ed 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 _seng_, 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. MUELLER,
_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-hai-king_ says the Yueh-chi 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
Kuche."

"Among the native products [at Mu lan p'i, Murabit, 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.)

"The Chinese of the T'ang period had heard also of the trucks put under
these sheep's tails. 'The Ta-shi have a foreign breed of sheep (_hu-yang_)
whose tails, covered with fine wool, weigh f