JASHPUR 240 JASSY refer to incidents which occurred at a subsequent period in the national history. The conjecture of the Syriac and Arabic translators has been adopted by Dr. Lowth, Herder, and other scholars — viz. that the Book of Jasher was a collection of national ballads, recording the warlike deeds of the national heroes or singing the praises of otherwise celebrated men. The actual book could not have been earlier than the age of Solomon, espe- cially if a fragment relating to the build- ing of the temple in the Septuagint of I Kings, viii. be from that work. JASHPUR, a native State of Chota Nagpur, in Bengal; area, 1,963 square miles. The country is a tableland, rang- ing from 2,200 to 3,500 feet in height, and has excellent soil. JASMIN, JACQUES^ (zhas-maw^), a Provencal poet; born in Agen, Lot-et- Garonne, France, March 6, 1798. His origin was of the humblest, and he earned his livelihood as a barber. He wrote: "Curl Papers," "Souvenirs," and a narrative poem "Francounetto." He developed the possibilities of the lan- guage of Provence as a medium of mod- ern literary expression. He died in Agen, Oct. 4, 1864. JASMINE, or JASMIN, the English name of the genus Jasminum, and espe- cially of the common species J. officinale. It has opposite pinnate leaves, a four or five cleft white, sweet-scented corolla. Its native country was perhaps Persia. The jasmine of the shops is furnished by J. officinale and J. grandiflorum. A similar perfume exists in J. savibac; J. undulatum has slightly bitter leaves. The root of J. pubescens is regarded as alexiteric. The roots of J. humile fur- nish a yellow dye. Oil of jasmine, an oil obtained from the flowers of Jasminum grandifl,orum, J. sambac, and J. officinale. Otto of jasmine, a pomade made by impregnating suet with the scent of jas- mine, and leaving it for a fortnight in pure rectified spirit. JASON, in classic fable, a Greek hero; son of iEson, King of lolchos, a city of Thessaly. Peleas having usurped the throne on the death of .^son, the youth- ful prince was driven from his kingdom. Subsequently in obedience to the com- mands of the oracle, Jason returned to the city of lolchos and demanded the surrender of the throne to him, its right- ful possessor; to this the usurper con- sented, if Jason would first sail across the Euxine to the kingdom of Colchis, and there punish the perfidious king, JEtes, who had slain a mutual relative. With this Jason complied, and taking a troop of Greeks set sail in the ship Argo, for Colchis. ^Etes promised to restore the Golden Fleece, (the cause of the kinsman's death,) and afford him every satisfaction if he would tame certain sav- age bulls, with brazen hoofs and horns, and make them plow a field sacred to the gods. At the same time he was to do some other services, such as killing the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece, and, finally to finish all his tasks in one day. By the aid of Medea, the king's daughter, an enchantress, to whom he promised eternal love, Jason was enabled to accomplish his several feats, and re- turned to Thessaly with the Golden Fleece and his wife Medea. Growing, however, weary of her exacting love, Jason divorced Medea and married Glauce, the King of Corinth's daughter. In revenge Medea destroyed her own children by Jason, and sent to Glauce a poisoned garment which burned her to death. Jason was killed soon after, by a beam falling on him from the ship Argo, as he slept one day on the shore by his beloved vessel. JASPER, a mineral of the quartz family, which occurs in the form of rocky masses, often making up large portions^ of hills of considerable size. In hue, it is of various shades of red, yel- low, brown, and green, and sometimes ar- ranged in stripes, when it is called ribbon jasper. Its varied colors are generally derived from iron in different degrees of oxidation. Jasper is much used for ornamental purposes, on account of its hardness and susceptibility of taking a high polish. Bloodstone, or heliotrope, is a deep green variety of jasper, with blood-red spots. Touchstone is a velvet- black flinty variety, used for testing the purity of gold alloys. The alloy is rubbed on the stone, so as to leave a metallic streak, and the quality is esti- mated by the brightness of the color when nitric acid is washed over it. The principal deposit of jasper is the gorge of the Kargon, in Siberia. This gem, the 12th in the breast-plate of the Jewish high-priest (Exod. xxviii: 20), 1491 B. c, was esteemed by the Greeks and Romans. JASSY, or JASHI, the capital of Moldavia, the N. division of Rumania. The town was almost destroyed by fire in 1827, after which it was rebuilt. The most noticeable secular buildings are the palaces of the boyars or Rumanian no- bles, both in the city and in its environs. The town has a university with about 40 teachers and 170 students. Pop. about 76,000, of whom 50,000 are Jews, the
