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300 THE CURIOUS LORE OP PRECIOUS STONES
in translating it "jasper." An Assyrian form of the name was yashpu, as
is shown by the Tell el Amarna letters in the cuneiform writing dating
from not long before the Exodus. Of all the so-called jaspers none were
so highly valued as those of a green color. The talis-manic and
therapeutic qualities of the "green jaspers" are often noted by ancient
writers, and, according to Galen, these stones were recommended for
remedial use by Egyptian writers on medicine. Abel Eemusat, the great
French Orientalist, writing in 1820, was one of the first to see in the
yashpheh of the Hebrews and in the green jasper of the Greeks
and Romans, the material jade (nephrite or jadeite), the Chinese
yu-stone. These minerals were used both in the Old and the New World, \ and
were everywhere believed to possess wonderful virtues. Very likely the
powers supposed to characterize jade were later attributed to green
jasper, but there is every reason to suppose that the true jade was
always more highly prized than its jasper substitute, for it was much
rarer, and was easily distinguishable, by its translucency, from jasper
of a similar color. Only in Turkestan and New Zealand has jade been
found in modern times, and that used in other lands was derived either
from prehistoric relics or else from some source unknown to us. It
seems highly probable that the yashpheh which adorned the
breastplate made for Aaron was a piece of nephrite or jadeite ;
possibly in the later breastplate green jasper may have been employed.
This stone was inscribed with the tribal name Assher.
In
the following lists of the precious and semiprecious stones contained
in the earlier and later breastplates, the writer does not claim to
have finally solved the problem presented by the Hebrew accounts of the
high-priest's adornment, but he hopes that the distinc-
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