It Is Common Among The Arab Women Now, And Della Valle Speaks Of It As In His Time So Much In Vogue Among Both Sexes Through Egypt, Arabia, And Babylonia, That He Had Not Been Able To Escape.

(I. 395.)

NOTE 5. - The divergence in Ramusio's version is here very notable: "The River which enters the Port of Zayton is great and wide, running with great velocity, and is a branch of that which flows by the city of Kinsay. And at the place where it quits the main channel is the city of Tingui, of which all that is to be said is that there they make porcelain basins and dishes. The manner of making porcelain was thus related to him. They excavate a certain kind of earth, as it were from a mine, and this they heap into great piles, and then leave it undisturbed and exposed to wind, rain, and sun for 30 or 40 years. In this space of time the earth becomes sufficiently refined for the manufacture of porcelain; they then colour it at their discretion, and bake it in a furnace. Those who excavate the clay do so always therefore for their sons and grandsons. The articles are so cheap in that city that you get 8 bowls for a Venice groat."

Ibn Batuta speaks of porcelain as manufactured at Zayton; indeed he says positively (and wrongly): "Porcelain is made nowhere in China except in the cities of Zaitun and Sinkalan" (Canton). A good deal of China ware in modern times is made in Fo-kien and Canton provinces, and it is still an article of export from T'swan-chau and Amoy; but it is only of a very ordinary kind.

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