XIV., p. 78.
PERSIA.
Speaking of Saba and of Cala Ataperistan, Prof. E. H. Parker (Asiatic Quart. Rev., Jan., 1904, p. 134) has the following remarks: “It is not impossible that certain unexplained statements in the Chinese records may shed light upon this obscure subject. In describing the Arab Conquest of Persia, the Old and New T’ang Histories mention the city of Hia-lah as being amongst those captured; another name for it was Sam (according to the Chinese initial and final system of spelling words). A later Chinese poet has left the following curious line on record: ‘All the priests venerate Hia-lah.’ The allusion is vague and undated, but it is difficult to imagine to what else it can refer. The term sêng, or ‘bonze,’ here translated ‘priests,’ was frequently applied to Nestorian and Persian priests, as in this case.”
XIV., p. 80. “Three Kings.”
Regarding the legend of the stone cast into a well, cf. F. W. K. Müller, Uigurica, pp. 5–10 (Pelliot).
XVII., p. 90. “There are also plenty of veins of steel and Ondanique.”
“The ondanique which Marco Polo mentions in his 42nd chapter is almost certainly the pin t’ieh or ‘pin iron’ of the Chinese, who frequently mention it as coming from Arabia, Persia, Cophene, Hami, Ouigour-land and other High Asia States.” (E. H. Parker, Journ. North China Br. Roy. Asiatic Soc., XXXVIII., 1907, p. 225.)
XVIII., pp. 97, 100. “The province that we now enter is called Reobarles.... The beasts also are peculiar.... Then there are sheep here as big as asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail shall weight some 30 lbs. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital mutton.”
Prof. E. H. Parker writes in the Journ. of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Soc., XXXVII., 1906, p. 196: “Touching the fat-tailed sheep of Persia, the Shan-haï-king says the Yuëh-chï or Indo-Scythy had a ‘big-tailed sheep,’ the correct name for which is hien-yang. The Sung History mentions sheep at Hami with tails so heavy that they could not walk. In the year 1010 some were sent as tribute to China by the King of Kuché.”
“Among the native products [at Mu lan p’i, Murābit, Southern Coast of Spain] are foreign sheep, which are several feet high and have tails as big as a fan. In the spring-time they slit open their bellies and take out some tens of catties of fat, after which they sew them up again, and the sheep live on; if the fat were not removed, (the animal) would swell up and die.” (Chau Ju-kwa, pp. 142–3.)