Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

T 4fi
' ISLAND OF HAINAN.
mm), loEg pepper (f p), galangal root(^ ^ ^), fi^h glue («
p). yellow wax, and fossil crabs (^ ^^). Most of te products cof;
from the mountaxn villages of the Li and are exchanged with the Chinese for
salt, iron, fish, and rice; the latter sell them to traders (on the coast)
5 The junks which come hither from Ts'uan-ch6u to trade, are laden
with samshu, rice, flour, silks, lacquer, and china ware. They sail from Ts'uan-
ch6u at the end of the year, or in the first month of the year, so as to return
thither in the fifth or sixth month (i. e., June to August); but, if they want
cargoes of fresh betel-nuts, they must sail earlier, so as to get back in the
10 fourth month (i. e., April-May).
K'iung-chou is situated to the north-east of the Li-mu mountain. The
prefectural capital is the same as Ai-chou of antiquity. During the chong-Jio
period (1111—1118) it was made the headquarters of a military brigade
(fjj ^), with the Tsing-hai (^ «^) regiment as garrison. It borders on
15 the sea, and is not very hilly. As to the climate, it is rainy in autumn, dry
in spring, not too hot in summer, not too cold in winter. Typhoons (H ^)
are frequent in the fifth and sixth months (i. e., June to August), and if one
of these is accompanied by a rainbow, the latter is called «storm (or typhoon)
mother)) (^ -^y.
20 According to the 'Records of the Sui dynasty' (^ ^J the people (of
K'iung ch6u?) were of a frivolous but cruel nature. They did their hair up in
a mallet-shaped knot, and wore clothes made of grasses (^ ^). They kept
records by means of notches in pieces of wood, were laborious cultivators, but
of uncouth manners. Father and son followed different vocations. Important
25 persons cast bronze into big drums and hung them up in their houses; when one
of them beat his drum to call his people (|^ ^), and if they hastened to
gather around him in great numbers, he was known as a fu-lau (^ ^) ^
The people wore silk clothes (X M M OB, and made pots out of clay,
and household vessels of calabashes. As they had no yeast, they fermented
30 their wine with pomegranate flowers.
At the present time their upper garments differ not from those of the
Chinese, the nether clothing of the men is a cotton sarong (^) and that of
the women a plaited skirt (|g"). They make their living by spinning cotton.
They still use earthenware pots, and occasionally calabashes to ladle water;
35 in brewing wine they use tubers and grain for ferment (\^ ^ -^). Although
there are no wealthy people among them, nevertheless, as they are a thrifty
people, there are no poor and one sees no beggars in bad years.
When Ting, Duke of Tsin ("f ^ ^), was degraded to the rank of
12
«
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