According to De Groot, pearls were introduced into the mouth of the dead during the Han Dynasty. “At least”, he says, “it is stated that their mouths were filled with rice, and pearls and jade stone were put therein, in accordance with the established ceremonial usages.” And Poh hu thung i, a well-known work, professedly written in the first century, says: “On stuffing the mouth of the Son of Heaven with rice, they put jade therein; in the case of a feudal lord they introduce pearls; in that of a great officer and so downwards, as also in that of ordinary officials, cowries are used to this end”.
De Groot, commenting on the evidence, writes: “The same reasons why gold and jade were used for stuffing the mouth of the dead hold good for the use of pearls in this [[215]]connection”. He notes that in Chinese literature pearls were regarded as “depositories of Yang matter”, that medical works declare “they can further and facilitate the procreation of children”, and “can be useful for recalling to life those who have expired, or are at the point of dying”.[7]
In India, as a Bengali friend, Mr. Jimut Bahan Sen, M.A., informs me, a native medicine administered to those who are believed to be at the point of death is a mixture of pounded gold and mercury. It is named Makara-dhwaja. The makara[8] is in India depicted in a variety of forms. As a composite lion-legged and fish-tailed “wonder beast” resembling the Chinese dragon, it is the vehicle of the god Varuna, as the Babylonian “sea goat” or “antelope fish” is the vehicle of the god Ea or of the god Marduk (Merodach). The makara of the northern Buddhists is likewise a combination of land and sea animals or reptiles, including the dolphin with the head of an elephant, goat, ram, lion, dog, or alligator.[9]
In China the lion-headed shark, a form of the sea-god, is likewise a makara or sea-dragon. Gold and night-shining pearls are connected with the makara as with the dragon. The Chinese dragon, as we have seen, is born from gold, while curative herbs like the “Red Cloud herb” and the “dragon’s whiskers herb” are emanations of the dragon. Gold, like the herb, contains “soul substance” in concentrated form. Pounded gold, the chief ingredient in the makara-dhwaja medicine, is believed in India to renew youth and promote longevity like pounded jade and gold in China.
“In Yung-cheu, which is situated in the Eastern Ocean, rocks exist,” wrote a Chinese sage in the early [[216]]part of the Christian era. “From these rocks there issues a brook like sweet wine; it is called the Brook of Jade Must. If, after drinking some pints out of it, one suddenly feels intoxicated, it will prolong life.… Grease of jade,” we are further told, “is formed inside the mountains which contain jade. It is always to be found in steep and dangerous spots.[10] The jade juice, after issuing from those mountains, coagulates into such grease after more than ten thousand years. This grease is fresh and limpid, like crystal. If you find it, pulverize it and mix it with the juice of herbs that have no pith; it immediately liquefies; drink one pint of it then and you will live a thousand years.… He who swallows gold will exist as long as gold; he who swallows jade will exist as long as jade. Those who swallow the real essence of the dark sphere (heavens) will enjoy an everlasting existence; the real essence of the dark sphere is another name for jade. Bits of jade, when swallowed or taken with water, can in both these cases render man immortal.”[11]
As we have seen, the belief prevailed in China that pearls shone by night. The mandrake root was believed elsewhere to shine in like manner. The view is consequently urged by the writer that the myths regarding precious stones, jade, pearls, and herbs of nocturnal luminosity owe their origin to the arbitrary connection of these objects with the moon, and the lunar-goddess or sky-goddess. In China Ye Kuang (“light of the night”) “is”, Laufer notes, “an ancient term to designate the moon”.[12]
The intimate connection between the Mother deity and precious metals and stones is brought out by Lucian in his De Dea Syria. He refers to the goddess Hera [[217]]of Hierapolis, who has “something of the attributes of Athene, and of Aphrodite, and of Selene, and of Rhea, and of Artemis, and of Nemesis, and of the Fates”, and describes her as follows:
“In one of her hands she holds a sceptre, and in the other a distaff;[13] on her head she bears rays and a tower, and she has a girdle wherewith they adorn none but Aphrodite of the sky. And without she is gilt with gold, and gems of great price adorn her, some white, some sea-green, others wine-dark, others flashing like fire. Besides these there are many onyxes from Sardinia, and the jacinth and emeralds, the offerings of the Egyptians and of the Indians, Ethiopians, Medes, Armenians, and Babylonians. But the greatest wonder of all I will proceed to tell: she bears a gem on her head, called a Lychnis; it takes its name from its attribute. From this stone flashes a great light in the night-time, so that the whole temple gleams brightly as by the light of myriads of candles, but in the day-time the brightness grows faint; the gem has the likeness of a bright fire.”[14]
Laufer notes in his The Diamond[15] that “the name lychnis is connected with the Greek lychnos” (“a portable lamp”), and that, “according to Pliny, the stone is so called from its lustre being heightened by the light of a lamp”. He thinks the stone in question is the tourmaline. Laufer reviews a mass of evidence regarding precious stones that were reported to shine by night, and comes to the conclusion that there is no evidence on record “to show that the Chinese ever understood how to render precious stones phosphorescent”. He adds: “Since this experiment is difficult, there is hardly reason to believe that they should ever have attempted it. Altogether,” he concludes, “we have to regard the traditions about gems luminous at night, not as a result [[218]]of scientific effort, but as folk-lore connecting the Orient with the Occident, Chinese society with the Hellenistic world.” As Laufer shows, the Chinese imported legends regarding magical gems from Fu-lin (“the forest of Fu”), an island in the Mediterranean Sea, which was known to them as “the Western Sea” (Si hai).[16] At a very much earlier period they imported other legends and beliefs regarding metals and minerals.
Pearls and gold having been connected with the makara or dragon, it is not surprising to find that their lunar attributes were imparted to jade. Laufer quotes Chinese references to the “moonlight pearl” and the “moon-reflecting gem”,[17] while De Groot deals with Chinese legends about “effulgent pearls”, about “pearls shining during the night”, “flaming or fiery pearls”, and “pearls lighting like the moon”. De Groot adds, “Similar legends have always been current in the empire (of China) about jade stone”, and he notes in this regard that “at the time of the Emperor Shen-nung (twenty-fifth century B.C.) there existed”, according to Chinese records, “jade which was obtained from agate rocks, under the name of ‘Light shining at night’. If cast into the waters in the dark it floated on the surface, without its light being extinguished.”[18]