Page:Pounamu, notes on New Zealand greenstone (IA pounamunotesonne00robl).djvu/14

10 composition, while the brown markings which are sometimes seen in the stone are due to oxide of iron. Nephrite is about as hard as glass, and is found principally in New Zealand, Turkestan, China and Siberia. With the rarer jadeite, the choicest gem of the Chinese, our notes are not concerned; it must suffice to say that it is harder than nephrite; its green is more brilliant in hue; and that the finest specimens are found in Burma.

The word "jade" has a curious etymology. The Spaniards early discovered that eastern peoples held this stone in high regard on account of its hardness and beautiful colour no less than for its supposed magical and medicinal qualities. The Indians, the Chinese and the Japanese alike believed that worn as amulets or fashioned into drinking cups it was a bringer of good fortune, a prolonger of life, a guardian against the bite of venomous reptiles, a specific for internal illnesses; while by the Mexicans it was considered to be a protection against disease of the kidneys. It was on account of this superstition that the name piedra de ijada, of which our word "jade" is a corruption, or more correctly a contraction, was given by the early Spanish discoverers to this beautiful and remarkable mineral.

The word pounamu represented to the Maori everything that is precious. The figurative expression tatau pounamu meaning literally "greenstone door," was used, as Mr. Elsdon Best remarks in his Notes on the Art of War, as a picturesque synonym for the making of peace, a happy and precious closing of the door on war and strife. An ambassador conducting peace negotiations would use some such formula as ''Karanga! karanga! tenei te haere nei, "Welcome us! welcome us! here we come," and naming some well known hill would add te tatau pounamu ko mea maunga'', "Our greenstone door (that is, our place of peace) is such a hill."