Note 24 — Chapter XV · Mythical and Legendary Kings
Reading edition
Along their coastal sea-routes the Chinese were brought into touch with southern peoples, with whom they traded. Chinese records throw light on the articles that were in demand at markets. “In Nan-čao”,24 an ancient text reveals, “there are people from Pʼo-lo-men (Burma), Pose (Malay), Še-po (Java), Pʼo-ni (Borneo), Kʼun-lun (a Malayan country), and of many other heretic tribes, meeting at one trading-mart, where pearls and precious stones in great number are exchanged for gold and musk.”25 The early traders by sea and land attached great importance to medicines and elixirs, and precious stones and metals, and pearls.