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Sino-Iranica - The Search For Mecca

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45°<br />

<strong>Sino</strong>-<strong>Iranica</strong><br />

Services of Cochin-China, and also a sample of the seeds obtained from<br />

a Chinese exporter. <strong>The</strong> tree exists in the Eastern provinces of Cochin-<br />

China, principally in the forests of Baria. <strong>The</strong> seeds are bought by<br />

Chinese from the savage tribes known as Mois, who collect them in the<br />

forest; the Chinese then export them to China or sell them again to<br />

firms exporting to Europe. <strong>The</strong> time of fruiting is in November and<br />

December. M. Morange considers that the tree is certainly indigenous<br />

in Cochin-China, and was not introduced by early traders." If the<br />

tree is indigenous there, it was certainly discovered there, as far as the<br />

Chinese are concerned, only after the Mongol period. H. Maitre 1 deals<br />

with the poisons used by the Moi for their arrows, and arrives at the<br />

conclusion that they are derived from the upas tree (Antiaris). He does<br />

not mention Strychnos.<br />

1 Les regions Moi du sud indo-chinois, pp. 119-121 (Paris, 1909).

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