There
is also dragon's blood, aloes, myrrh, an-hsi-hsiang (benzoin), liquid
storax, muh-pieh-tzu (Momordica cochinchinensis), and the like, all of
which they exchange for Chinese hempen cloth, silks, and china-ware."
(ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao, XVI., 1915, pp. 611-612.)
The Sing ch'a sheng lan mentions: "The products are the tsu-la-fa
(giraffe), gold coins, leopards, ostriches, frankincense, ambergris."
(Ibid., p. 614.)
Dufar is mentioned by Chau Ju-kwa under the name of Nu-fa among the
dependencies of the country of the Ta-shi (Arabs). (HIRTH and ROCKHILL,
pp. 116, 121.)
XXXVIII., pp. 445-449.
FRANKINCENSE.
Chau Ju-kwa (HIRTH and ROCKHILL, pp. 195-196) tells us: Ju hiang ('milk
incense'), or huen-lu-hiang, comes from the three Ta-shi countries of
Ma-lo-pa, Shi-ho, and Nu-fa, from the depths of the remotest mountain
valleys. The tree which yields this drug may, on the whole, be compared to
the sung (pine). Its trunk is notched with a hatchet, upon which the
resin flows out, and when hardened, turns into incense, which is gathered
and made into lumps. It is transported on elephants to the Ta-shi (on the
coast); the Ta-shi load it upon their ships for barter against other goods
in San-fo-ts'i: and it is for this reason that the incense is commonly
collected at San-fo-ts'i [the three ports of the Hadhranaut coast].
"When the foreign merchants come to that place to trade, the Customs
authorities, according to the relative strength of its fragrance,
distinguish thirteen classes of incense.
