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Ij35 ffiURABlT, SOCTHEKN COAST OF SPlIN. 143
tails as big as a fan. In the spring-time they slit open their bellies and take
out some tens of catties of fat, after which they sew them up again, and the
sheep live on; if the fat were not removed, (the animal) would swell up
and die»^.
5 «If one travels by land (from Mu-lan-p'i) two hundred days journey,
the days are only six hours long. In autumn if the west wind arises, men and
beasts must at once drink to keep alive, and if they are not quick enough
about it they die of thirst)) ^.
Notes.-
10 1) The position assigned by Ch6u K'il-fei to the country of Mu-Ian-p'i, as well as the
similarity in sound of the name point to its being the kingdom of the Al-Murabitun or Almora-
vide princes who reigned over Al-Maghreb and southern Spain from the latter part of the eleventh
century to the middle of the twelfth. See Hirth, Die Lander des Islam, 48. T'o-pan-ti must, it
seems, be the Dimiath of the Arabs, or Damietta, on the eastern branch of the Nile near its
15 mouth. It was in the twelfth century an even more important seaport than Alexandria. This para-
graph and the other portions of this article are taken from Ling-wai-tai-ta, 3,4. Our author
omits at the end of this paragraph, the following remark of Ch6u K'u-fei: aAt the present day
when people say 'a Mu-lan ship', is it not simply saying that it is a big one?B — On these
mammoth ships, see supra pp. 33—34.
20 2) Chou K'ti-fei's statement of the mayvellous products of this remote country, outdoes any
of the fairy stories in the Shan-hai-king, but our author had to improve on his story. Chou made
the grains of wheat to be two inches long, Chan says they were three inches, then he adds to
the list of marvels pomegranates, peaches, citrons and salads. The statement, first made by Ch6u
K'a-fei that grain was preserved in silos is very interesting and, of course, correct. As to the big-
25 tailed sheep the only reason why he put them in Mu-lan-p'i is that they appeared to him to
belong to this region of fancy. The Ethiopian broad-tailed sheep are mentioned by classical and
mediaeval writers as found in Arabia, Kerman in Persia, and in parts of eastern Africa. Aelian,
de Animal, nat., IV, 32 says in speaking of the sheep of the Indians: «The tails of the sheep
reach down to their feet The shepherds cut also the tails of the rams, and having extracted
30 the fat, sew them up again so carefully that no trace of the incision is afterward to be seen».
M° Crindle, Ancient India as described byKtesias, 38. Herodotus (III, 113) speaks of the long-
tailed sheep of Arabia and of the trucks put under them. He tells also of the broad-tailed variety,
the tail a cubit across. The Chinese of the T'ang period had heard also of the trucks put under
these sheeps' tails. «The Ta-shJ have a foreign breed of sheep {hu yang) whose tails, covered
35 with fine wool, weigh from ten to twenty catties; the people have to put carts under them to hold
them up». Fang-kuo-chi ("fc" 1^ ^^) as quoted in Tung-si-yang-k'au, 12,14''. Conf. also Marco
Polo, I, 99, and Yule's note to same, I, 101, and Leo Africanus, Historic of Africa, III, 945
(Hakl. Soc. edit.), who says he saw in Egypt a ram with a tail weighing eighty pounds!
3) In the Ling-wai-tai-ta this passage begins with the words: «There is a tradition in this
40 country (of Mu-lan-p'i) to the effect that ....» — The remote northern country where the days
are only six hours long, is the Land of Darkness of which mediaeval Arab geographers and
travellers told, sec Ibn Batuta, II, 398—401. The killing wind must be the simoon (Arabic
samUm) of the Sahara. These wonders found natutally place in the marvellous country of
Mu-lan-p'i. San-ts'ai-t'u-hui (Pien-i-tien, 67,9.) quotes the two first paragraphs of this chapter,
45 but, instead of mentioning silos for grain, it has atheydig wells a thousand feet (deep), then(^)
they find springs of watera.