M. Biot on Stony Matter used Jar Food in China. 209 



concerning the employment of the article in a way much more 

 general than we are usually led to believe. 



The Japanese Encyclopedia, book Ixi., " Upon Stones and Minerals,'' con- 

 tains an article entitled Chi Mien or Sione-flour, of which we now present a 

 translation ; and in which it will be seen the same superstitious ideas prevail 

 which M. de Humboldt had remarked in Laponia. " The Pen-tsao-Kang-mou*" 

 remarks, " The flour of stone is not an ordinary substance, but a miraculous 

 production. Many declare that it is produced in the time of famine. Under 

 the Emperor Hien-Tsong, of the dynasty of Tang, in the period Tien-2)ao, 

 the third year (answering to a. d. 744), a miraculous spring issued from the 

 earth, and stones were decomposed and converted into flour." To the letter- 

 press of this extract is conjoined a woodfcut, which represents the spring 

 issuing forth in cascades, and the stones breaking up into slender threads, but 

 these are so incorrectly indicated that it is not possible to draw any minera- 

 Icgical inference. 



We subjoin some additional notices. '• Under the Emperor Hian-Tsong, of 

 the same dynasty, in the period Vuen-ho, fourth year (a. d. 809), stones were 

 decomposed and became meal." Under the Emperor Tching-Tsong, of the 

 dynasty oi Soiing, in the period Tsiang-fou, fifth year (a. d. 1012), " a marrow 

 was produced from stones which resembled flour." Under Jin-Tsong, in the 

 period Kia-yeou, seventh year (a. d. 1062), " the flour of stone was produced." 

 Under Tchi-Tsong, in the period Yuen-fong, third year (a. d. 1080), "stones 

 were decomposed and became flour : All these kinds of flour were collected 

 and eaten by the poor.'' 



Vfe now add the statement, made in 1034, by one of the Chinese mission- 

 aries, M. ]\f athieu-Ly, who is established in the province of Kiang-Si.jr The 

 facts which he describes relate to the same year 1834, and to the three pre- 

 ceding, so that they coincide with those mentioned by ]\f. Retzius regarding 

 Lapunia. " JMany of our converts will assuredly die this year from want ; 

 end it is God alone who can provide a remedy for so many and such aggravated 

 necessities ; all the crops have again been carried away by the overflowing 

 of the rivers. For a period of three years now, an immense number of per* 

 sons have supported themselves upon the bark of a tree which is found in the 

 country ; whilst others eat a light earth of a white colour, which has been 

 discovered in a mountain. The earth can only be bought with silver, and it 

 is not every one that can procure it. These wretched people first sold their 



* Tliis work is a cOileclion of Chinese Natural History, compiled about a. d. 1575, 

 from treatises which were still more ancient. M. S. Julien having kindly communi- 

 cated to my SOD big copy of the Pcn-tsuo-Kang-mou, the quotation given in the Ja- 

 panese Encyclopedia has been compared with tiie original text, and found to be accu- 

 rate. Many ef the places named are situated in the Northern Province called Chan' 

 Si, where the cold is often severe during the winter ; others belong to the maritime 

 provinces of Chun. long and Kitiny-N(in, near the mouth of the Yellow River. The 

 provinces of Hou-Kouang and Kiang-SI, concerning which the missionaries attest 

 tho same fact, are different from these, and are situated in the valley of the Blue 

 River. 



•}• See Annales de la propogatiou de la I'oi, No. xlviii. p. 85, Sept. 1836. 



VOL. XXIII. NO. XLV. — JUI.V 18-37. O 



