National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CHAP. XXXVIII. p. 4.45. ESHER DUFAR FRANKINCENSE.   I25

Aden, of which they make no mention whatsoever, but which was

one of the great commercial centres of the Arabs." HIRTH and

ROCKHILL, p. 25 n.

XXXVI., pp. 442 seq.

THE CITY OF ESHER.

Shehr, a port on the Hadramaut coast, is mentioned by Chau

J u-kwa under the name of Shi ho among the dependencies of the

country of the Ta-shy (Arabs.). (HIRTH and ROCKHILL, p. 116.)

XXXVIII., pp. 444-445 •

ti

DUFAR.

We read in the Ying yai shêng lan : " This country [Tsu

fa erh] is between the sea and the mountains. To the east and

south is nothing but the sea. To the north and west are ranges

of mountains. One reaches it from the kingdom of Ku-li

(Calicut) journeying north-westward for ten days and nights.

It has no walled towns or villages. The people all follow the

religion of the Moslims. Their physical appearance is good,

their culture is great, the language sincere.

" The native products are frankincense, which is the sap of

a tree. There is also dragon's blood, aloes, myrrh, an-hsi-hsiang

(benzoin), liquid storax, muh pieh-tzú (Momordica cochinchinensis),

and the like, all of which they exchange for Chinese hempen

cloth, silks, and china-ware." (ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao, XVI.,

1915, pp. 611-612.)

The Sing ch'a shéng lan mentions : " The products are the

tsu-la fa (giraffe), gold coins, leopards, ostriches, frankincense,

ambergris." (Ibid., p. 614.)

Dufar is mentioned by Chau Ju-kwa under the name of Nu-fa

among the dependencies of the country of the Ta-shY (Arabs).

(HIRTH and ROCKHILL, pp. I16, 121.)

XXXVIII., pp. 445-449.

FRANKINCENSE.

Chau Ju-kwa (HIRTH and ROCKHILL, pp. 195-196) tells

us : " Ju hiang (` milk incense '), or hün-lu-hiang, comes from the

three Ta-shy countries of Ma-lo-pa, Shy-ho, and Nu-fa, from the

depths of the remotest mountain valleys. The tree which yields

this drug may, on the whole, be compared to the sung (pine).

Its trunk is notched with a hatchet, upon which the resin flows

out, and when hardened, turns into incense, which is gathered an d