Engelbert Kaempfer: The History of Japan, London 1727

Internet Edition by Wolfgang Michel, Kyushu University, Fukuoka-City, Japan. © Nov.1997

 

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V. Some observations concerning Ambergrease.

The design of this paper is to give a short account of that precious, and so much esteem'd bituminous substance, known by the name of Ambergrease. Nothing hath been hitherto found to exceed it in sweetness of smell. 'Tis to the Sea mankind is indebted for it though it is thrown out but in a very small quantity, as indeed, in general, the more valuable things are, the less liberally nature seems to produce them. Authors differ widely in their opinions, concerning both its origin and production, nor do they so much as agree, what kind of substance it properly is. Some take it to be a bituminous substance, others a sort of earth or clay, others a seaspunge, others an excrement of

the whale, others the dung of birds. Many more could be mentioned, if I did not avoid being tedious: But of all the differing opinions, none seems to me to have so little foundation, and likelihood, on its side, as that of a late French author (Jean Baptiste Denys, Conference seconde dans le Journal des scavans de lĠan 1672.) He draws his conclusions merely from some likeness in the substance and smell, and asserts, that Ambergrease is a mixture of wax and honey, gathered upon the sea-coasts by the bees, that being first digested by the heat of the sun, it falls into the sea, that there it undergoes a farther preparation, and is by the violent motion of its waves, and the admixtion of its saline particles, changed into this precious substance. An idle and groundless conjecture, which besides its being new, not thought of before, and supported by the protection of a great Prince, will be found in all other respects too trifling, in the least to prejudice the opinion, which hath been generally received and allowed of by those, who have taken pains to examine this substance more accurately, and have found it to be a kind of bitumen generated in the bowels of the earth, or a subterraneous fat, grown to the consistence of a Bitumen, which is by subterraneous canals carried into the sea, and there undergoes a farther digestion, being by the admixtion of its saline particles, and the heat of the sun, changed into Ambergrease. The few following remarks, gathered chiefly from the curious observations of the Chinese, from what accounts I could procure from the Japanese Whale-fishers, and from a view of the Provinces and Coasts, upon which the Ambergrease is found, are intended to establish the just mention'd old opinion in opposition to that of Monsieur Denys.
1. Ambergrease is found in several Countries, where there are no bees upon the Sea-coasts, nay not even in the Countries themselves: On the contrary, many Countries abound in bees, where there is no Ambergrease found upon the coasts.
2. Several Chinese and Japanese fishermen, who make it their business, upon the rocks along the coasts of China and Japan, to look for the edible birds-nests, (being nests of sea swallows, which these birds make of the flesh of Holothuria, a sort of sea-qualms) all deny that they ever observed any such thing as hives sticking to rocks under water, which Monsieur Denys fancies to be now and then thrown off by the impetuosity of the waves. Nature is too careful for the preservation of her productions, not to teach bees, by instinct to avoid the coasts of the sea, and all places, which are so much exposed to storms and tempests.
3. Honey, Wax and Honeycombs, being mix'd with a fluid, do not unite into one substance, but are dissolved and separated.
4. Honeycombs, with their Honey, in whatever parts of the world they be inspissated by fire, the coagulated substance will be always of the same kind. On the contrary, there are various sorts of Ambergrease, according to the variety of subterraneous veins, wherein it is generated. And some sorts there are peculiar to certain Countries, insomuch, that skilful persons, upon a narrow inspection, will be able to conjecture, what coasts it hath been

