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140 MOSUL. 1,32
XXXIV) to have come from Lu-mei (Rum, Asia Minoi). See Taveruier's Travels in India
(Ball's edit.), II, 146-151, and supra, p. 74, note 1. Linscholjen, Voyage, II, 142 (Hakl.
Soc. edit.) states that bezoar stones come from Khorasan. In the Malay Peninsula they are taken
from monkeys or porcupines. Skeat, Malay Magic, 274. The best stone was from the stomach of a
wild goat in the Persian province of Lar. See Y ul e and B u r n e 1 1, Glossary, 68. On the identification 5
of the name mo-so, see Hirth, Die Lander des Islam, 4.5, note 4.
As to wu-ming-i, it has been shovrn by Hanbury, Science Papers, 223, to be the iron
oxide known as limonite. The Pon-ts'au-tsi-kie (;7|j ^ ^ ^)> as quoted in the Tung-siyang-k'au;
IV, 8* says of it: «It is found in the Ta-shi countdes on stones, and looks like black
limestone. The foreign people heat it with oil (and make it into?) black granular stones (^ ^), 10
which they chew like a sweet (tjj)»- S. W. Bush ell, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, X and 67,
n. 4, says, however, that wu-ming-i was cobalt blue.
33.
MOSUL.
Wii-ssi-li (^ M ID- 15
The country of Wu-ssi-li has many rocky mountains. In autumn there
falls a heavy dew, which, under the action of the sun's rays, hardens into a
substance like powdered sugar. This is gathered and is a sweet, pleasant
tasting food with purifying and cooling properties; it is real kan-lu {-j^ ^Y-
There is found in the mountains of this country a tree which grows 20
wild, and which the first year* hears chestnuts (^), called p'u-lii (^ ^).
The next year mo-sJd C}^ ^ -^) grow on it. Asbestos cloth (j/^ *^ ^)
and coral are native products.
Note-
1) Taken from Ling-wai-tai-ta, 3,!i^-4*, with only some slight verbal changes and the 25
addition of the words Kcalled p'u-lua — and the change of omany famous mountains)) ( ^
i^ Mj)
to «many rocky mountains)) (^^ J^ I [ [).
Wu-ssi-li, in Cantonese Mat-ssi-H, Al-Mawjil, Mosul. In another chapter characters with
the same sounds transcribe the name Misr, Egypt (supra, pp. 115, 120, n. 3 and infra, Ch. XXXVI).
The reference to oak-galls point unmistakably to northern Syria. 30
Kan-hi is used in Buddhist Chinese to render Sanskrit a?Mrto, nectar. Mukaddasi, in the
tenth century, mentions the exportation of manna from Mosul. Our text does not say that manna
was a product of Wu-ssii-li. Judging from the statement that it was «like powdered sugar)), it must
have been the Gaz or Alhagi manna (Persian and Arabic tar-avguhtn, taranjaiw)th.e product of
the Alhagi camelorum, Fisch., which is found in partsof Persia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan. See 35
P. Molesworth Sykes, Geo. Journal, XXVIII, 433. Oak manna, occurs in Kurdistan, it is
found in the state of agglutinated tears. See Encyclop. Britan., XV, 493, s. v. Manna, and Heyd,
Hist, du Commerce, II, 632.
On the subject of oak-galls (in Arabic lallUt 'oak', our author's p'u-lu), see infra, Pt. II.
Ch. XX. Asbestos was not a product of Mosul, it was brought there probably from Badakshan. 40