Duchesne, of the Institut de
France, writes to me from Rome, from information derived from the keepers
of the Vatican Museum, that there is no sudarium from the Great Khan, that
indeed part of a sudarium made of asbestos is shown (under glass) in this
Museum, about 20 inches long, but it is ancient, and was found in a Pagan
tomb of the Appian Way. - H. C.]
M. Sage exhibited incombustible paper made from this material, and had
himself seen a small furnace of Chinese origin made from it. Madame
Perpente, an Italian lady, who experimented much with asbestos, found that
from a crude mass of that substance threads could be elicited which were
ten times the length of the mass itself, and were indeed sometimes several
metres in length, the fibres seeming to be involved, like silk in a
cocoon. Her process of preparation was much like that described by Marco.
She succeeded in carding and reeling the material, made gloves and the
like, as well as paper, from it, and sent to the Institute a work printed
on such paper.
The Rev. A. Williamson mentions asbestos as found in Shantung. The natives
use it for making stoves, crucibles, and so forth.
(Sir T. Browne, I. 293; Bongars, I. 1104; Cahier et Martin, III.
271; Cardan, de Rer. Varietate, VII. 33; Alb. Mag. Opera, 1551, II.
227, 233; Fr. Michel, Recherches, etc., II. 91; Gerv. of Tilbury, p.
13; N. et E. II. 493; D. des Tissus, II. 1-12; J. N. China Branch R.
A. S., December, 1867, p. 70.) [Berger de Xivrey, Traditions
teratologiques, 457-458, 460-463. - H. C.]
[1] The late Mr. Atkinson has been twice alluded to in this note. I take
the opportunity of saying that Mr. Ney Elias, a most competent judge,
who has travelled across the region in question whilst admitting, as
every one must, Atkinson's vagueness and sometimes very careless
statements, is not at all disposed to discredit the truth of his
narrative.
CHAPTER XLIII.
OF THE PROVINCE OF SUKCHUR.
On leaving the province of which I spoke before,[NOTE 1] you ride ten days
between north-east and east, and in all that way you find no human
dwelling, or next to none, so that there is nothing for our book to speak
of.
At the end of those ten days you come to another province called SUKCHUR,
in which there are numerous towns and villages. The chief city is called
SUKCHU.[NOTE 2] The people are partly Christians and partly Idolaters, and
all are subject to the Great Kaan.
The great General Province to which all these three provinces belong is
called TANGUT.
Over all the mountains of this province rhubarb is found in great
abundance, and thither merchants come to buy it, and carry it thence all
over the world.[NOTE 3] [Travellers, however, dare not visit those
mountains with any cattle but those of the country, for a certain plant
grows there which is so poisonous that cattle which eat it lose their
hoofs.
