[6] Ming Shi, Ch.

81, p. 1.

- The same text is found on a bill issued in 1375 reproduced and translated by W. Vissering (On Chinese Currency, see plate at end of volume), the minister of finance being expressly ordered to use the fibres of the mulberry tree in the composition of these bills.

[7] Memoires relatifs a l'Asie, Vol. I., p. 387.

[8] A. WYLIE, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 64. The copy used by me (in the John Crerar Library of Chicago) is an old manuscript clearly written in 4 vols. and chapters, illustrated by nine ink-sketches of types of Mohammedans and a map. The volumes are not paged.

[9] Ancient Khotan, Vol. I., p. 134.

[10] Mikroskopische Untersuchung alter ostturkestanischer Papiere, p. 9 (Vienna, 1902). I cannot pass over in silence a curious error of this scholar when he says (p. 8) that it is not proved that Cannabis sativa (called by him "genuine hemp") is cultivated in China, and that the so-called Chinese hemp-paper should be intended for China grass. Every tyro in things Chinese knows that hemp (Cannabis sativa) belongs to the oldest cultivated plants of the Chinese, and that hemp-paper is already listed among the papers invented by Ts'ai Lun in A.D. 105 (cf. CHAVANNES, Les livres chinois avant l'invention du papier, Journal Asiatique, 1905, p. 6 of the reprint).

[11] Ch. B., p. 10b (ed. of Pie hia chai ts'ung shu).

[12] The Persian word for the mulberry, tud, is supposed to be a loan-word from Aramaic. (HORN, Grundriss iran. Phil., Vol. I., pt. 2, p. 6.)

BOOK SECOND.

PART II. - JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND SOUTH-WEST OF CATHAY.

XXXVII, p. 13. "There grow here [Taianfu] many excellent vines, supplying great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country."

Dr. B. Laufer makes the following remarks to me: "Polo is quite right in ascribing vines and wine to T'ai Yuean-fu in Shan Si, and is in this respect upheld by contemporary Chinese sources. The Yin shan cheng yao written in 1330 by Ho Se-hui, contains this account[1]: 'There are numerous brands of wine: that coming from Qara-Khodja[2] (Ha-la-hwo) is very strong, that coming from Tibet ranks next. Also the wines from P'ing Yang and T'ai Yuean (in Shan Si) take the second rank. According to some statements, grapes, when stored for a long time, will develop into wine through a natural process. This wine is fragrant, sweet, and exceedingly strong: this is the genuine grape-wine.' Ts'ao mu tse, written in 1378 par Ye Tse-k'i,[3] contains the following information: 'Under the Yuean Dynasty grape-wine was manufactured in Ki-ning and other circuits of Shan Si Province. In the eighth month they went to the T'ai hang Mountain,[4] in order to test the genuine and adulterated brands: the genuine kind when water is poured on it, will float; the adulterated sort, when thus treated, will freeze.[5] In wine which has long been stored, there is a certain portion which even in extreme cold will never freeze, while all the remainder is frozen:

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