I know that cassia bark is
gathered in the Kasia Hills of Eastern Bengal up to a height of about 4000
feet above the sea, and at least the valleys of "Caindu" are probably not
too elevated for this product. Indeed, that of the Kin-sha or Brius, near
where I suppose Polo to cross it, is only 2600 feet. Positive evidence I
cannot adduce. No cassia or cinnamon was met with by M. Garnier's party
where they intersected this region.
But in this 2nd edition I am able to state on the authority of Baron
Richthofen that cassia is produced in the whole length of the valley of
Kien-ch'ang (which is, as we shall see in the notes on next chapter,
Caindu), though in no other part of Sze-ch'wan nor in Northern Yun-nan.
[Captain Gill (River of Golden Sand, II. p. 263) writes: "There were
chestnut trees..; and the Kwei-Hua, a tree 'with leaves like the laurel,
and with a small white flower, like the clove,' having a delicious, though
rather a luscious smell. This was the Cassia, and I can find no words more
suitable to describe it than those of Polo which I have just used." - H. C]
Ethnology. - The Chinese at Ch'eng-tu fu, according to Richthofen,
classify the aborigines of the Sze-ch'wan frontier as Man-tzu, Lolo,
Si-fan, and Tibetan. Of these the Si-fan are furthest north, and extend
far into Tibet. The Man-tzu (properly so called) are regarded as the
remnant of the ancient occupants of Sze-ch'wan, and now dwell in the
mountains about the parallel 30 deg., and along the Lhasa road, Ta-t'sien
lu being about the centre of their tract. The Lolo are the wildest and most
independent, occupying the mountains on the left of the Kin-sha Kiang where
it runs northwards (see above p. 48, and below p. 69) and also to some
extent on its right. The Tibetan tribes lie to the west of the Man-tzu, and
to the west of Kien-ch'ang. (See next chapter.)
Towards the Lan-ts'ang Kiang is the quasi-Tibetan tribe called by the
Chinese Mossos, by the Tibetans Guions, and between the Lan-ts'ang and
the Lu-Kiang or Salwen are the Lissus, wild hill-robbers and great musk
hunters, like those described by Polo at p. 45. Garnier, who gives these
latter particulars, mentions that near the confluence of the Yalung and
Kin-sha Kiang there are tribes called Pa-i, as there are in the south of
Yun-nan, and, like the latter, of distinctly Shan or Laotian character. He
also speaks of Si-fan tribes in the vicinity of Li-kiang fu, and coming
south of the Kin-sha Kiang even to the east of Ta-li.
