564 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 8 



tains rising straight like walls; so that from their summits the bottom of the val- 

 ley is not visible, but only a sullen mist-like chaos. The men despatched there in 

 search of those stones by the kings, who reside in the neighborhood, slay sheep, 

 strip them of their skins, and fling them from the rocks into the immense chaos of 

 the valley. The stones then adhere to the flesh of the sheep. The eagles that 

 loiter on the cliffs above scent the flesh, pounce down upon it in the valley, carry 

 the carcasses off to devour them, and thus the stones remain on the top of the 

 mountains. The convicts condemned to gather the stones go to the spots where 

 the flesh of the sheep has been carried away by the eagles, find and take the 

 stones. 87 



The Chinese text contained in the Liang ssu kung chi (Memoirs of 

 the four Worthies of the Liang dynasty) gives the following account: 



In the period T'ien-kien (502-520) of the Liang dynasty, Prince Kie of Shu 

 (Sze-ch'uan) visited the Emperor Wu, when he told his story: "In the west, 

 arriving at the Mediterranean, there is in the sea an island of 200 square miles 

 (li). On this island is a large forest abundant in trees with precious stones, and 

 inhabited by over 10,000 families. * * * In a northwesterly direction from 

 the island is a ravine hollowed out like a bowl, more than a thousand feet deep. 

 They throw flesh into this valley. Birds take it up in their beaks, whereupon 

 they drop the precious stones." 38 



This account, for all its brevity, is immediately intelligible in the 

 light of the western legend, with which it coincides in its essentials — 

 the deep valley into which raw flesh is thrown as bait for the birds, 

 who with it carry the stones into accessible positions. Laufer's con- 

 clusions are then justified, the Liang version is directly traceable to 

 that of Epiphanius, and was transmitted to China from Fu-lin, part 

 of the Roman Empire. 39 



So, too, Hellenistic and Chinese folklore mingle in the ideas trans- 

 mitted from west to east, distorted, and reflected back again, con- 

 cerning asbestos and the salamander. Strabo and Dioscorides both 

 knew the plain facts about asbestos, its mineral origin and its fire-re- 

 sisting property; so did the Chinese of Han times. It is only later 

 that western beliefs concerning the salamander and the phoenix being 

 born of fire or uninjured by fire are confused with asbestos cloth, the 

 latter being further confounded with the real bark cloth of Malaya, 

 which the Chinese knew from their travels in Java and Cambodia, so 

 that finally the incombustible cloth really obtained from the west is 

 either the plumage or pelt of western fire-loving mythical birds or 

 beasts. 



These examples show the diffusion and penetrative power — if I 

 may use the phrase — of ideas and beliefs of a curious and recondite 

 character. The examples I have given have nothing to do with the 

 fundamental needs or desires of mankind, though no doubt the won- 



"Laufer, Berthold, The diamond, a study in Chinese and Hellenistic folk-lore, Field Museum of Natural 

 History, Publication 184, vol. 15, No. 1, p. 9, Chicago, 1915. 

 38 Laufer, op. cit., pp. &-7. 

 "Laufer, op. cit., p. 10. 



