china's place in ancient history : A FEAGMENT. lo3 



mention tbat in his work, Western Origiii oftheiEarly Chinese Civili- 

 zation, by the late Professor Terrien de Lacouperie, that author refers 

 to having discovered that, during the Chow dynasty, China had a 

 trade to India from two ports on the Shantung promontory. As 

 regards the efforts made at such intercourse by more Western 

 nations, many ancient authors throw light on a considerable overland 

 intercourse with India, etc., and research has already tended to prove 

 that Egyptian and other ships manned by Sidonian sailors went 

 eastwai'd at least as far as the Malabar coast. In his reply the 

 author of the paper has kindly referred to a Chinese bottle found 

 in a mummy, of which I spoke at a late meeting. Since that 

 meeting I has^e bad communications on the subject of such 

 bottles. So far as I have investigated, these bottles appear to 

 be of three kinds, glass, delf, and porcelain ; all have Chinese 

 inscriptions, and are reputed to have been found in mummies 

 or elsewhere in Egypt. The glass ones are modern, those of 

 delf are of a coarser make, and may owe their origin to the fact 

 that several hundred years ago a small colony of Chinese potters 

 arrived in the capital of Persia, and in default of a better material 

 made all their goods of delf ; the bottle of which I showed the 

 photograph is made of fine porcelain, and is in the collection of a 

 correspondent living in the South of England, one well acquainted 

 with Egypt, having had much to do with the natives during twenty 

 years' residence there, and hence about the last person to be 

 imposed upon. It was found as follows, a few years ago : he and 

 two archEeological friends discovered a mummy of early date. On 

 carefully unrolling this the bottle in question was revealed and 

 taken possession of by its present owner ; the inscription upon 

 the bottle is archaic, which is not the case with the other bottles 

 referred to, and I conclude refers to the contents, which seem a 

 dried-up pigment ; for these reasons I think we may safely venture 

 to say that this bottle helps to support the author's remarks as to 

 the extent of Chinese intercourse with other nations in early times. 



The Chairman. — The author of the paper has done valuable 

 service by bringing together so many points in ancient history, 

 and any tbat may criticise his work adversely will doubtless 

 remember that he cannot be held responsible for mistakes and 

 errors which other Chinologists — if I may use the word as 

 regards his authorities — may have fallen into. I think we are 

 all very much indebted to him for his interesting paper. 



The meeting was then adjourned. 



