146 Chinese Clay Figures 



while he served in the district of Nan-hai (in Kuang-tung) , had occasion 

 to meet there a captain who told him this story: 'The people of ray 

 country, intent on capturing a rhinoceros, proceed to erect on a mountain- 

 path many wooden structures like watch-houses or posts for tethering 

 animals. 1 As the front legs of the animal are straight, without joints, 

 it is in the habit of sleeping by leaning against a tree. The rotten timber 

 will suddenly break down, and the animal is unable to rise. 2 Another 



noceros-horn. The Malayan word badak seems to cover the entire Malayan area where 

 the rhinoceros is found; it occurs on Borneo in the language of the Dayak (A. Harde- 

 land, Dajacksch-deutsches Worterbuch, p. 24, Amsterdam, 1859), and on Sumatra 

 (M. Joustra, Karo-Bataksch Woordenboek, p. 59, Leiden, 1907). Among the 

 Malayans, the rhinoceros-horn (chula) is supposed to be a powerful aphrodisiac; and 

 there is a belief in a species of "fiery" rhinoceros (badak api) which is excessively 

 dangerous when attacked (W. W. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 150, London, 1900). The 

 horn is carefully preserved, as it is believed to be possessed of medicinal properties, 

 and is highly prized by the Malays, to whom the Semang generally barter it for to- 

 bacco and similar commodities (Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay 

 Peninsula, Vol. I, p. 203, London, 1906). There is nothing in these Malayan beliefs 

 showing that complex series of ideas, met with in China. They may be a weak echo 

 of Chinese notions conveyed by Chinese traders bartering among them for the horn. 



1 Chti yi (Nos. 2974 and 13,205). I do not know but this may have to be taken as a 

 compound with a more specific technical meaning. The two Pin ts'ao have changed 

 this unusual term into "stables for swine or sheep." There is no doubt of what is 

 meant, — posts of rotten timber, which will easily break to pieces under the burden 

 of the animal leaning toward it. 



2 This story has passed also into the Arabic account of the merchant-traveller 

 Soleiman, written in 851 a.d. (M. Reinaud, Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes 

 et les Persans dans l'lnde et a la Chine, Vol. I, p. 29, Paris, 1845): "The kerkeden 

 (rhinoceros) has no articulation in the knee, nor in the hand; from the foot up to the 

 armpit it is but one piece of flesh." In T'oung Pao (1913, pp. 361-4) the historical 

 importance of this tradition is pointed out by me inasmuch as this originally In- 

 dian story has migrated also to the West, where it leaks out in the Greek Physiologus 

 (only the rhinoceros is replaced by the elephant) , and in Caesar's and Pliny's stories 

 of the elk. I wish to make two additions to these remarks. Aelian (Nat. an., xvi, 

 20), describing the rhinoceros of India, called by him Kaprdfcows, asserts that its 

 feet have no joints and are grown together like the feet of the elephant (tovs iikv ir68as 

 h.5iap&pwTrovs re nal kfi<f>epels i\k<pavTi <Tv/j.ire<pvKkvai: ed. of F. JACOBS). This 

 passage, therefore, confirms my former conclusion that it was the rhinoceros which 

 was credited in India with jointless legs; but we see that the same notion was like- 

 wise attached to the elephant. It may be the case, accordingly, that the elephant 

 with jointless legs was borrowed by the Physiologus straight from India. Mr. W. W. 

 Rockhill (Diplomatic Audiences at the Court of China, p. 32, London, 1905) quotes 

 a statement made to him by T. Waiters on the kotow question with reference to 

 Lord Macartney's embassy, as follows: "It was an opinion universal, and was told 

 among the Chinese, that the Kuei-tse or foreigner was not built up like the jen [that 

 is, man] or Chinaman, and particularly that he had no joints in his legs. So that, if 

 the Kuei-tse was knocked down or otherwise put on the ground, he could not rise 

 again. It was because the Emperor did not want to have possibly a death or at any 

 rate an unseemly spectacle that he waived the kotow." Compare also Rubruck's 

 story of "the creatures who have in all respects human forms, except that their 

 knees do not bend, so that they get along by some kind of jumping motion " (W. W. 

 Rockhill, The Journey of William of Rubruck, p. 199, London, 1900). The fabulous 

 notion of the jointless legs of the rhinoceros may have arisen from the observation 

 that the animal is indeed in the habit of sleeping in a standing position. Says E. 

 Heller (The White Rhinoceros, p. 41), "The hot hours of the day are spent by the 

 white rhinoceros sleeping in the shade of the scattered clumps of trees or bushes which 

 dot the grassy veldt. They seem to rest indifferently, either lying down or standing 



