Half -Light over Warm Seas 113 



as described in the preceding chapter. This was collected by some 

 peoples, probably the Eskimos, Yakuts, Chukchis, and Koryaks of 

 the north, and traded by them down the coast via the Kamchadales 

 and the Tungus to the Koreans, and thus to the Chinese. An alterna- 

 tive route may have been overland directly from the Yakuts to the 

 Tungus, and thence via iMongolia and Manchuria to China. In any 

 case, these two forms of ivory were known in most ancient times, 

 but it was apparently not till the present day that the Chinese 

 really came to know from what animals they were derived. They 

 used the narwhal ivory primarily as sword and dagger hilts, but 

 they passed this material along to the rest of Asia in trade for all 

 manner of goods, so that it finally reached eastern Europe and the 

 Arab world, where it merged with a supply of identical material 

 coming from the north of Europe initiated originally, as far as we 

 know, by the Norse, as also described in the preceding chapter. 



Thus, we see that during this otherwise undocumented period, 

 there must have been a great deal of coastal whaling proceeding in 

 the North Pacific. Most of this was probably prosecuted by the 

 ancestors of the Eskimos or the descendants of those mound build- 

 ers whom we met on the island of Sakhalin, but, at the same time, 

 ambergris is first mentioned by the Chinese — specifically by Pen 

 Ts'ao — as lung sieji hiang, which means "dragon's saliva perfume." 

 In fact, this writer states that this material is aromatic and is vom- 

 ited out of the stomachs of large parties of sea dragons who congre- 

 gate in the southern oceans at certain times of year. This is so near 

 the truth that we can only surmise there was a full-fledged whaling 

 industry in action somewhere off the coast of southern China in 

 those times. 



The bone armor referred to was apparently made of overlapping 

 pieces of ivory derived from the tusks of walruses, and was almost 

 impenetrable by any weapons of that time. Any who doubt the 

 statement that this was walrus ivory are referred to the appropri- 

 ate references to certain extensive works listed in the bibliography 

 attached hereto. Apparently, the inhabitants of the great peninsular 

 subcontinent north of China and Japan carried on a walrus-hunting 

 and whaling enterprise for at least four thousand years, in direct 

 accord with the traditions of the mound builders of Sakhalin. That 

 this was so is also confirmed by certain activities in other parts of 



