io Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



found similar vessels in the sea; x and they value them very highly for 

 the purpose of preserving their tea in them." 



Morga writes: "On this island, Luzon, particularly in the provinces 

 of Manilla, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Ylocos, very ancient clay 

 vessels of a dark brown colour are found by the natives, of a sorry ap- 

 pearance; some of a middling size, and others smaller; marked with 

 characters and stamps. They are unable to say either when or where 

 they obtained them ; but they are no longer to be acquired, nor are they 

 manufactured in the islands. The Japanese prize them highly, for they 

 have found that the root of a herb which they call Tscha (tea), and 

 which when drunk hot is considered as a great delicacy and of medicinal 

 efficacy by the kings and lords in Japan, cannot be effectively preserved 

 except in these vessels; which are so highly esteemed all over Japan 

 that they form the most costly articles of their showrooms and cabinets. 

 Indeed, so highly do they value them that they overlay them externally 

 with fine gold embossed with great skill, and enclose them in cases of 

 brocade; and some of these vessels are valued at and fetch from 2,000 

 tael to 1 1 reals. The natives of these islands purchase them from the 

 Japanese at very high rates, and take much pains in the search for them 

 on account of their value, though but few are now found on account 

 of the eagerness with which they have been sought for. 



"When Carletti, in 1597, went from the Philippines to Japan, all 

 the passengers on board were examined carefully, by order of the 

 governor, and threatened with capital punishment if they endeavoured 

 to conceal 'certain earthen vessels which were wont to be brought from 

 the Philippines and other islands of that sea,' as the king wished to 



1 This is not a fact but a legend. Engelbert Kaempfer (The History of 

 Japan, Glasgow reprint, Vol. Ill, p. 237) relates a story, told him by Chinese, regard- 

 ing an island Maurigasima near Formosa famous in former ages for its fine porcelain 

 clay. "The inhabitants very much inrich'd themselves by this manufacture, but 

 their increasing wealth gave birth to luxury, and contempt of religion, which in- 

 censed the Gods to that degree, that by an irrevocable decree they determin'd to 

 sink the whole island." Then follows the long story of the virtuous king who 

 managed to escape the disaster miraculously, and to flee into the province of Fukien. 

 The island sank, and with it all its ceramic treasures. They were subsequently 

 taken up by divers and sold to Chinese merchants of Fukien who traded them to 

 Japan at immense sums. There is consequently a double error in the above state- 

 ment of Franks: it is not the Japanese who found jars in the sea, nor does Kaempfer 

 say that they were celadons or similar to them; on the contrary, he describes them 

 as "transparent, exceeding thin, of a whitish color, inclining to green," which is 

 almost the opposite to a celadon. That legend, as far as I know, has not yet been 

 traced to a Chinese source. Brinkley (Japan, Vol. VIII, p. 267) shows little under- 

 standing of folklore, if he calls it a foolish fable; it doubtless ranks among the category 

 of familiar stories of sunken isles and towns in Europe. Brinkley's explanation that 

 the story was probably invented by some Japanese Swift to satirise the irrational 

 value attached to rusty old specimens, of pottery is decidedly untenable, if for no 

 other reason, because, according to Kaempfer's statement, the legend is Chinese 

 in origin. The pottery in question is, in my opinion, Chinese ware of Fukien, and 

 the legend emanates from the potters of Fukien. [B. L.] 



