A
third fragment of porcelain, shown at bottom of photo, is decorated
roughly in a neutral brown colour, which has imperfectly 'fluxed.' It,
also, appears to be Chinese. Thickness 1/8 inch (nearly). - A brass or
bronze object, cast. Probably portion of a clasp or buckle. - A brass
finger ring containing a piece of mottled green glass held loosely in
place by a turned-over denticulated rim. The metal is very thin." - H.C.
7. - FIRE-ARMS. (Vol. i. p. 342.)
From a paper on Siam's Intercourse with China, published by
Lieutenant-Colonel Gerini in the Asiatic Quarterly Review for October,
1902, it would appear that fire-arms were mentioned for the first time in
Siamese Records during the Lau invasion and the siege of Swankhalok (from
1085 to 1097 A.D.); it is too early a date for the introduction of
fire-arms, though it would look "much more like an anachronism were the
advent of these implements of warfare [were] placed, in blind reliance upon
the Northern Chronicles, still a few centuries back. The most curious of
it all is, however, the statement as to the weapons in question having been
introduced into the country from China." Following W.F. Mayers in his
valuable contributions to the Jour. North-China B.R.A.S., 1869-1870,
Colonel Gerini, who, of course, did not know of Dr. Schlegel's paper, adds:
"It was not until the reign of the Emperor Yung Le, and on occasion of the
invasion of Tonkin in A.D. 1407, that the Chinese acquired the knowledge of
the propulsive effect of gunpowder, from their vanquished enemies."
8.
