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and oakum {%)
INTRODUCTION.
and mend it from the outside, for the foreign slaves are expert
swimmers, and do not close their eyes under water.
«Tlie ship masters know the configuration of the coasts (i^ ^); at
night they steer by the stars and in the day-time by the sun. When the sun
is obscured they look at the south-pointing needle ^ (:jf ^ ^) or use a 5
line a hundred feet long with a hook (^), with which they take up mud
from the sea bottom; by its smell they determine their whereabouts. In mid-
ocean it never rains; whenever it rains (they know) they are nearing an island
{or headland (Jj).
((Traders say that when they get in calms the water of the sea is like a lo
mirror. The sailors then catch fish by taking (a line with) a hook (on it) as
large as a man's arm, on which they fasten a chicken or duck as bait. When
this is swallowed by a big fish they follow it (in a small boat?) as it makes
off, but not till half a day (is passed) does it grow tired enough for them to
as ink. Their lips are red, their hair curly and yellow. Both sexes are found among them; they 15
are natives of the islands beyond the sea (of China '/^ ^|»). They live (in their native land) on
raw food; when caught and fed on food cooked with fire, it purges them daily and this is called
((Changing the bowelss {^ J^).
Many during this treatment sicken and die, but if they do not
they may be reared and become able to understand human speech (i. e., Chinese), though they
themselves cannot (learn) to speak it.
((There is a variety of wild men from near the sea
( jg^ *^ ^ ^)
which can dive
in water without closing the eyes; these are called «K.'un-lun slaves;) (ja J^ ^Z.)-
The slaves who were anatives of the islands beyond the Sea (of China)», may have been
African negroes, in which the Arabs of those times carried on a large traffic. The effect of the
change of diet on these blacks, making them able to understand Chinese, is based on the Chinese 25
notipn that purging of the bowels is a result of mixing hot with cold food, and that these people
had to become used to the food and water of China and have the old washed out of them, before
they could understand Chinese.
The «K'un-lun slavess were in all likelihood Malays or Negritos of the Malay Peninsula
and the islands to the south. I-tsing calls the Malay language ((language of K'un-luna — Cha- 30
vannes, Kelig. dmin., 63, 159, 183. In A. D. 976 an Arab brought to the Court of China, aa
K'nn-lun slave with deep set eyes and black body)); Sung shi, 490. The practice of keeping black
slaves continued in China down to the latter part of the fourteenth century, perhaps even to much
more modern times. In 1370 among the presents brought to the Court of China by a mission from
Malacca were ((little foreign slavesa (^g: yj> ^K). The following year a mission from Borneo 35
brought ((little black slaves)) (S^ yj-^ ^^)-
Kan-yile-pi-ki. 7,16,17. The same work- (whether
referring to the time when it was written, latter part of eighteenth century, or to past ages does
not appear) says that «many families (in China) buy black people to make gate-keepers of; they
are called Am«-wm or ((devil slaves)), ot h^siauss'i ((black slaves or servants)). Duarte Barbosain
the early part of the sixteenth century says that many slaves were shipped from the island of 40
Snnda to China. Descript. of East Africa, etc. (Hakl. Soc. edit.), 196.
F.W.Mayers, China Eeview, IV, 182 in translating the passage of this P'ing-chou-
k'o-t'an was under the impression it referred to the Ming period. He mentions the fact that in
1381 the king of Java sent 300 black slaves as a present to the Chinese Emperor.
1) See supra p. 28, n. 3. 45
2Q