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seek in vain throughout the length and breadth of Europe? 
Did they obtain it by barter with people from the East — by 
early intercourse with China, or Turkestan, or Siberia — or did 
the old lake-dwellers, when driven westwards from their Asiatic 
homes, bring with them their much-valued implements of 
jade ? 
As a remarkable example of an archaic implement in jade, 
attention may be called to an unique celt which was brought 
from Egypt many years ago by Captain Milner, and is now in 
the Christy Collection. The peculiarity of this implement lies 
in the fact that it bears upon its two faces Gnostic inscriptions 
neatly engraved in Greek characters. The general appearance 
of the celt, and the mode in which the inscription is incised — 
on one side in eight lines, on the other side in eighteen leaves 
upon a spiral axis — are sufficiently shown in figs. 6 and 7, PI. 
VIII. It is believed that the engraving was executed at 
Alexandria during the third or fourth century of our era ; but 
the celt itself is no doubt of much older date. Supposing it to 
have been picked up, the fortunate finder would regard it, in 
accordance with early opinion on such objects, as a ceraunia, or 
thunderbolt — a holy thing fallen from Jupiter — on which a 
mystic formula might appropriately be engraved, with the ad- 
vantage of making the spell doubly potent.* 
Although this remarkable specimen was found in Egypt, we 
are not aware that the ancient Egyptians ever employed jade as 
the material on which to exercise their glyptic art. It is true 
that some authorities have referred to jade as pietra d'Egitto ,f 
but there is here probably some mistake in the identification 
of the stone. Egyptian amulets and sepulchral ornaments are 
not unfrequently wrought in green stones, but these are mostly 
either jasper or felspar. The latter is the material now called 
Amazon stone ; but it should be noted that many of the older 
writers refer to jade under this name, whence it has been in- 
ferred that jade occurs in South America. 
All modern mineralogists, however, restrict the term Ama- 
zonite to an apple-green felspar, which until lately was re- 
ferred to the species Orthoclase , but which has recently been 
shown by Des Cloizeaux to be a variety of Microcline. At the 
present time the finest Amazon stone comes, not from the 
Amazons, but from Siberia, Labrador, and Colorado. It is 
uncertain, however, whence the Egyptians derived the green 
felspar which they employed. This felspar was used also by 
the Assyrians, who occasionally worked it into the well-known 
* “On a Oeraunia of Jade converted into a Gnostic Talisman,” by 0. W. 
King, M.A. “ Archaeolog. Journ.,” vol. xxv. 1868, p. 103. 
t Blumenbach, e.g. in bis “ Handbuch d. Naturgeschichte,” 1797. 