found upon, much after the same manner as expert vintners know by tasting a wine, what sort it is, and of what growth. Some sorts of Ambergrease are like a coarse Bitumen, or Asphaltus, or the black Naphta dried, consequently more or less black and heavy, and of a different consistence in proportion. Other sorts are whiter, from a mixture of nobler particles: These are also lighter and dearer, and this again in differing proportions: Some other sorts there are exceedingly light, and not unlike a mushroom, whence the learned Scaliger conjectured, after Serapion, that Ambergrease might well be a sort of a Fungus marinus, or sea-mushroom.
5. Ambergrease, when fresh, and but just thrown out by the sea, is soft, and nearly resembles cow-dung. It hath also at the same time a sort of a burnt smell, which is quite foreign to any melleous substance.
6. There are very often black shining shells, and fragments of other submarine substances, found in Ambergrease, sometimes also particles of such things, as will easily stick to it, when it hath been just thrown upon the coasts, and is as yet soft: But I never heard that it was observed to contain bees, or wax, or honeycombs. Monsieur Denys was certainly imposed upon,when he was told, that honeycombs, with wax and honey, (why not bees too ?) had been found in Ambergrease: And some later French writers, who maintain the same opinion upon the sole authority of Monsieur Denys, are altogether guilty of the same error.
7. They find sometimes exceeding large pieces of Ambergrease, far beyond the size of the largest bee-hives. Not to instance in those monstrous large pieces, of which Garcias ab Orta speaks, (A. H. l. I. C. I.) lesser ones, and which I saw myself, will serve my purpose equally well. When I was in Japan, a very good piece of a fine greyish Ambergrease was found upon the coasts of Kijnokuni. It weighed upwards of an hundred Catti's, Japanese, that is) 130 lb. Dutch weight, and being by much too large to be purchased by one person, it was divided into four parts, in form of a cross. One of the four parts I was offer'd to sale myself, whereby I could easily conjecture to be true, what I was told of the largeness of the whole piece. But that piece was still larger, which, in the year I693, after I had left Japan, was sold by the King of Tidori to the Dutch East-India Company) for eleven thousand Rixdollars, (or upwards of 2000 lb. Sterling.) It was sent to Amsterdam the year after, where it is now kept in the Company's Rarity Chamber. It weigh'd 185 lb. Dutch weight. It was of a greyish colour, of a very good sort, and in shape not unlike a tortoise, with the head and tail cut off:. It was bought on condition, that if it should be discover'd to have been any ways adulterated, the money should be restored. The learned Dr. Valentini, Professor at Giesen, figured it in his Museum Museorum, Lib. 3. c. 28. (as hath also Rumph in his Amboinsche Rariteitkammer, T. LIII. and LIV. from whom, it seems, Valentini took it. The same author hath given an accurate description of it, p. 267. & seq.)

II.

Of the Adulteration of Ambergrease, the signs of its goodness and its virtues, I procured the following account. Ambergrease is the most susceptible of being adulterated, when it is fresh thrown up upon the Coasts, it being then as yet soft, and Iike a mealy substance. Nothing is more proper, as the adulterators themselves confess'd to me, to be incorporated into the substance of Ambergrease, than the flower of Ricehusks, which gives it at once a lightness and greyish colour, but this cheat cannot remain long undiscovered, the worms quickly getting into it. It is not an easy matter to find out, whether or no Ambergrease hath been adulterated by an addition of Storax, Benzoin, and other sweet scented species. It is less difficult to distinguish the true Ambergrease from that spurious sort, which is an artificial composition of tar, wax, rosin, storax, and the like, the several ingredients of it being very apparent to the eye, touch and smell. Both these sorts I was frequently offered to sale during my stay in the Country. It is customary for those, who find Ambergrease upon the coasts, to squeeze several small pieces into a large one, which, if it be too difform, and too much expanded, is further compressed into the form of a roundish ball, whereby its bulk is diminished, and its weight increased, though without prejudice to its goodness. One of the surest and most common ways to try, whether or no Ambergrease hath been adulterated, is, to lay a few grains on a redhot plate, by which means, if there be any heterogeneous substance mix'd with it, the same will discover itself by the smoke, or else its genuineness appear by the small quantity of ashes. The Eastern nations beyond the Ganges commonly make this experiment on a thin piece of gold money, of an oval shape, called Koobang, which they have ready at hand, and which for this purpose they lay on coals, with some Ambergrease scraped upon it. Of the good sorts of Ambergrease, the Chinese take that to be the best, the scrapings of which being put into boiling hot water, and covered, dissolve better and diffuse more equally. I have seen them try this experiment in the porcellane dishes, out of which they drink their Tea. The worst sort of Ambergrease is that, which is found in the guts of the whale, where it loses much of its virtues. The whale, in the intestines of which it is found, is called, in the language of the Country, Mokos: it is three, or at farthest four fathoms long, and is taken very frequently in all the seas about Japan. When upon opening the guts, a grumous substance, not unlike lime, appears to the Eye, it is a sign, that they are like to find Ambergrease also. This sort of Ambergrease, and that, which is sometimes thrown up upon the coasts, along with the excrements of the whales whilst yet alive, are both very common in Japan, and called by the Natives Kunsuranofuu, that is, Whale-Dung, which name is sometimes given to all sorts of Ambergrease in general. There is sometimes a strange fat substance thrown up

