The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-17
The Legend of
a Green Gem
How the Chrysoprase Saved
Rumania From a Terrible
Famine.

1ISIS 10 iio" OII cAIlIDlllOA ol NJ. OOs
Fifth avenue a collection of precious
stones, most of them from California
mines. Particularly interesting to
Americans are the turquoises from San
Bernardino County, the tourmalines
from the neighborhood of Mesa .Grande,
and the chrysoprase, the famous Ru-
manian stone, from Tulare County.
In the rear of the showrooms there
is another large room, where the opera
ton of cutting and polishing the stones
is shown. The process is likely to be
interesting to the layman. Half a
dozen men sit at tables upon which a
wheel of metal whirrs round and round.
This wheel is wet constantly, and to it's
revolving surface they apply rough
sticks. 1t is almost marvelous-the
deft skill with which these workmen in
five minutes make a rugged bit of
tourmaline into a hexagon or an octa-
gon. Other men sitting before wheels,
white with putty dust, put a smooth
ready to be mounted.
The largest exhibits have to do with
tourmalines and chrysoprase. The de-
posits of these stones in California, by
the way, are large, and the quality of
the stones procured is high. In con-
nection with the chrysoprase there is a
pretty little Rumanian legend, which
is not generally known. 1t is called
Ritual DoamneI," which, in English,
means The river of the princess
There was once a great famine in the
land of Rumania. First, the locusts
came into the land in such swarms that
the sun was darkened; and wherever
they settled they devastated every
thing. After the loeusts, came maraud-
ing hordes of Poles from the north.
and Hungarians from the west, and
Turks from the south, and they burned
all the houses and stole the peoples
cattle. When these foes had squeezed
all they could out of the country, they,
too, left it, and in their place came
fever and pestilence and famine
Complaints were heard no longer, for
despair had reduced all men to ST.
lence. Now, the Princess of Rumania,
at that time. was named Trina, and
like all princesses in legends she was
beautiful. Also she was good. She
had given away all her jewels for the
poor-aIl but one. She had spent her
last coin to buy cattle for the peas
ants. and she had fed the hungry until
she scarcely had food for her own
children.
The one piece of jewelry she still
retained was small golden lizard, the
eyes of which were made of chryso-
prase. Her mother had given it to her
years before, and a magician had told
her that it would bring her untold
riches some day; moreover, added the
sorcerer, whoever was in possession OF
a leech-green chrysoprase would, in
times of great distress, understand the
language of all animals.
One day the Princess Trina stood at
her window praying that the reign of
famine should cease when a small
lizard with glittering green eyes
scrambled through the room and said:
Help shall arise for thee out Of
river. Only seek"
So she bade good-by to her husband
and children and travelled to ali the
rivers in the land-to the Otto River
the Gin River, the Buzia, the Sereth,
all the rivers. great and small. They
flowed but meagerly over their stony
beds, and the once mighty waters
scarcely whispered as they went
1t CHANGED that Trina was wandering
for a second time along the banks of
the Argesch, and was just about TO
turn back when she caught sight of the
mouth of a little stream she had not
noticed before. Discouraged, she was
about to turn back. when a cloud OBJ
seured the sky and swallow soaring
ont from it chirped to her the same
message Given by the little lizard. The
skies opened and poured down the rain
in torrents. With difficulty she made
her way beside the river for day and
a night, until at last she sank senseless
to the ground.
When she awakened. the river was a
delicate green color, and full to the
banks. A fish rose through the water
and rolling his green eyes at her, said:
|'Help shall arise for thee out of the
river. Only seek. >