— 121 — 



lts site with any degree of certainty. We venture however to offer the following sug- 

 gestion. Taking into consideration the difficuities and dangers of navigation in those 

 timcs , it is quite natural that the intercourse between India and China was partly 

 carried on hy a route on which these sea-voyages were reduced considerably , across 

 the narrower part of the Malay peninsula, say between S° and 10° northern latitude, 

 where we shall presently see that not long afterwards another emporium for this trade 

 was established. We think that the market-place of Tun-sun was situated somewhere 

 in this locality. The obscure passage on the preceding page would then fmd an ex- 

 planation also. It says that the peninsula was more than a thousand li long , and the 

 author , with very defective notions of geography , and seeing this overland route fol- 

 iowed by so many, probably concluded from the great length of this country, that it 

 was not possible for ships to fmd their way to the other side. 



Kora or Kala C 1 ). 



New History of the T'ang dynasty (618—906). Book 222b. 



This country is situated at the south-east of P'an-p'an ( 2 ) and is also 

 called Kora Fu-sa-ra ( 3 ). The king's family-name is Sri Pora ( 4 ) and his 

 personal name is Mi-si Po-ra ( 5 ). The walls of his city are built with stones 

 piled upon each other, whilst the watch-towers , the palace and other build- 

 ings are thatched with straw. The country is divided into 24 distiïcts. 



The soldiers use bows, arrows, swords, lances and armour of leather; 

 their banners are adorned with peacock feathers and they fight mounted on 

 elephants ; one division of the arrny consists of a hundred of these , and each 

 elephant is surrounded by a hundred men. On the elephant's back is a 

 cage containing four men, armed with bows, arrows and lances. 



As taxes the people pay a little silver. There are no silkworms , nor 

 hemp or flax , nothing else but cotton. For domestic animals they have nu- 

 merous cows and a few ponies. 



It is their custom that only functionaries are allowed to tie up their hair 



JËÜ SS 



we shall 



O -rJ" ^f£ ? Kora is most likely the correct reading, but we also give Kala, because, as 



( 

 ( 



c 

 e 



the two 



presently see, it has been mentioned by others under this name. 



3H Üij the soutüern P art °f Siam, probably the present P'un-p'in (Bandon). 

 W ffiË. H tx ffi£ . probably Kora Besar or Great Kora, 



^t ^fc. $^ ^ . We are ™able to guess what may have been the native form of 



tast names. 



