"I. espiel, ou ot fer d'andaine,
Dont la lamele n'iert pas trouble."
(Huon de Mery, Le Tornoiement de l'Antechrist, p. 3, Tarbe.)
There is a forest in the department of Orne, arrondissement of Domfront,
which belonged to the Crown before 1669, and is now State property, called
Foret d'Andaine; it is situated near some bed of iron. Is this the origin
of the name? - H. C.]
NOTE 3. - The Altai, or one of its ramifications, is probably the mountain
of the text, but so little is known of this part of the Chinese territory
that we can learn scarcely anything of its mineral products. Still Martini
does mention that asbestos is found "in the Tartar country of Tangu,"
which probably is the Tangnu Oola branch of the Altai to the south of
the Upper Yenisei, and in the very region we have indicated as
Chingintalas. Mr. Elias tells me he inquired for asbestos by its Chinese
name at Uliasut'ai, but without success.
NOTE 4. -
"Degli elementi quattro principali,
Che son la Terra, e l'Acqua, e l'Aria, e'l Foco,
Composti sono gli universi Animali,
Pigliando di ciascuno assai o poco."
(Dati, La Sfera, p. 9.)
Zurficar in the next sentence is a Mahomedan name, Zu'lfikar, the
title of [the edge of] Ali's sword.
NOTE 5. - Here the G. Text adds: "Et je meisme le vi," intimating, I
conceive, his having himself seen specimens of the asbestos - not to his
having been at the place.
NOTE 6. - The story of the Salamander passing unhurt through fire is at
least as old as Aristotle. But I cannot tell when the fable arose that
asbestos was a substance derived from the animal. This belief, however,
was general in the Middle Ages, both in Asia and Europe. "The fable of the
Salamander," says Sir Thomas Browne, "hath been much promoted by stories
of incombustible napkins and textures which endure the fire, whose
materials are called by the name of Salamander's wool, which many, too
literally apprehending, conceive some investing part or integument of the
Salamander.... Nor is this Salamander's wool desumed from any animal, but
a mineral substance, metaphorically so called for this received opinion."
Those who knew that the Salamander was a lizard-like animal were indeed
perplexed as to its woolly coat. Thus the Cardinal de Vitry is fain to say
the creature "profert ex cute quasi quamdam lanam de qua zonae
contextae comburi non possunt igne." A Bestiary, published by Cahier and
Martin, says of it: "De lui naist une cose qui n'est ne soie ne lin ne
laine." Jerome Cardan looked in vain, he says, for hair on the
Salamander! Albertus Magnus calls the incombustible fibre pluma
Salamandri; and accordingly Bold Bauduin de Sebourc finds the Salamander
in the Terrestrial Paradise a kind of bird covered with the whitest
plumage; of this he takes some, which he gets woven into a cloth; this he
presents to the Pope, and the Pontiff applies it to the purpose mentioned
in the text, viz. to cover the holy napkin of St. Veronica.
Gervase of Tilbury writes: "I saw, when lately at Rome, a broad strap of
Salamander skin, like a girdle for the loins, which had been brought
thither by Cardinal Peter of Capua. When it had become somewhat soiled by
use, I myself saw it cleaned perfectly, and without receiving harm, by
being put in the fire."
In Persian the creature is called Samandar, Samandal, etc., and some
derive the word from Sam, "fire," and Andar, "within." Doubtless it is
a corruption of the Greek [Greek: Salamandra], whatever be the origin of
that. Bakui says the animal is found at Ghur, near Herat, and is like a
mouse. Another author, quoted by D'Herbelot, says it is like a marten.
[Sir T. Douglas Forsyth, in his Introductory Remarks to Prjevalsky's
Travels to Lob-nor (p. 20), at Aksu says: "The asbestos mentioned by
Marco Polo as a utilized product of this region is not even so known in
this country." - H. C.]
+ Interesting details regarding the fabrication of cloth and paper from
amianth or asbestos are contained in a report presented to the French
Institute by M. Sage (Mem. Ac. Sciences, 2e Sem., 1806, p. 102), of
which large extracts are given in the Diction. general des Tissus, par
M. Bezon, 2e ed. vol. ii. Lyon, 1859, p. 5. He mentions that a Sudarium
of this material is still shown at the Vatican; we hope it is the cover
which Kublai sent.
[This hope is not to be realized. Mgr. Duchesne, of the Institut de
France, writes to me from Rome, from information derived from the keepers
of the Vatican Museum, that there is no sudarium from the Great Khan, that
indeed part of a sudarium made of asbestos is shown (under glass) in this
Museum, about 20 inches long, but it is ancient, and was found in a Pagan
tomb of the Appian Way. - H. C.]
M. Sage exhibited incombustible paper made from this material, and had
himself seen a small furnace of Chinese origin made from it. Madame
Perpente, an Italian lady, who experimented much with asbestos, found that
from a crude mass of that substance threads could be elicited which were
ten times the length of the mass itself, and were indeed sometimes several
metres in length, the fibres seeming to be involved, like silk in a
cocoon. Her process of preparation was much like that described by Marco.
She succeeded in carding and reeling the material, made gloves and the
like, as well as paper, from it, and sent to the Institute a work printed
on such paper.
The Rev. A. Williamson mentions asbestos as found in Shantung. The natives
use it for making stoves, crucibles, and so forth.
(Sir T. Browne, I. 293; Bongars, I. 1104; Cahier et Martin, III.
271; Cardan, de Rer.
