[228] Ὥσπερ πηηστήρ, Alex., xiii. 3. [229] Reinaud and Favé, in _Journal Asiatique_, Oct. 1849, p. 281. [230] وهم يستعملونه في اعمال النار المتصاعدة والمتحركة فيزيدها خفة وسرعة التهاب. Reinaud and Favé, p. 78. The fire which “rises and moves” is of course rocket composition. [231] _Völsunga Saga_, translated from the Icelandic by Magnusson and William Morris, p. 51. [232] Burton’s “Arab. Nights,” 1894, v. 242. [233] Elliot, vi. 471 _n._ [234] _e.g._ the red-hot ploughshare wielded with much effect by Bailie Nicol Jarvie at the Clachan of Aberfoyle. [235] “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 97-8. [236] Given by Rāy, “Hindu Chemistry,” p. 96. [237] See p. 15. [238] Rāy’s “Hindu Chemistry,” p. 96. [239] See Table VIII. [240] See Table VII. [241] Oct. 21, 1880. [242] “Camoens,” &c., ii. 632 _n._ [243] “Indian Antiquary,” 1878. [244] “Hindu Chemistry,” pp. 96-7. [245] “Notices of Sanskrit MSS.,” v. 135. [246] i. 36. [247] “Decline and Fall,” &c., iv. 166, Bury’s ed. [248] “Philosophie Positive,” vi. 114. [249] _Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal_, xvii. 244. [250] General Maclagan on “Early Asiatic Fire Weapons,” ib., xlv. 64. [251] Among other books, the _De Naturis Rerum_ of Nekham, 1157-1217, Rolls Series, p. 183. The editor, Mr. Thomas Wright, remarks in his preface, xxxv.:—“The mariner’s compass, in a rude form, was in use among the sailors in Western Europe at an early period, and ... instead of being borrowed from the East, as is generally supposed, it seems to have been invented in this part of the world. Of course I do not mean to say that it was not invented in other parts also.” It is explicitly noticed in a Chinese Encyclopædia finished in A.D. 121 (Sir J. Davis, “The Chinese,” &c., ii 185). But Chinese chronology is always suspicious, and, even if this date be correct, there is no evidence to show that the invention ever reached the West. The Chinese seem to have guarded their discoveries and inventions with a jealous eye. Their valuable and accurate astronomical observations were only laid open to Europe by the Jesuits, more than two thousand years after they were made. The printing press was not invented in Europe until the fifteenth century, yet Feng Tao had invented block-printing in China in the tenth (Giles’ “Chinese Literature,” p. 210). According to their own account, the Chinese have used tea since the year 2737 B.C. It was not heard of in Europe until after A.D. 1517, and did not become generally known until the seventeenth century. Brunetto Latini (1230-94), quoted by Davis, gives a curious, but only too probable a reason for the slow progress of the compass in Christendom: “No master mariner dares to use (it), lest he should fall under the suspicion of being a magician.” [252] Ferishta, “Hist. of the Rise of Mahomedan Power,” &c., trans. by General J. Briggs, 1829, ii. 312. [253] See Prof. Dowson’s note in Elliot, iv. 268.