IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
| S G L'PLE\IE\"l'AIi Y NOTES. | C IXZT1 |
" The kings on the mainland cause wild elephants to be tamed, and make use of them in war. And it is a common practice to get up elephant fights as a spectacle for the king. For this purpose they set up between the two elephants a pair of upright timbers with a great crossbeam fastened to them which reaches as it might be to the chests of the elephants.3 A number of men are also stationed on this side and on that to prevent the animals coming to close quarters, but at the same time to stir them up to engage one another. And so the beasts thrash each other with their trunks till at length one of them gives in.
"The Indian elephants are not furnished with great tusks.' And even when they have them naturally the people saw them off, in order that their weight- may not be an incumbrance in war. The Ethiopians do not understand the art of taming elephants ; but if their king should want one or two for a show they catch them young and bring them up in captivity. For in their country there are great numbers of elephants, and they are of the kind that have great tusks. And these tusks are exported by sea from Ethiopia into Persia and Homerite and the Roman territory, and even to India. These particulars are derived from what I have heard" (p. 339).
NOTE X.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE SYRO-CIIINESE CHRISTIAN
MONUMENT AT SINGANFU.
From the RELAZIONE DELLA CINA of P. ALVAREZ SEMEDO, Rome, 1643.
"In the year 1625, whilst the foundations of a house were a-digging in the neighbourhood of the city of Singanfu, the capital of the province of Shensi, the workmen hit upon a stone slab more than nine palms long, by four in width, and more than a palm in thickness. The head of this slab, i.e. one of the ends in its longer dimension, is finished off in the form of a pyramid more than two palms high with a base of more than one palm, and on the surface of this pyramid is a well-formed cross with floreated points, resembling those which are described to be sculptured on the tomb of St. Thomas at Meliapur, and such as were also at one time in use in Europe, as we may see by some examples that have been preserved to the present day.
" There are some cloudy marks round about the cross, and (immediately) below it three transverse. lines, each composed of three large characters clearly carved, all of the kind employed in China. The whole (of the rest) of the surface of the stone is seen to be sculptured over with
1 It is well known that a large proportion of male elephants in India have only very small tusks like the females. Such in Bengal are called ma.1, hna.
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