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11,14-15 LAKA-WOOD. 211
shell darker brown, sticking closer to the puljj and thinner than that of the cardamom. The
pulp has an acrid taste. The crop is gathered in the sixth moon.» He gives an illustration of a
nutmeg, which he calls aCantonese nutmega. Su died in A. D. 1101, according to Sung-shi, 340,30.
Tou-lcoA-hua is mace, the arillus of the nutmeg. Cr a wfurd, op. cit., 1,506. The fei-tg'i is
5 now the hazel nut (torreya nucifera); it seems that the name was applied to that nut at the time
our author wrote. Bretschneider, Bot. Sinic, III, 429, and Hanbury, Science papers, 233.
We translate hui by ttashesn and not «lime» on the strength of a passage in the Chong-lei
pon-ts'au (g^ ^§ ^?|j Q.),9,32,inwhichLei-kung(^^ .^ fifth century A. D.) says with
regard to the nutmeg: «when it is to be used glutinous rice is powdered and soaked in boiling
10 water, after which the nut is wrapped in it and baked in hot ashes until the rice coating has
turned brown. The rice is then remoTed and the nut is fit for use. The use of copper vessels is
to be avoided.)) The correct translation may be, ^however, «lime)), for Crawfurd (op. cit., I, 509)
says that in the process of curing nutmegs they are adipped twice or thrice in lime-water, or
rather a thick mixture of lime and water, made of fine shells, which is supposed to secure them
15 from the depredations of insects and worms.» The Pon-ts'au referred to, the chief botanical work
of the Sung dynasty, was compiled in A. D. 1108. See Bretschneider, Botanicon Sinicum, I, 47.
15.
LAKA-^WOOD (I^ A #).
Kiang-chon-hiang comes from San-fo-ts'i, Sho-p'o and P'ong-fong; it
20 is also found in all the districts of Kuang-tung and Kuang-si ^ Its aroma is
strong and penetrating; it counteracts bad smells. All the people of Ts'iian-
ch6u, no matter whether a household be rich or poor, burn this incense at
the end of the year, as if (they were making) a Sacrifice to Heaven ^
Its price is very cheap. The product of San-fo-ts'i is considered the best
25 on account of the purity and strength of its fragrance. This wood is also
called td-fong-Mang (^ ^ #) or «red vine incense»'.3
Notes.
1) P'ong-fong, Pahang, on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. In the first part of this
work the author states that laka-wood was a product of Sumatra, Tan-ma-ling (Kwantan), Fo-
30 lo-an (Beranang), Sho-p'o (Java), the Celebes (?), and Borneo.
Tung-si-yang-k'au, 3,is*,i7* uses the name kiang-Uang, and says it was a product
ofPatani(-:/r VM), and Palembang. The Pon-ts'au, 34.36, says it is also c&Wei U-M-Mang,
which, in another passage (supra, p. 205, line 25), is given as the name of a kind of gharu-wood.
2) The ..Sacrifice to Heaven)), or fan-ch'ai lit. ..burning fueb), was not performed
{j^ ^
35 by the people at large, but by the Sovereign. See Legge, Li Ki, II, 202. The simile does not
appear a happy one; it can only mean that, in view of the cheapness of this odoriferous wood,
every one celebrated the coming of the New Year in the same way as the Emperors did with the
fan-ch'ai. ^ ^. , i , j.
3) In another passage (supra, p. 198) our author states that the sap of the laka-wood tree
40 was used to make an (.imitation dragon's-blood».
14*