CHINESE COMPASS. 123 



of the hand, or even smaller. They hold it near the surface of 

 the water, giving it a rotary motion until the needle turns upon 

 the water : they then withdraw the stone suddenly, when the 

 needle, with its two ends, points to the north and south. I saw 

 this with my own eyes, on my voyage from Tripoli, in Syria, to 

 Alexandria, in the year 640. [640 of the Hegira, 1240 A.D.] 



" I heard it said that the captains in the Indian seas substi- 

 tute for the needle and reed a hollow iron fish, magnetized, so 

 that, when placed in the water, it points to the north with its 

 head and to the south with its tail. The reason that the fish 

 swims, not sinks, is that metallic bodies, even the heaviest, 

 float when hollow, and when they displace a quantity of water 

 greater than their own weight." 



It may fairly be inferred, from this passage, that, at the time 

 spoken of, (1240,) the practice was already of long standing in 

 this quarter, and that the needle and its polarity had been 

 long known and employed at sea. That is, the Arabs had be- 

 come familiar with the loadstone in 1240, while Friar Bacon re- 

 garded it, in England, as a huge curiosity in 1260, — twenty 

 years afterwards. The priority of the invention would seem to 

 be thus incontestably proven for the Arabs. But we shall see 

 speedily that it derived its origin from a region situated still 

 farther to the east, and many centuries earlier. 



A famous Chinese dictionary, terminated in the year 121 of 

 our era, thus defines the word magnet: — "The name of a stone 

 which gives direction to a needle." This is quoted in numerous 

 modern dictionaries. One published during the Tsin dynasty — 

 that is, between 265 and 419 — states that ships guided their course 

 to the south by means of the magnet. The Chinese word for 

 magnet — Tchi nan — signifies, Indicator of the South. It was 

 natural for the Chinese, when they first saw a needle point both 

 north and south, to take the Antarctic pole for the principal 

 point of attraction, for with them the south had always been 

 the first of the cardinal points, — the emperor's throne and all 



