["Here Marco Polo speaks of musk; musk and rhubarb (which he mentions before, Sukchur, ch. xliii.) are the most renowned and valuable of the products of the province of Kansu, which comparatively produces very little; the industry in both these articles is at present in the hands of the Tanguts of that province [Su chow chi].” (Palladius, p. 18.)

Writing under date 15th February, 1892, from Lusar (coming from Sining), Mr. Rockhill says:  “The musk trade here is increasing, Cantonese and Ssu-ch’uanese traders now come here to buy it, paying for good musk four times its weight in silver (ssu huan, as they say).  The best test of its purity is an examination of the colour.  The Tibetans adulterate it by mixing tsamba and blood with it.  The best time to buy it is from the seventh to the ninth moon (latter part of August to middle of November).”  Mr. Rockhill adds in a note:  “Mongols call musk owo; Tibetans call it latse.  The best musk they say is ‘white musk,’ tsahan owo in Mongol, in Tibetan latse karpo.  I do not know whether white refers to the colour of the musk itself or to that of the hair on the skin covering the musk pouch.” (Diary of a Journey, p. 71.)—­H.  C.]

Three species of the Moschus are found in the Mountains of Tibet, and M.  Chrysogaster which Mr. Hodgson calls “the loveliest,” and which chiefly supplies the highly-prized pod called Kaghazi, or “Thin-as-paper,” is almost exclusively confined to the Chinese frontier.  Like the Yak, the Moschus is mentioned by Cosmas (circa A.D. 545), and musk appears in a Greek prescription by Aetius of Amida, a physician practising at Constantinople about the same date.

(Martini, p. 39; Tav., Des Indes, Bk.  II. ch. xxiv.; J.  A. S. B. XI. 285; Davies’s Rep. App. p. ccxxxvii.; Dr. Flueckiger in Schweiz.  Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie, 1867; Heyd, Commerce du Levant, II. 636-640.)

NOTE 5.—­The China pheasant answering best to the indications in the text, appears to be Reeves’s Pheasant.  Mr. Gould has identified this bird with Marco’s in his magnificent Birds of Asia, and has been kind enough to show me a specimen which, with the body, measured 6 feet 8 inches.  The tail feathers alone, however, are said to reach to 6 and 7 feet, so that Marco’s ten palms was scarcely an exaggeration.  These tail-feathers are often seen on the Chinese stage in the cap of the hero of the drama, and also decorate the hats of certain civil functionaries.

[Illustration:  Reeves’s Pheasant]