Tao i tsa chik (about 1100); (Miscellaneous Descriptions of the Barbarians of the Isles) The text is preserved because quoted at length in the Shih Lin Kuang Chi (Guide through the Forest of Affairs ) encyclopedia first printed in 1325 by Ch'en Yoan-ching.

It is a geographical, historical and ethnological record of twenty-one South Seas countries including Pi-p’a-lo (Berbera Coasts), K’un-lun-ts’eng-chi (Madagascar or East Coast of Africa); Da-shi-bi-pa-luo (Berbera of the Arabs).

K’un-lun-ts’eng-chi 崑崙層期囯

They have a large bird Peng that blocks out the sun (when flying over). Some people pick up their plumes, the cut pipe can be used as a bucket. (2) The wild people are as black as ink, they catch and sell slaves which is a flourishing business.

Bo jiao li guo 撥挍力囯 or 撥挍力囯

They do not live on the main five grains but on meat. The country is in the west of the South China Sea. They draw blood from the living livestock to drink it. They do not cover the body with clothes, only under the waist they cover with a sheepskin. 

Da-shi-bi-pa-luo 大食 弼琶囉囯

There are four main cities (3) the rest of the country is rural. Do not send the ships (to trade)as there are no towns with a government.

When a marriage is to be arranged the bride's family announces the agreement by cutting off the tail of a cow in calf as gesture of good faith. The period of betrothal starts from the day when the tail is cut, and the marriage can be consummated only after the cow has calved. The grooms family must respond to the cutting of the cow's tail as a pledge of the date of betrothal by bringing a severed human tail to the house of the bride. The human tail which serves as a betrothal gift is the male organ (1). When it arrives, the bride's family, rejoicing, welcomes it with music and parades through the street for seven days after which the groom enters the bride's house and is married to her and they become one family. Each marriage deprives a man of his live. Such is the custom of mutual rivalry among families wishing to display the fortitude and courage of their sons in law, without which no girls family would ever consent to her marriage. There is (in this country) the camel crane, 6-7 feet high, it has wing and is able to fly but not very high, it eats all kind of things, also burning red hot copper or steel with its food, its eggs are as big as a coconut, broken they are used as jars. The people are good hunters and go every three days, they shoot with poisoned arrows.

(1) The importance of this text is in the fact that it mentions the habit in Somalia to emasculate slain enemies as well as catching and selling slaves.

The selling of slaves by the people of Madagascar is repeated by: Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century); Chao Ju-Kua (1226); Chou Chih-Chung (1366); Ning Xian Wang (1430); Wang Khi (1607);

About emasculating enemies: Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955); Al Marvazi (1120); Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century); Yakut (or Jakut) al Hamawi (1220); Chou Chih-Chung: (1366); Ning Xian Wang (1430); Ibn Nasir al-Din (d1438); Zare'a Ya'kob ruler of Ethiopia (1445).

(2) That the tube of the feathers of the Roc bird are big enough to be used as buckets is found in: Buzurg ibn Shahriyar (955); Li Kung-Lin (d1106); Chou Ch'u-fei (1178); Ch'en Yuan-Ching (late12 century); Chao Ju-Kua (1226); Ibn Said al Maghribi (1250); Luo Miandao (fl. ca. 1270); Marco Polo (1295); Al-Dimashqi (1325); Chou Chih-Chung (1366); Ning Xian Wang (1430); Ibn Al Wardi (1456); Alf layla wa Layla (15^th); Wang Khi (1609).

(3) this is repeated in Chao Ju-Kua (1226): The country of Pi-p'a-lo contains four cities, (these are Mogadishu, Merca, Barawa, and the settlement near the mouth of the Juba which has long been abandoned).