16 C0GG1N BROWN : MINKS & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



concealed and carried, there are no reliable figures as to the exact 

 amount of its production, on account of smuggling. In recent 

 years a representative of a French house of perfumers (Pinaud's 

 of Paris), has been stationed in Li-kiang Fu, where he buys up 

 any musk coming into Yunnan from the north. I saw this gentle- 

 man (M. Perronne), in May 1910, and he informed me that it was 

 now exceedingly difficult to buy musk in these regions owing to 

 the higher prices which could be obtained in Ssu-ch'uan. 



The last recorded export of musk from Teng-yiieh was in 1912 

 when 10.356 lbs. were sent away. Its value works out at Rs. 28 

 per oz., a price which shows little variation on that given by the 

 Lyons Mission. 



White and yellow wax are exported through Meng-tzu and 

 Ssu-mao, and are also largely consumed internally. The yellow 

 wax is a true beeswax, the product of the ordinary bee. Apicul- 

 ture is common everywhere and hives made from the hollow trunk 

 of a tree with the ends stopped up with wood and clay are often 

 seen in the country districts. The insects are also kept in old walls 

 of barns and houses. Honey is cheap, but is not often met with 

 as a food stuff, except amongst the Lisu and other poverty-stricken 

 tribes. According to Hosie, yellow wax is employed " in rubbing 

 the strings of the card figure in silk weaving ; it is also used to a 

 limited extent in candle making, and the carpenter finds it a good 

 furniture polish. Another, but minor, use is the polishing of the 

 string of the cord employed in carding raw cotton after ginning. 

 This keeps the wool from adhering to the string." 



The white wax is the product of an insect (Coccus -pela) which 

 is reared in the districts about the Kuei-chou frontier on the road 

 from "Wei-ning to Yunnan Fu, and also in the Hui-li Chou district 

 in the southern part of the Chien-ch'ang valley. To look at, the 

 insects seem to consist of a mass of small grubs enclosed by soft 

 rounded brown shells which are carried about the land packed 

 in small straw compartments. These are fastened on to suitable 

 trees, when the insects are said to hatch out and spread above 

 over the branches, depositing wax wherever they go. The wax 

 is collected from the branches and cases by scraping and boiling, 

 and it is used principally as an outer coating for Chinese candles, 

 as it melts at a higher temperature than the animal fats from which 

 such candles are made, and so prevents the candle guttering when 

 it is burning. Hosie also states that it is used for imparting a 



