In Mr. Philipps' paper, and XXXIII., Jan., 1904,
pp.
31-2, a note signed W.R.P.
XIX., p. 361. "In this kingdom [Mutfili] also are made the best and most
delicate buckrams, and those of highest price; in sooth they look like
tissue of spider's web!"
In Nan p'i (in Malabar) Chau Ju-kwa has (p. 88): "The native products
include pearls, foreign cotton-stuff of all colours (i.e. coloured
chintzes) and tou-lo mien (cotton-cloth)." Hirth and Rockhill remark
that this cotton-cloth is probably "the buckram which looks like tissue of
spider's web" of which Polo speaks, and which Yule says was the famous
muslin of Masulipatam. Speaking of Cotton, Chau Ju-kwa (pp. 217-8) writes:
"The ki pe tree resembles a small mulberry-tree, with a hibiscus-like
flower furnishing a floss half an inch and more in length, very much like
goose-down, and containing some dozens of seeds. In the south the people
remove the seed from the floss by means of iron chopsticks, upon which the
floss is taken in the hand and spun without troubling about twisting
together the thread. Of the cloth woven therefrom there are several
qualities; the most durable and the strongest is called t'ou-lo-mien;
the second quality is called fan-pu or 'foreign cloth'; the third 'tree
cotton' or mu-mien; the fourth ki-pu. These textures are sometimes
dyed in various colours and brightened with strange patterns. The pieces
measure up to five or six feet in breadth."
XXI., p. 373.
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