Jade

“ A most important element contributing to the popularity of jade has been its supposed possession of wonderful talismanic and therapeutic virtues, and while the Western world has not the same belief in these matters as the Eastern world, a more or less definite appreciation of what jade still signifies for many in the Orient, continues to exercise an influence over both Americans and Europeans, making objects of nephrite or jadeite highly prized everywhere at the present time. ”

“ She must have been a cow of the gods.
One day while he had her out at pasture in the mountains, she suddenly began to speak to the Herd Boy in a human voice, as follows: “This is the Seventh Day. Now the White Jade Ruler has nine daughters, who bathe this day in the Sea of Heaven. The seventh daughter is beautiful and wise beyond all measure. She spins the cloud-silk for the King and Queen of Heaven, and presides over the weaving which maidens do on earth. It is for this reason she is called the Weaving Maiden. ”

“ Dr G. M. Dawson, arguing from the discovery of some boulders of jade in the Fraser river valley, held that they were not obtained by barter from Siberia, but were of native origin; and the locality was afterwards discovered by Lieut. G. M. Stoney. It is known as the Jade Mountains, and is situated north of Kowak river, about 150 miles from its mouth. The study of a large collection of jade implements by Professor F. W. Clarke and Dr G. P. Merrill proved that the Alaskan jade is true nephrite, not to be distinguished from that of New Zealand. ”

“ On this thickly wooded island are found white monkeys, the servants of the Princess, who still lives in the center of the mountain. On a quiet day high up on the mountain side one can hear the chanting and singing of the waiting-girls of the wife of Bantugan.
338 THE PESTLE AND MORTAR OF JADE Once upon a time, so very long ago that even the great-grandfathers of our great-grandmothers had not been born, there lived in the city of Kwen-lu a little Chinese boy named Pei-Hang. ”

“ My mother was a Malay woman, and she’s alive. I lived near a temple in the hills where the priests believed in what they said and read, which isn’t always the case in that country. It was a famous temple, and the more famous on account of what was in it, this being a lot of images of Buddha, all the work of one man. The name of the man was Lung Sen, and he had the blood of forefathers who were the greatest artists of their time in wood and gold and jade. ”

“ Blunt nodded. “Yes, but not often. The original of this may have come from Indo-China, up northeast of the Bay of Bengal. I reckon it would be about five hundred years old. They don’t make them often nowadays. These things sometimes drift down into the Malay country, but they’re not supposed to. Look here, sir, I’ve a leaning for carved jade, which brings a good price from the Chinese, and I’ll trade you anything in my pack for the original of this.” ”

“ Graceless, over-joyed at this News, and to shew himself grateful to the old Bawd, presents her with a Guinea, before he saw his Miss—Who being hereby incouraged, soon brings them together; and at first sight he's mightily taken with her. But she seems very Coy, and wou'd hardly let him salute her; Upon which the Bawd tells her, he's a very worthy Gentleman, and one that deserves her Love. What Love can I expect (replies the cunning Jade) from one that has a Wife already? ”

“ She remembered me as a gardener for Mr. Millicent, and that I was good with flowers, and nothing else.” He broke off in distress and sent Blunt a pathetic glance.
“You people are getting the truth,” said the latter, fingering his handcuffs. “Go on, Martin.”
“Well, I waited and waited, knowing that that lot in the Mong Hills would never forget, or give the thing up, and the jade god was working somewhere in the dark. Then came the night when it happened. I was out behind the cottage when my wife came tearing down the drive like a crazy woman, screaming that she had had a terrible dream and Mr. ”

“ Millicent. You can’t guess what it’s like to be hunting a wife who has gone in pursuit of a man you never saw.”
“No,” said Derrick slowly, “I can’t.”
“Well, sir, that was my case, and when finally I found her I learned the truth. It wasn’t Mr. Millicent himself at all, but that damned jade god he had stolen, that and perhaps the jungle madness. Maybe Blunt here will tell you more about the thing. Mind you, the natives believed in it, and whatever it was that got into her blood made her believe in it, too. At any rate, Mr. ”

