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0230 Cathay and the way thither : vol.2
中国および中国への道 : vol.2
Cathay and the way thither : vol.2 / 230 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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470   TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA IN BENGAL, CHINA,

man's height. Its branches resemble those of a thistle or artichoke ; its leaves are small and narrow ; sometimes they drop and leave the tree bare. The incense is a resinous substance found in the branches of the tree. There is more of this in the Musalman countries than in those of the Infidels.l

On Camphor.

As for the trees which furnish camphor they are canes like those of our countries ; the only difference being, that in the former the joint or tube between the knots is longer and thicker. The camphor is found on the inside of each joint, so that when the cane is broken you see within the joint a similar joint of camphor. The surprising thing about it is that the camphor does not form in these canes till after some animal has been sacrificed at the root. Till that be done there is no camphor. The best, which is called in the country Al HarcicLlah, viz., that which has reached the highest degree of congelation, and a drachm dose of which will kill a man by freezing his breath, is taken from a cane beside which a human victim has been sacrificed. Young elephants may, howe\v er, be substituted with good effect for the human victim.2

1 It is Benzoin of which he speaks here under the name of Luban, i.e. 0libanum or incense. The resin is derived from the Styrax Benzoin by wounding the bark. After ten or twelve years produce the tree is cut down, and a very inferior article is obtained by scraping the bark. It is imported in large white masses, resembling white marble in fracture. The plant which, as he says, is of moderate size, is cultivated chiefly in the Batta country of Sumatra, not far from the dominions of his friend Malik-al-Dhahir; hence probably his reference to the country of the Musulmans (Crawf., Diet. Ind. Islands ; Macculloch's Comm. Diet.). The word Al-Arshak or Harshaf, which Defrémery translates " thistle or artichoke," is said by Dulaurier to mean " the plant called Cynara Scolimus."

2 Dulaurier quotes an analogous practice in Tunking.

The description here given of the production of camphor has no resemblance to the truth, and I suspect that he may have confounded with camphor either something that he had learned about the Tabashir or siliceous concretion found in bamboo joints, called by Lin-schoten Saccar-Mambu (bamboo-sugar), or Spodium, if that be not the