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120 THE AKABS. 1,22
clou during or after the eleventh mcon (Deceniter) and tailing vith a northerly wind, can make
the country called Lan-li (^ ||_
sapan-wccd, tin, and long vhite rattans. The following year, in winter, they set to sea again and,
i. e., N. W. Sumatra) in forty days. Here they trade, buying
with a uorth-easlcily wind favouring them, they maliC the voyage to this countiy of Ma-li-pa,
(i. c., the Hadramaut coast of Arabia) in some sixty days. 5
«The products (of Ma-li-pa) are frankincense, ambergris, pearls, opaque glass, ihinoceros
horns, ivory, coral, putchuk, myrrh, dragon's-blood, asa-foetida, liquid storax, oak-galls and
rose-water, to trade in all of which the countries of the Ta-shi resort to ibis place». See for the
remainder of Ch6u's description of Ma-li-pa, infia p. 121, note 11. The other countries of the
Ta-shii mentioned by Ch6u K'u-fe'i are Ma-kia, Pai-ta, Ki-tz'i-ni, Mei-lu-ku-tun and '\Yu-SEii-li; 10
his remarks on them are translated in subsequent notes to this work.
3) Mi-sa-li is the Mizraim of the Hebrews, our Egypt. The Aiabic Misr, derived from the
Hebrew, was applied by the Arabs to the capital of Egypt. In another chapter (XXXVI), derived
in all likelihood from different sources, our author writers the name Wu-ssi-li (^wj ^T J^ in '
Cantonese Mat-ssi-li). In the Yiian period the Chinese wrote the name Mi-ssi-ir (j?^ ffl^ -^)' "•
See Bretschneider, J. C. B. B. A.S., X, 29f', and Mediaeval Eesearches, I, 141, II, 135. In
another passage (Ch. XXXVI) our author calls the capital of Egypt Kie-ye, which is al-Kahirah,'
the name given the new city founded in 973 A. D. The popular Arabic name of Cairo is Kisi;
al-kahirah. Chau evidently thought that Mj-sO-li and Ma-lo-pa were the same place. He ^ot his
more or less original information and that derived frcm Chou K'tl-fei badly jumbled. Ch6.u'B 20
notes only referred to Ma-li-pa.
4) This description of the king's dress and of his palace resepibles what he ,tells us
elsewhere of those of the king of Ta-ts'in. Conf. also infra, Ch. XXXVI. Lii-kati, Canton dialect
luk-iow, is apparently a transcription of Arabic and Persian rttkham, nmarblc», or,«alabaEter»,
JJuQrsM, literally olive stone», may stand for Iva-nh'i, y© ^\,
soap-stone, of which it js, aij 25
equiTalent, accoiding to Geerts, Les produits- de la nature Japonaise et Chinoise, 434 seq.
Porter Smith, Contributions towards the materia medica, etc., of China, 205, distinguishes it
as osteatitej), which he says ((differs from larditone in containing magnesia, havijng the composition
of a silicate, of magnesia and aluminai), and (ISO) he says of k'uai-huorsM (rat V^ -?l) t^*^*
it entered'into the composition of some of the old Chinese pottery of the best kind». Cf. Julien, 30
Histoire et fabrication de la porcelai.ne Chinoise, 76, 256 et seqq.
5) This paragraph and also the preceding ones of this chapter, when in quotation-marks,
as wejl as lines 4—5 on p. 116, are substantially taken from the statements made to the Chinese
court by Arabs who came there in the chovg-ho period of the Sung (A. D. 1111—1118). They
did not mention the name of the capital of their country, hence our author's •. uncertainty 35
concerning it. See Sung-shi, 490,i4. One is inclined to think that our author is .describing some
other city thaij Cairo, possibly Baghdad pr Damascus; but it is mpre likely that this picture of
tjie capital of the Ta-shi is, like many of those pf Chau Ju-kua, a composite one;
6) Most of this paragraph is taken from Ling-wai-tai-ta; see infra, p. 121, n. 11. The drink :
called sst is probably Persian $herle1, iharah tiadrangl t, drink, wir.e». Mtn, ss'i-ia and /.mo may 40
haye to he distinguished, the two first as transcriptions, the latter as a generic term, meaning
aflowec winei), the term hua-ts'iu, ^ ^ being backed by a number of passages quoted in
the Pi6n-tzi-lei-picp, 203,17. In another passage (infra, pj 127, n. 4) three kinds of drinks afc
mentioned, mi, sha and Ma; it seems probable that we should likewise distinguish three here; '
we?, fsi-ta and hva. Both transcriptions represent the same original forms, whatever they may be. 45
Yu-yang-tsa-tsu, 4,^^ says that «in Po-ssi, Fu-lin and adjacent countries they ferment rice or
seed of some kind in meat juice, When, after. some days, it has become wine, it is an intoxicating
drink)).
7) In Cantonese Ma-ha-mat, the Prophet Mohammed. The fast referred to is, of course
that of Bamadan. The weekly cutting of hair and nails is a quotation from I>ing-wai-tai-ta, 3,8*. 50
See4nfra,-Gh. XXX.