ON JADE AND KINDRED STONES. 
339 
that, by merely wearing a bracelet of jade, the fortunate possessor 
is kept free from any attack of such malady. 
Among the many novelties which Sir Walter Raleigh intro- 
duced into this country, mention should be made of the jade- 
stone. Such at least is the testimony of Sir Hans Sloane, who 
refers to him when speaking of the hard green stone found as 
pebbles upon the shores of Jamaica. “This,” says the naturalist, 
“ is the piedra hijada of the Spaniards, and Pierre de Jade 
of the French authors, who magnify the virtues of it so as to 
make them incredible ; nay, Mr. Labart, a French late author, 
would make us believe it cures epileptic fits. Sir Walter Raleigh 
first brought some of them to England, giving vast encomiums 
of them.” * 
Sir Hans Sloane describes this jade under the name of Spleen- 
stone or Jasper viridis. So close, indeed, is its resemblance to 
some kinds of green jasper that it was generally described by 
early authors under that name. For this reason, among others, 
there is considerable obscurity in the references of the older 
writers upon precious stones, and it is in many cases impossible 
to determine whether they mean jade, jasper, or some other 
dark green mineral. Those who care to thread their way through 
the maze of ancient and mediaeval writers will find an able and 
sympathetic guide in Professor Fischer, of Freiburg-im-Baden, 
who, attacking the subject with Teutonic perseverance, has 
produced an exhaustive monograph on jade.f 
From Nova Hispania the Spanish conquerors obtained some 
valuable green stones, among which jade was probably included. 
Curiously enough no jade is now known to occur in Mexico or 
in Central America, or indeed, anywhere on the American con- 
tinent. Yet it seems beyond doubt that the mineral was em- 
ployed in ancient Aztec art, and it appears to have been one of 
the stones to which the term chalchihuitl was applied. 
The chalchihuitl is a stone which the old Spanish chroniclers 
are never tired of extolling. When Cortez landed at San Juan 
de Ulua, the first messengers sent by Montezuma brought with 
them “ four chalchihuitls, a species of green stone of uncommon 
value, which is held in higher estimation with them than the 
smaragdus.” So writes the chronicler Bernal Diaz, as translated 
by Lockhart. As a matter of course, supernatural powers were 
attributed to the stone; and indeed there is a legend which 
asserts that Quetzacoatl, the great lawgiver and high-priest of 
the ancient Mexicans, was begotten by a chalchihuitl placed in 
the bosom of the goddess Chimalma. 
* “ The Natural History of Jamaica,” vol. ii. 1725, pp. 338, 339. 
t “ Nephrit und Jadeit, nach ihren mineralogischen Eigenschaften sowie 
uack ihrer urgeschichtlichen und ethnographischen Bedeutung.” Stuttgart, 
1875. 
