482 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



\China. 



a light and sweetish kind of acrimony when long chewed. These roots 

 should be chosen plump and fresh, free from fibres and decay. 



Copper, white. — In Du Haiders History of China is the following 

 account of white copper. " The most extraordinary copj>er is called 

 Pe-tong, or white copper ; it is white when dug out of the mine, and still, 

 more white within than without. It appears, by a vast number of experi- 

 ments made at Pekin, that its colour is owing to no mixture — on the con- 

 trary, all mixtures diminish its beauty ; for, when it is rightly managed, 

 it looks exactly like silver, and were there not a necessity of mixing a little 

 tutenague, or some such metal with it, to soften it, and prevent its brittle- 

 ness, it would be so much the more extraordinary, as this sort of copper is, 

 perhaps, to be met with no where but in China, and that only in the pro- 

 vince of Yun-nan. n The export of this metal is said to be prohibited. It 

 is certain that it is not known in commerce ; but its name is often given to 

 tutenague. 



Corundum, or Cobone, is the Indian name for the fossil called Ada- 

 mantine Spar. The first specimens of it came from China ; its colour is 

 grey, of different shades ; the larger pieces are opaque, but the thin pieces 

 and the edges are transparent ; the second variety conies from India, and is 

 considerably whiter than that from China ; it is this which is called 

 corundum by the natives. The remarkable quality of corundum, and for 

 which it is chiefly valued, is its extreme hardness ; it scratches every sub- 

 stance but diamond, and is therefore of great value to lapidaries and seal- 

 cutters. It is used throughout India and China for polishing stones, &c. 

 It is but little harder than the ruby, the sapphire, or oriental topaz. It is 

 far superior to emery, particularly for grinding on the wheel, to which it 

 adheres like diamond dust. 



Cubkbs (Cubab CAiwi, Hind.) are the produce of the Piper Cubelm^ a 

 tree growing on Java and in China. The cubeb is a small dried fruit, like 

 a pepper-corn, but generally somewhat longer ; it is of a greyish brown 

 colour, and composed of a wrinkled external covering enclosing a single 

 seed, blackish on the surface, and white within ; it is a warm spice, of a 

 pleasant aromatic smell, and of a hot, pungent taste, weaker than that of 

 pepper, but of the same kind ; its acrimony remains long upon the tongue. 

 We sometimes meet with this article in an unripe state, when it is very 

 small, the covering much wrinkled, and the enclosed seed of a softer kind 

 than when ripe. Cubebs should be chosen large, fresh, sound, and the 

 heaviest that can be procured. From their resemblance to pepper, from 

 which iis difference is a short slender stalk, it is often mixed with that 

 article. 16 Cwt of cubebs are allowed to a ton. 



