Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 99 



The rising of the Nan-Yueh kingdom attracted the 

 foreign trade to the region of the present Canton, and on 

 the conquest by the Nan-Yueh emperor of the country 

 westward, in 179 B.C., the Hormuzian or Hwang-tchi 

 (yellow-fingered) sea-traders, 80 as they were called, estab- 

 lished themselves in the Island of Hainan, where they 

 discovered pearls on the west coast and created the pearl 

 fisheries of Tchu-yai, i.e. the coast of pearls (present 

 Yai tchou). They traded with the Nan-Yueh through a 

 station called Hop-pu, near the present Pakhoi, their 

 goods reaching the principal market of Heng shan, east of 

 Nan-ning, in S.W. Kwangsi, on the Yti Kiang leading by 

 the Pearl river to Canton. 



In no B.C., these Hormuzian sea-traders once more 

 removed their chief landing place, establishing it further 

 south, on the west of Cape Cambodia, on the east side of 

 the Gulf of Siam, in Tcham, the Zabai of Ptolemy. From 

 here they traded Persian Gulf pearls ^to Kattigara and 

 IIoppu (near the present Pakhoi). 



In the early Christian era, Cingalese traders seem to 

 have taken over most of the trade with China. Among 

 the articles of commerce mentioned in the Annals of the 

 Eastern Han dynasty, in 69 A.D., are bright pearls and 

 oyster-pearls from Ceylon. 81 



It is of some interest to note here that pearls are 

 obtained at the present day in the Gulf of Siam from a 

 small oyster with a thin shell. Kunz and Stevenson (op. 

 cit., p. 149) inform us that " the Siamese do not especially 

 value pearls, attributing superstitious sentiments or ill 



so Names derived from Hormuzia, near the Persian Gulf, and from the 

 use of henna to dye their fingers. 



S1 Lacouperie, op. cit., p. 252, and p. 255 note 1112 ; Kwang-tchu, i.e. 

 bright pearls, different in name from the Ming-givet pearls of the Persian 

 Gulf; pang-tchu, oyster-pearls (? pearl-oyster shells). 



