou shore. A drum is then 

 beaten and a red mark is made on a piece of paper. The fishing over, 

 the inspector examines all the pieces and assesses their value. Some 

 masses reach as high as forty centimeters. The city of Yarkand sends 

 every year to Kbotan, whence it is dispatched to the court of Pekin, 

 from four to six thousand kilograms of jade. In this amount is not in- 

 cluded the cut and sculptured pieces, nowhere more skillfully executed 

 than by the lapidaries of Akson, which is the actual capital of Chinese 

 Tartary, by those of Kashgar, and also by those of Yarkand itself, the 

 former capital, where working in jade engages the most hands. 



The variety of jade of which we have been speaking is what is called 

 yu by the Chinese, aud is designated by Leman as white oriental jade, 

 being white, with a faint greenish or olive shade of color, and of which 

 mineral deposits are known to exist in Japan and India. A very rare 

 sort also is found in China, but not of first-rate value. We now speak 

 of the emerald-green or imperial jade. Of the latter, exquisite speci- 

 mens were to be seen at the Louirette sale, 1864, but it was almost en- 

 tirely unknown prior to the French expedition to China. This haud- 

 some stone was included in the collection of the Duke de Moray, form- 

 ing the base of a firescreen framed or mounted in bronze gilt. It was 

 also seen worked up in spheres, rings, and many forms of jewelry. M. 

 Edouard Fould possesses a large and handsome vase of emerald-green 

 jade, a piece not less remarkable for its size than the quality of the 

 stone, (I860.) 



The pretended jades of Europe, America, aud Oceania, which are 

 sometimes called the jade of Saussure, and now receive the name of 

 jadeite or nephrite, are only some inferior sorts of compact feldspar 

 under which name Haiiy placed them. 



Among the latter which usurp the reputation of true jade, we may 

 mention the dull-green jade. It is received from Sumatra, South 

 America, and New Zealand. The natives pretend that they fish it up from 

 their lakes, already fashioned into vases; that it is plastic like clay, be- 

 coming on exposure to the air as hard as flint. They make of it vases, 

 hatchets, casse-tetes, as well as statuettes. The name of jade ascien or 

 axinien is derived from them. When it is of a leek-green color, which 

 is really the shade which characterizes orthose-feldspar or Amazon stone, 

 it takes the name of nephritic jade or rather nephrite, because it was 

 for a long time held as a specific in cases of nephritic colic. The latter 

 variety of feldspar is widely diffused in Russia and Greenland. By 

 reason of its imaginary benefits, and the marvelous cures performed by 

 it, this kind of jade obtained celebrity in Europe. Plates of it were cut 

 into fantastic shapes, representing animals, a heart, lozenge, &c. 

 It was then suspended on the person and especially from the neck. 

 Yoiture, in one of his letters, addressed to Mademoiselle Paulet, states 

 that, in his time, persons afflicted with gravel had also recourse to these 



