— 109 — 



The seventh day of the twelfth month is their new year. The climate 

 is hot and there is much wind and rain. 



When the people of this country have a feast, they make music by 

 beating drums, blowing flutes and clashing cymbals; they also sing and 

 dance. They have no crockery , but use bamboos and palm-leaves for cooking 

 and serving their rice; when they have finished eating they throw them 

 away. 



In former times they never went to the court of China, therefore no 

 mention is made of them in the histories. 



In the year 977 their king Hiang-ta (*) sent three envoys to bring 

 as tribute one cati ( 2 ) camphor ( 3 ) in large pieces, eight caties camphor of 

 the second sort, eleven caties of the third sort, twenty caties small grained 

 camphor ( 4 ) and twenty caties of the last sort, one cati being equal to 

 twenty taels Chinese w eight (about 0.8 kilogram). They further brought 

 -five boards of camphor-wood , a hundred tortoise-shells , three trays ofsandal- 

 wood and six elephant-tusks. 



These articles were presented with the folio wing words: vMay the 

 Emperor live thousancls and ten thousands of years and may he not disap- 

 prove of the poor civilities of my little country." 



The letter was enclosed in different small bags, which were sealed, 

 and it was not written on Chinese paper, but on what looked like very 

 thin bark of a tree ; it was glossy , slightly green , several feet long and 

 somewhat broader than one inch , and rolled up so tightly that it could be taken 

 within the hand. The characters in which it was written were small and had 

 to be read horizontally ; translated into Chinese it ran as follows: //The 

 //king of Pu-ni, called Hiang-ta, prosterns himself before the most august 

 //emperor and hopes that the emperor may live ten thousands of years. I 

 //have now sent envoys to carry tribute; I knew before that there was an Em- 

 //peror, but I had no means of communication. Recently there was a mer- 

 //chant, called P'u Lu-hsieh ( 5 ), whose ship arrived at the mouth of my river; 

 //I sent a man to invite him to my place and then he told me that he came 

 //from China. The people of my country were much delighted at this and 



o * ti ss - * m. 



