Agate— Archaeology and Folk-lore 35 
rimis), and a magpie flying into the open from a pine- 
tree. Fig. 4 is a plain agate bottle of various colors, 
brown in the upper portion and green in the lower 
one. Fig. 5 is a ring of moss agate, 1% inches in 
diameter. 
Agate was traded by the Chinese to their neigh- 
bors, the Tibetans, Mongols, Manchu, and Japanese, 
all of whom have adopted their word ma-nao (in Japa- 
nese meno). The Japanese, like the Chinese, manu- 
facture agate and carnelian into beads for rosaries, 
paper-weights, ink-stones for rubbing the cakes of 
ink on, fruits, buttons, seals, tea and wine cups, and 
in particular into the small ornaments known as 
netsuke. 
It is known in Japan that agate becomes more 
opaque on being exposed to sunlight or subjected to an 
intense heat in a closed jar, but the methods of color- 
ing agate artificially, as employed in Europe, were un- 
known both in China and Japan. 
The agate found in the province of Kaga was re- 
garded as very precious. A red variety of it was called 
"vine-grape stone," and served for plaques to be inlaid 
in girdles in the place of jade. The provinces Mutsu, 
Echiu, Suruga, and Kai have the highest reputation 
for their agates and the skill of their lapidaries. Agate 
was formerly also imported into Japan from China. 
Agate, being found in numerous localities of 
America, attracted the attention of the aboriginal in- 
habitants at an early date. In North America and 
Mexico agate was wrought into arrow-heads and spear- 
heads. A beautiful agate spear-head, for instance, was 
found in one of the Hopewell mounds of Ohio. The 
Museum has numerous agate beads recovered from 
prehistoric graves of Colombia, South America. 
B. Laufer. 
[139] 
