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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CHAP. LXXX. p. 226.   SILKY FOWLS SUGAR.

99

hope that some reader skilled in medieval French and Italian

may be able to throw light on the subject.

Mr. Yule writes as follows :

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r:

" The reference [to these fowls] in ` Marco Polo ' (p. 226 of the last

edition ; not p. 126 as stated in the index) is a puzzle, owing to the

statement that they are black all over. A black has, I am told, been

recently created, but the common breed is white, as stated in the note

and by Friar Odoric.

" It has occurred to me as a possibility that what Marco Polo may

have meant to say was that they were black all through, or some such

phrase. The flesh of these fowls is deeply pigmented, and looks

practically black ; it is a feature that is very remarkable, and would

certainly strike any one who saw it. The details that they ` lay eggs

just like our fowls,' i.e., not pigmented, and are ` very good to eat,' are

facts that would naturally deserve especial mention in this connexion.

Mr. A. D. Darbishire (of Oxford and Edinburgh University) tells me

that is quite correct : the flesh look horrid, but it is quite good eating.

Do any texts suggest the possibility of such a reading as I suggest ? "

The references in the above quotation are, of course, to my

father's version of Marco Polo. That his nephew should make

this interesting little contribution to the subject would have

afforded him much gratification.

A. F. YULE.

The Atheneum, No. 45701 May 29, 1915, p. 485.

LXXX., pp. 226, 2 3o.

SUGAR.

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" I may observe that the Pek Shi (or ` Northern Dynasties

History ') speaks of a large consumption of sugar in Cam-

bodgia as far back as the fifth century of our era. There

can be no mistake about the meaning of the words sha-t'ang,

which are still used both in China and Japan (sa-tö). The

History of the Tang Dynasty,' in its chapter on Magadha,

says that in the year 627 the Chinese Emperor ` sent envoys

thither to procure the method of boiling out sugar, and then

ordered the Yang-chou sugar-cane growers to press it out in the

same way, when it appeared that both in colour and taste ours

excelled that of the Western Regions ' [of which Magadha was

held to be part]." (E. H. PARKER, Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan.,

1904, p. 146.)