- H.C.

[Illustration: MARCO POLO'S ITINERARY CORRECTED]

Mr. E.J. Rapson, of the British Museum, with the kind permission of Dr. Stein, has sent me a photograph (which we reproduce) of coins and miscellaneous objects found at Uzun Tati. Coin (1) bears the nien-hao (title of reign) Pao Yuen (1038-1040) of the Emperor Jen Tsung, of the Sung Dynasty; Coin (2) bears the nien-hao, K'ien Yuen (758-760) of the Emperor Su Tsung of the T'ang Dynasty; Coin (3) is of the time of the Khan of Turkestan, Muhammad Arslan Khan, about 441 A.H. = 1049 A.D. From the description sent to me by Mr. Rapson and written by Mr. Andrews, I note that the miscellaneous objects include: "Two fragments of fine Chinese porcelain, highly glazed and painted with Chinese ornament in blue. That on the left is painted on both sides, and appears to be portion of rim of a bowl. Thickness 3/32 of an inch. That to the right is slightly coarser, and is probably portion of a larger vessel. Thickness 1/4 inch (nearly). A third fragment of porcelain, shown at bottom of photo, is decorated roughly in a neutral brown colour, which has imperfectly 'fluxed.' It, also, appears to be Chinese. Thickness 1/8 inch (nearly). - A brass or bronze object, cast. Probably portion of a clasp or buckle. - A brass finger ring containing a piece of mottled green glass held loosely in place by a turned-over denticulated rim. The metal is very thin." - H.C.

7. - FIRE-ARMS. (Vol. i. p. 342.)

From a paper on Siam's Intercourse with China, published by Lieutenant-Colonel Gerini in the Asiatic Quarterly Review for October, 1902, it would appear that fire-arms were mentioned for the first time in Siamese Records during the Lau invasion and the siege of Swankhalok (from 1085 to 1097 A.D.); it is too early a date for the introduction of fire-arms, though it would look "much more like an anachronism were the advent of these implements of warfare [were] placed, in blind reliance upon the Northern Chronicles, still a few centuries back. The most curious of it all is, however, the statement as to the weapons in question having been introduced into the country from China." Following W.F. Mayers in his valuable contributions to the Jour. North-China B.R.A.S., 1869-1870, Colonel Gerini, who, of course, did not know of Dr. Schlegel's paper, adds: "It was not until the reign of the Emperor Yung Le, and on occasion of the invasion of Tonkin in A.D. 1407, that the Chinese acquired the knowledge of the propulsive effect of gunpowder, from their vanquished enemies."

8. - LA COUVADE. (Vol. ii. p. 91.)

Mr. H. Ling Roth has given an interesting paper entitled On the Signification of Couvade, in the Journ. Anthropological Institute, XXII. 1893, pp. 204-243. He writes (pp. 221-222): - "From this survey it would seem in the first place that we want a great deal more information about the custom in the widely isolated cases where it has been reported, and secondly, that the authenticity of some of the reported cases is doubtful in consequence of authors repeating their predecessors' tales, as Colquhoun did Marco Polo's, and V. der Haart did Schouten's. I should not be at all surprised if ultimately both Polo's and Schouten's accounts turned out to be myths, both these travellers making their records at a time when the Old World was full of the tales of the New, so that in the end, we may yet find the custom is not, nor ever has been, so widespread as is generally supposed to have been the case."

I do not very well see how Polo, in the 13th and 14th centuries could make his record at a time when the Old World was full of the tales of the New, discovered at the end of the 15th century!

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