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Facts and Fancies About Precious Stones: Jehangir

Shah Jehangir relates in his memoirs that Munis Khan, son of Mihtar Khan, presented him with a jug of jasper (jade), which had been made in the reign of Mirza Ulugh Beg Gurgan, in the honored name of that prince. It was a very delicate rarity and of a beautiful shape. Its stone was exceedingly white and pure. Around the neck of the jar were carved characters expressing the auspicious name of the Mirza and the Hijra year. Jehangir ordered them to inscribe his name and the auspicious name of Akbar on the edge of the lip of the jar.

Jade ornaments of ancient workmanship have been found in Syria, and it is quite likely that in many cases where the designation plasma is used by ancient writers, true jade, or nephrite, was the material. As there was no specific designation for jade, the different varieties were assimilated to other stones of like color and appearance, so that, among others, the names jasper, plasma and even smaragdus were used to denote jade. Mortuary tablets of jade have been used from time immemorial in China for the reception of historic inscriptions, the toughness and durability of the material making it especially desirable for this purpose. In the case of rulers, such tablets not only bore the names of the deceased sovereign but also an epitome of the leading events of his reign, and additions were made to this record from time to time so that in historic value they may be compared with the clay tablets of Babylonia and Assyria. One of these interesting monuments found its way to San Francisco, after the looting of the Forbidden City by the international army of relief in 1901. On it appeared a record of the treaty between the United States and China in 1868, and the other records went back to the death of Shun Chi in 1661. Probably owing to exposure to the weather the earlier inscriptions were not very legible. At all important Chinese marriage ceremonies the priest carries what is known as a "marriage sword." This is usually about twelve or thirteen inches in length and the sheath is often studded with various pink stones, cut en cabochon. The stones most favored for this decoration are pink tourmaline, rubellite from the Shan Mountains, or rose-quartz, and the natural color of these gems is often intensified by placing a pink paste or foil beneath them; occasionally the coloration of the stones is enhanced by dipping them in a pink aniline solution. A piece of green jade is usually set as a boss at the hilt of this symbolical sword. In one remarkable specimen the guard consisted of a piece of white jade with the figure of a dragon carved in relief upon it; the sword-blade was of bronze. At the marriage ceremony the bridegroom is given the sword to hold, and the bride the sheath; as the wedding ring is placed upon the bride's finger, sword and sheath are brought together. Among the innumerable forms of jade decoration or carving, produced by the indefatigable and painstaking Chinese artists, is a small curved wand often having a trefoil termination; sometimes the entire wand is of jade, and at other times it is of teakwood adorned with jade medallions, frequently showing birds and flowers. This wand was used as a kind of sceptre of office, and the official entitled to bear it would hold it in both hands when standing before the emperor. Its name, ju-i, means "may all be," and is to be taken as a wish that everything may turn out fortunately. In modern times the ju-i is carried as a lucky charm, although its official significance is not forgotten. This form of wand is said to have been introduced into China from India, at the time of the Buddhist propaganda, and in representations of Buddhist priests they are sometimes shown carrying one of them. In ancient India it was taught to be one of the seven precious objects, the septa-ratna, mentioned in the Vedas. This Indian origin is, of course, highly probable, but it is strange that in ancient Egypt also, curved wands of a somewhat different type, made of ivory and embellished with symbolical figures, possessed the same blended significance of marks of official dignity and magic wands. A large mass of lapis lazuli was found in one of the Inca graves of Peru by Senor Emilio Montes, and was exhibited by him in the Centennial Exhibition of 1913. With the exception of one corner that has been chipped off, the block is of symmetrical form, the dimensions being, in inches, 24 x 14 x 9, and the weight 312 pounds. The smoothed surface gives evidence of careful and fairly successful polishing by the native lapidaries. This exceptionally fine specimen of lapis lazuli is now in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Evidently in ancient Peru as in the Old World the "celestial hue" of lapis lazuli was thought to render it most appropriate for use as a memorial offering to the dead or as a talisman by the aid of which their heavenward journey might be made easier.