d it is there very dear. Good aloes wood comes from
Cochin-China; and benjamin from the kingdoms of _Assi_, Acheen? and
Siam. Musk is brought from Tartary, where it is made, as I have been
told, in the following manner. There is in Tartary a beast as large and
fierce as a wolf, which they catch alive, and beat to death with small
staves, that his blood may spread through his whole body. This they then
cut in pieces, taking out all the bones, and having pounded the flesh
and blood very fine in a mortar, they dry it and put it into purses made
of the skin, and these purses with their contents are the cods of
musk[172].

[Footnote 171: This is an error, as camphor is a species of essential
oil, grossly sublimed at first from a tree of the laurel family, and
afterwards purified by farther processes.--E.]

[Footnote 172: The whole of this story is a gross fabrication imposed by
ignorance on credulity. The cods of musk are natural bags or
emunctories, found near the genitals on the males of an animal named
_Moschus Moschiferus_, or Thibet Musk. It is found through the whole of
Central Asia, except its most northern parts, but the best musk comes
from Thibet.--E.

"The Jewes doe counterfeit and take out the halfe of the goode muske,
beating it up with an equal quantity of the flesh of an asse, and put
this mixture in the bag or purse, which they sell for true
muske."--_Hackluyt_.]

I know not whereof amber is made[173], and there are divers opinions
respecting it; but this much is certain, that it is cast out from the
sea, and is found on the shores and banks left dry by the recess of the
tides. Rubies, sapphires, and spinells are got in Pegu. Diamonds come
from different places, and I know but three kinds of them. The kind
which is called _Chiappe_ comes from _Bezeneger_, Bijanagur? Those that
are naturally pointed come from the land of Delly and the island of
Java, but those of Java are heavier than the others. I could never learn
whence the precious stones called _Balassi_ are procured. Pearls are
fished for in different places, as has been already mentioned. The
substance called Spodium, which is found concreted in certain canes, is
procured in _Cambaza_, Cambaya? Of this concrete I found many pieces in
Pegu, when building myself a house there, as in that country they
construct their houses of canes woven together like mats or basket-work,
as formerly related.

[Footnote 173: Ambergris is probably meant in the text u