“ THREE IS TRUMPERY.
The crown must be won for Heaven, dear,
In the battle-field of life:
My child, though thy foes are strong and tried,
He loveth the weak and small;
The Angels of Heaven are on thy side,
And God is over all!
—Adelaide Proctor.
Judy's life was sunshine, and therefore Judy got quickly well; she was like the birds and the flowers—give her sunshine enough, and she would sing like the birds and bloom like the flowers. Hilda was her sun, and now she was always basking herself in the beloved presence. ”

“ It was Yaada, lovely Yaada, who first taught the stream its sighing,
For 'twas silent till her coming, and 'twas voiceless as the shore;
But throughout the great forever it will sing the song undying
That the lips of lovers sing for evermore. ”

“ On seeing the brilliancy of the jewel from a distance, the descendants of Judoo stood still with admiration, and began to say to Shree Krishnù Jee, “O great king! the sun is coming here from a longing desire to see you. Bruhmù, Roodrù, Indrù and all the gods worship you; and meditating upon you during the eight puhurs, sing of your celebrity. You are the immortal first male, Vishnù, Luchmee has become your servant, and constantly waits upon you. You are the god of all the gods. No one knows your nature. Your attributes and qualities of mind are limitless; now, O lord! ”

“ Judd had never seen, even in pictures. After looking more carefully at the miniature and then up into the eyes that were watching hers, she found the same square forehead and sensitive mouth, and the same dark melancholy, heavily fringed eyes, by far the most beautiful she had ever seen. The picture in her hand was a truthful portrait of himself. As she looked from the portrait into the face before her she felt it was perhaps fortunate this mother was ignorant of the changes that already had turned the current of his life. ”

“ Judith.
That was the cunning world.
It moved me by your grief to give myself
Into the pleasure of its ravenous love.
A Citizen.
Judith, if thy hot spirit beareth still
Indignant suffering of villainy,
Think, that thou hast no wrong from it. Such things
Are in themselves dead, and have only life
From what lives round them. And around thee glory
Lives and will force its splendour on the harm
Thy purity endured, making it shine
Like diamond in sunlight, as before
Unviolated it could not.
Judith. ”

“ It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.”
18Then the angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh. ”

“ And of all the elements that made up Java's good fortune, there was not one which filled him with such pride and exultation as his son. And he looked upon him as the very fruit of his birth in visible form, little dreaming, that could he but have looked into the future, and seen what was coming, he would rather have deemed himself more fortunate to live and die without any son at all, than to have begotten such a son as he actually had. For sons resemble winds, which sometimes lift their families like clouds to heaven, and sometimes dash them to the earth, like hail. ”

“ Maybe the drowsy air of this ancestral garden with its perfume of familiar flowers made his sleep more heavy, or was it the thrum of gentle fingers upon a mandolin in a distant corner of the garden, mingling with a woman’s voice?
Whatever the cause, it produced a shock, this being summoned back to America, to exile, and to the hair-cloth sofa by the voice of Mrs. Judd announcing dinner; for the step was long and the change was sudden from the princely pleasure garden to the Puritan parlor, and every nerve and fibre of his Oriental heart revolted at the outrage. ”

“ And how pretty she looked when her eyes filled with tears and her voice trembled! Gad! she must feel something stronger than interest in him for her to show all that. Yes, by Jove!--there was no use in denying it to himself any longer,--this little woman was thoroughly fascinated. He recalled the events of that homeward ride--the talk, the looks, the long, long hand-clasp, the passionate manner in which, just before they reached the house, she had implored him to remember that she counted on him, and on him alone, for advice and aid in the troubles of her life. ”

