— - 120 — 



In this country a wine-tree is found ; the people collect the juice of 

 its flowers and let it stand in a jar, when it becomes wine in a few days. 



In the Dynastie Histories we find no later account of this country , but we 

 meet again with the same name in Book 276 of the T'ai-p'ing Hoan-yü Chi , a uni- 

 versal geography published between the years 976 and 983, in which the notices on 

 foreign countries generally are inaccurate repetitions of the articles on the same subject 

 in the histories of the preceding dynasties ; in this case however some new material 

 is added and we think therefore we may translate this part of its account. 



Tun-sun (*) was first heard of in the Liang dynasty ; it is also called 

 Tien-sun ( 2 ). 



(Here follows a repetition of the preceding account, which is accordingly omitted). 



It produces the Hwo-hsiang ( 3 ); if you take a branch of his plant and 

 put it into the ground, it lives again. The leaves serve to make clothes. 



In this country there are more than ten different kinds of fragrant 

 flowers, which come during the whole year, and every clay many waggon- 

 loads are collected in order to sell them. When dried they are still more 

 fragrant and their ofFal is made into powder for rubbing the body. 



According to their custom the dead are generally devoured by birds. 

 When one is on the point of dying , his relatives, singing and dancing , bring 

 him out of the town , when birds like geese , with bills like parrots and of a red 

 color, arrive in large quantities ; the relatives then retire, and when the body 

 has been devoured entirely, they take the bones, bum them, and sink the 

 ashes into the sea; the deceased is then considered to have been a virtuous 

 man, who will certainly be reborn in heaven. When the birds fly away 

 without eating him, the dying man is much afflicted that he is so impure, 

 and is buriecl by voluntarily throwing himself into the fire ; this is considered 

 to be the next class of men. Those who cannot have themselves burned alive 

 and neither are devoured by the birds, are considered the lowest class. 



Erom iuternal evidence contained in the above accounts, as well as from the 

 universal testimony of Chinese geographers , we have no hesitation in taking Tun- 

 sun for a part of the Malay peninsula, but we have not been able to identify 



( 3 ) J|| %£ Lophanthus rugosus or Betonica officinalis. Viel. \X . Williams Dict. p. 257. 