by the sea upon the more Southern Coasts of the East-Indies, which to all outward appearance nearly resembling Ambergrease, often imposes upon its finders. Such a piece, which was said to have been found upon the coasts of the Luzon, or Philippine islands, I was offer'd to sale for true Ambergrease, but finding it to be whitish, fungous, brittle, of an offensive smell like rank bacon, I took it to be nothing else but whales-fat, which underwent this change by having lain a long while upon the Coasts, and therefore would not meddle with it. I have such another piece in my possession, which I was presented with for a piece of true Ambergrease: it is of a very difform shape, of about three pound weight, and was found upon the coasts of Banda. I take it to be a sort of tallow, or fat of that kind, which Schroder calls whitish Ambergrease, and which commonly goes by the name of Sperma Ceti, which floating on the surface of the Sea, was gathered somewhere, (perhaps on a rock) and was afterwards by the heat of the Sun melted into one piece. There are three sorts of Sperma Ceti, as they call it, came to my knowledge. One sort is found floating on the surface of the water in the Northern Seas, and is gathered in baskets made of twigs, as hath been long known by the accounts of several persons, who have been eye-witnesses of it. The second sort is that, which according to the accounts of Bartholin, Wormius, and those that sail to Greenland for the whale-fishery, is found in great plenty in the head of a certain kind of whale, called by the Latins Orca, and by the Dutch Potuis. The third sort is gathered in the Ferre, or Feroe islands, situate to the North far beyond Scotland. The inhabitants of these islands, for the greatest part poor people and fishermen, gather it on the body of a particular fish with a very long head, called in their language Buskoppe, which name hath been given also to one of these islands, being the furthermost to the North, about which this fish is caught in great plenty. I do not know of any author's having ever mentioned this last sort of Sperma Ceti: What account I had, and here present the reader with, was communicated to me by a very honest man, who averred to me, that having been shipwreck'd near these islands, he had not only seen, but done it himself in company with the natives, for about six months he lived with them. He farther told me, that that fish exceeded a man in length and size, that the head particularly was monstrously large, and covered all round, chiefly about the chops, with a great quantity of this mucous fatty substance, which is scraped of by the fishermen, and afterwards cleaned and kept from growing rank by a strong lye, and by being dried in the sun. Sailors, when they catch sharks, which after the crocodile is the fiercest of all sea-animals, and very frequent in the Indian seas, always look for a certain exceeding white substance, which is sold for Sperma Ceti, and is found in the head, though it be quite a different thing from the brain of the creature, which I found to be exceedingly small. This substance hath nearly the same diuretick qualities with the Sperma Ceti itself, though properly speaking it doth not belong to this class,

being little else than a powder, and altogether without that mucilaginous fat, which is common to the several different species of Sperma Ceti. The coagulated substance, above-mentioned, which I have in possession myself, and which hath all the characteristicks and qualities of the Sperma Ceti, seems to belong to the first of the above-mentioned three sorts, so far that I think it could be sold for true Sperma Ceti, if it was but reduced to a powder. I must own, that I have oftentimes used it instead of Sperma Ceti, and with the same good success. The Succinum, or Prussian Amber hath been with a better appearance of reason ranked by several natural historians among the species of Ambergrease, being likewise a subterraneous fat, not unlike Ambergrease, but transparent, and dried upon the coasts much after the same manner, by lying exposed to the air in the sand. I have not only frequently seen it gathered upon the Prussian Coasts, as it was thrown out by the sea, but also dug up in the mines of that Kingdom. But the latter and fossil one, being commonly very tender and brittle, is put into sea-water, in order to its growing harder. Had Monsieur Denys known this, he would not have been at such pains to fetch it from the woods and forests of Sweden upon the Coasts of Prussia. The Nations, that live furthest to the East, and more particularly the Japanese, set a much greater value upon Amber, than they do upon Ambergrease, nay they esteem it more than the precious stones, (red corals only excepted) of which they make little or no use. But of all the different sorts of Amber, the yellow transparent one, which is so common and so little valued with us in Europe, is the most acceptable to them, and what they would give almost any price for, because of its perfection, and the antiquity they attribute to it. All the other species of Amber are despised by them, so far that endeavouring to convince them of their ill taste, and to give them reasons, why they are and ought to be esteemed preferable to the yellow one, I was only laughed at, and found, that I had taken European to as little purpose, as it would be to persuade an European, that gold is of less value than silver. The black nations of Asia, upon whose coasts Ambergrease is found, make no manner of use of it. It is well known, that we Europeans use it in Physick. But the greatest consumption of it is in Persia, Arabia, and the great Mogul's Country, where it is made use of as an ingredient of most of their sweet meats. The Chinese, Japanese and Tunquinese keep it for no other purpose, but to mix it with sweet-scented species, they believing, that it not only heightens, but fixes the pleasantness of the smell, which otherwise, by reason of the great volatility of the odoriferous parts, is apt to lose itself too quickly. And these ends, indeeds the Ambergrease is not unlike to answer, as it hath no very considerable smell of itself. To enumerate the virtues of Ambergrease, would be enlarging this account to little purpose, they being already well known. I will only add a secret against impotency, which was communicated to me by an expert Japanese Physician, as somewhat very valuable. Take as much as you please of crude opium, put it into a piece of linnen, and suspend it in the smoke of boiling hot water, what

sweats out of the linnen, and sticks to the outside, affords the best and purest opium. Take this substance, mix it with twice the quantity of Ambergrease, and make it up into small pills. A few of these pills taken inwardly, at night before you go to bed, are said to be an excellent stimulating medicine in that case.