“ Wadd, and such an arrival was an event in his existence. Exchanging his slippers for his boots, his mittens for gloves, and donning a furry silk hat he would leave his office, not forgetting to affix to the door a card bearing the legend, “Back presently,” and would hobble to the address of the firm, whose money he carried with exaggerated care in a special pocket inside his waistcoat. Inquiring for the head of the firm, who was usually willing to “humor old Wadd,” he would be shown into the great man's private room. ”

“ When Gad came to David he said that he should choose whether he would have seven years hunger in his land, or three months he should flee his adversaries and enemies, or to have three days' pestilence. Of these three God biddeth thee choose which thou wilt; now advise thee and conclude what I shall answer to our Lord. David said to Gad: I am constrained to a great thing, but it is better for me to put me in the hands of our Lord, for his mercy is much more than in men, and so he chose pestilence. ”

“ The man of magic must have his choice.'
"But at this the mother's heart grew as wax in the summer sunshine—it is a strange quality that mothers' hearts are made of! 'Give her to the best man—the man her heart holds highest,' said this Haida mother.
"Then Yaada spoke: 'I am the daughter of my tribe; I would judge of men by their excellence. He who proves most worthy I shall marry; it is not riches that make a good husband; it is not beauty that makes a good father for one's children. ”

“ Gad, David’s seer, is mentioned in 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and the prophetic nature of this son of Jupiter may well stand as a living symbol. Gad is heralded by Leah thus: “A troop cometh,” and “she called his name Gad.”
The Amethyst has ever been a gem symbolizing spirituality in its highest degree, and by the virtue of its power it opposed evils, drunkenness, and the sin of distorted appetites. Indeed, the Amethyst was considered a sign of such holiness that evil was always courted by one wearing it whilst overindulging in eating and drinking. ”

“ Wadd fell into the habit of listening for the whistler coming up the stair. “Like a bird, like a bird!” he would murmur to himself, and, when the studio door slammed, he would smile and return to his work.
One May morning, they met on the stair a second time and exchanged greetings, and a few mornings later Mr. Wadd left his office when he heard the whistling, and descended to the street merely to gain a sight of the young man. He was so ashamed of himself that for some days he tried not to hear the whistling. ”

“ Its richness and fertility made it a prey to the marauding nomads of the desert; but the allusion in the Blessing of Jacob gives the tribe a character for bravery, and David’s men of Gad (1 Chron. xii. 8) were famous in tradition. Although rarely mentioned by name (the geographical term Gilead is usual) , the history of Gad enters into the lives of Jephthah and Saul, and in the wars of Ammon and Moab it must have played some part. It followed Jeroboam in the great revolt against the house of David, and its later fortunes until 734 B.C. (1 Chron. v. 26) would be those of the northern kingdom. ”

“ If you listen to the river as it rolls.
But 'tis only when the pearl and purple smoke is idly swinging
From the fires on Lulu Island to the hazy mountain crest,
That the undertone of sobbing echoes through the river's singing,
In the Capilano canyon of the West.
Footnotes ↑ "The Ballad of Yaada" is the last complete poem written by the author. It was placed for publication with the "Saturday Night" of Toronto, and did not appear in print until several months after Miss Johnson's death. ”

“ During a visit to the rectory one day, Jud's eyes fell upon a book which lay on Anice's table. It was full of pictures—illustrations depicting the adventures and vicissitudes of a fortunate unfortunate, whose desert island has been the paradise of thousands; whose goat-skin habiliments have been more worthy of envy than kingly purple; whose hairy cap has been more significant of monarchy than any crown. For the man who wore these savage garments has reigned supreme in realms of romance, known only in their first beauty to boyhood's ecstatic belief. ”

“ He took his sorrow with the same passionate recklessness that characterized his anger at the dinner-table. Mrs. Judd rested her hand upon the short black hair and tried to summon words of solace for a grief that seemed to threaten the integrity of his earthly body. She could only stroke his head and tell him not to be unhappy; that all would end well; that he should soon return home.
In the midst of these efforts the voice of Mr. Judd came around the corner calling out that the wagon was here. The boy jumped to his feet as if he had received a shock. ”