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.
THE CITY OF CAIL.
Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the Journal of the North-China Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Soc., XXXVII., 1906, p. 196: "Yule's identification of
Kayal with the Kolkhoi of Ptolemy is supported by the Sung History, which
calls it both Ko-ku-lo and Ku-lo; it was known at the beginning of the
tenth century and was visited by several Chinese priests. In 1411 the Ming
Dynasty actually called it Ka-i-leh and mention a chief or king there
named Ko-pu-che-ma."
XXII., p. 376. "OF THE KINGDOM OF COILUM. - So also their wine they make
from [palm-] sugar; capital drink it is, and very speedily it makes a man
drunk."
Chau Ju-kwa in Nan p'i (Malabar) mentions the wine (p. 89): "For wine they
use a mixture of honey with cocoanuts and the juice of a flower, which
they let ferment." Hirth and Rockhill remark, p. 91, that the Kambojians
had a drink which the Chinese called mi-t'ang tsiu, to prepare which
they used half honey and half water, adding a ferment.
XXII., p. 380 n. "This word [Sappan] properly means Japan, and seems
to have been given to the wood as a supposed product of that region."
"The word sappan is not connected with Japan. The earliest records of
this word are found in Chinese sources. Su-fang su-pwan, to be restored
to 'supang or 'spang, 'sbang; Caesalpinia sappan, furnishing the
sappan wood, is first described as a product of Kiu-chen (Tong King) in
the Nan fang ts'ao mi chuang, written by Ki Han at the end of the third
or beginning of the fourth century. J. de Loureiro (Flora
cochinchinensis, p. 321) observes in regard to this tree, 'Habitat in
altis montibus Cochinchinae: indeque a mercatoribus sinensibus abunde
exportatur.' The tree accordingly is indigenous to Indo-China, where the
Chinese first made its acquaintance. The Chinese transcription is surely
based on a native term then current in Indo-China, and agrees very well
with Khmer sban (or sbang): see AYMONIER et CABATON, Dict.
cam-francais, 510, who give further Cam hapan, Batak sopan, Makassar
sappan, and Malay sepan. The word belongs to those which the Mon-Khmer
and Malayan languages have anciently in common." (Note of Dr. B. LAUFER.)
XXIV., p. 386, also pp. 391, 440.
FANDARAINA.
Prof. E.H. PARKER writes in the Journal of the North-China Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Soc., XXXVII., 1906, p. 196: "Regarding the Fandaraina
country of the Arabs mentioned by Yule in the Notes to pages 386, 391, and
440 of Vol. II., it may be interesting to cite the following important
extract from Chapter 94, page 29, of the Yuaen Shi: - 'In 1295 sea-traders
were forbidden to take fine values to trade with the three foreign states
of Ma-pa-r; Pei nan, and Fan-ta-la-i-na, but 2,500,000 nominal taels in
paper money were set apart for the purpose.'"
XXV., p. 391.
In the Yuen Shi, ch. 94, fol. 11 r'o, the "three barbarian kingdoms of
Ma-pa-eul (Ma'abar), Pei-nan (corr. Kiu-nam, Coilam) and
Fan-ta-la-yi-na" are mentioned. No doubt the last kingdom refers to the
Fandaraina of Ibn Batuta, and Prof. Pelliot, who gives me this
information, believes it is also, in the middle of the fourteenth century,
Pan-ta-li of the Tao yi chi lio.
GOZURAT.
XXV., p. 393. "In this province of Gozurat there grows much pepper, and
ginger, and indigo. They have also a great deal of cotton. Their cotton
trees are of very great size, growing full six paces high, and attaining
to an age of 20 years."
Chau Ju-kwa has, p. 92: "The native products comprise great quantities of
indigo, red kino, myrobolans and foreign cotton stuffs of every colour.
Every year these goods are transported to the Ta shi countries for sale."
XXXI., p. 404.
TWO ISLANDS CALLED MALE AND FEMALE.
Speaking of the fabulous countries of women, Chau Ju-kwa, p. 151, writes:
"The women of this country [to the south-east (beyond Sha-hua kung?)
Malaysia] conceive by exposing themselves naked to the full force of the
south wind, and so give birth to female children."
"In the Western Sea there is also a country of women where only three
females go to every five males; the country is governed by a queen, and
all the civil offices are in the hands of women, whereas the men perform
military duties. Noble women have several males to wait upon them; but the
men may not have female attendants. When a woman gives birth to a child,
the latter takes its name from the mother. The climate is usually cold.
The chase with bow and arrows is their chief occupation. They carry on
barter with Ta-t'sin and T'ien-chu, in which they make several hundred per
cent. profit."
Cf. F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 200-202.
XXXII., pp. 406-7. Speaking of Scotra, Marco (II., p. 406) says: "The
ambergris comes from the stomach of the whale, and as it is a great object
of trade, the people contrive to take the whales with barbed iron darts,
which, once they are fixed in the body, cannot come out again.
