"This Country [Ts'eng Yao Lo] Is To The South-West Of The Ta Shih (Arabs).

There are no trees on the coast; most of the land is saline.

The arable ground is poor, so there is but little grain of any kind, and they mostly raise yams to take its place.

"If any ship going there to trade carries rice as cargo, it makes very large profits.

"The climate is irregular. In their usages they have the rectitude of olden times.

"Men and women twist up their hair; they wear a short seamless shirt. The occupation of the people is netting birds and beasts for food.

"They boil sea-water to make salt and ferment the juice of the sugar-cane to make spirits. They have a ruler.

"The native products comprise red sandal-wood, dark red sugar-cane, elephants' tusks, ambergris, native gold, ya tsui tan-fan, lit., 'duck-bill sulphate of copper.'

"The goods used in trading are ivory boxes, trade silver, coloured satins, and the like." (ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao, XVI., 1915, pp. 622-3.) Cf. CHAU JU-KWA, p. 126.

XXXIV., p. 423. "There is a great deal of trade, and many merchants and vessels go thither. But the staple trade of the Island is elephants' teeth, which are very abundant; and they have also much ambergris, as whales are plentiful."

Chau Ju-kwa has, p. 126: "The products of the country [Ts'oeng-pa] consist of elephants' tusks, native gold, ambergris and yellow sandal-wood."

XXXVI., p. 438.

ADEN.

In the Ying yai sheng lan we read that "the kingdom (of A-tan) is on the sea-coast. It is rich and prosperous, the people follow the doctrine of the Moslims and their speech is Arabic. Their tempers are overbearing and violent. They have seven to eight thousand well-trained soldiers, horse and foot, whom the neighbouring countries fear." (W.W. ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao XVI., 1915, p. 607.) There is a description of the giraffe under the name of K'i lin; it "has forelegs over nine feet long, its hind ones are about six feet. Beside its ears grow fleshy horns. It has a cow's tail and a deer's body. It eats millet, beans, and flour cakes" (p. 609). In the Si Yang Chao kung tien lu (1520 A.D.), we have a similar description: "Its front legs are nine feet long, its hind legs six feet. Its hoofs have three clefts, it has a flat mouth. Two short fleshy horns rise from the back of the top of its head. It has a cow's tail and a deer's body. This animal is called K'i lin; it eats grain of any kind." (Ibid.) Cf. FERRAND, J. Asiatique, July-Aug., 1918, pp. 155-158.

XXXVI., p. 439.

At the time of Chau Ju-kwa, Aden was perhaps the most important port of Arabia for the African and Arabian trade with India and the countries beyond. It seems highly probable that the Ma-li-pa of the Chinese must be understood as including Aden, of which they make no mention whatsoever, but which was one of "the great commercial centres of the Arabs." HIRTH and ROCKHILL, p. 25 n.

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