Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

I"
^'-
AXKAM.
2.
ANNAM.
Chan-ch'6ng (^ ij^).
The sea -route to the east of Chan-ch'ongi leads to Kuang-chou
5 (Canton); to the west it borders on Yun-nan; to the south it reaches to
Chon-la; to the north it confines on Kiau-chi, whence it communicates with
Yung-chou^ (^ ;|>|.|). From Ts'uan-ch6u one can make this country in twenty
days' sailing with a favourable wind.
The country extends from east to west 700 li; from north to south
10 3000 li. The capital is called Sin-chdu"
(fp ^|>|). Thev use the designntimi^
((district city» (Men ^) and «markftt, tnwn» fpJ,n^. ^ \
The (capital) city walls are of brick and are flanked with stone towers.
When the king shows himself in public he is seated on an elephant or
is carried in a kind of cotton hammock (or jmn-pu-tou* |^ ^ 5|) carried
15 by four men. On his head he wears a golden cap and his body is ornamented
with strings of pearls. Whenever the king holds his court, encircling his
throne are thirty women attendants carrying swords and bucklers or his
betel-nut. At audiences the officials present make one prostration and stop.
When the business has been concluded, they again make a prostration and
20 retire. The forms of prostration (^) and salutation (:^) are the same for
women as for men.
In cases of adultery both the man and the woman are put to death.
Theft is punished by cutting off the fingers and the toes.
In battle they bind five men together in one file(|± ^ j^);
if one
25 runs, all who belong to the same file are doomed to death. If a Chinese
should be left by a native while lying dangerously wounded, the latter is
treated as a murderer and put to death.
The people of this country are fond of cleanliness, they bathe from three
to five times daily. They rub themselves with a paste made of camphor and
30 musk and perfume their clothes with fumes of various scented woods.
During the whole year the climate is agreeably warm; there is neither
extreme cold nor heat.
Every year on New Year's day they lead a chained elephant through
the city, after which they turn it loose. This ceremony is called «driving out
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