This
is a group of two islands in the middle of the sea, one of them being
large, the other small; the latter is quite uninhabited. The large one
measures seventy li in circuit. The natives on it are of a colour
resembling black lacquer; they eat men alive, so that sailors dare not
anchor on this coast.
"This island does not contain so much as an inch of iron, for which reason
the natives use (bits of) conch-shell (ch'oe-k'ue) with ground edges
instead of knives. On this island is a sacred relic, (the so-called)
'Corpse on a bed of rolling gold....'" (CHAU JU-KWA, p. 147.)
XIII., p. 311.
DOG-HEADED BARBARIANS.
Rockhill in a note to Carpini (Rubruck, p. 36) mentions "the Chinese
annals of the sixth century (Liang Shu, bk. 54; Nan shih, bk. 79)
which tell of a kingdom of dogs (Kou kuo) in some remote corner of
north-eastern Asia. The men had human bodies but dogs' heads, and their
speech sounded like barking. The women were like the rest of their sex in
other parts of the world."
Dr. Laufer writes to me: "A clear distinction must be made between
dog-headed people and the motive of descent from a dog-ancestor, - two
entirely different conceptions.
