Negapatam

We read in the Tao yi chi lio (1349) that “T’u t’a (the eastern stupa) is to be found in the flat land of Pa-tan (Fattan, Negapatam?) and that it is surrounded with stones. There is a stupa of earth and brick many feet high; it bears the following Chinese inscription: ‘The work was finished in the eighth moon of the third year hien chw’en (1267).’ It is related that these characters have been engraved by some Chinese in imitation of inscriptions on stone of those countries; up to the present time, they have not been destroyed.” Hien chw’en is the nien hao of Tu Tsung, one of the last emperors of the Southern Sung Dynasty, not of a Mongol Sovereign. I owe this information to Prof. Pelliot, who adds that the comparison between the Chinese Pagoda of Negapatam and the text of the Tao yi chi lio has been made independent of him by Mr. Fujita in the Tōkyō-gakuhō, November, 1913, pp. 445–46. (Cathay, I., p. 81 n.)

XVII., p. 340. “Here [Maabar] are no horses bred; and thus a great part of the wealth of the country is wasted in purchasing horses; I will tell you how. You must know that the merchants of Kis and Hormes, Dofar and Soer and Aden collect great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these they bring to the territories of this King and of his four brothers, who are kings likewise as I told you....”

Speaking of Yung (or Wöng) man, Chau Ju-kwa tells us (p. 133): “In the mountains horse-raising is carried on a large scale. The other countries which trade here purchase horses, pearls and dates which they get in exchange for cloves, cardamom seeds and camphor.”

XVII., p. 341.