cated by Hirth (Ancient History of China, pp. 126–136), was probably used mainly for geomancy until applied to navigation by the Persians and Arabs visiting China in the 6th and 7th centuries A. D. The Chinese themselves steered by the stars and the sun, and by observing the nature of the sea-bottom.
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| Model of an early type of Chinese junk, showing the individual cabins in the stern-structure, each occupied by a merchant with his stock of goods, as told by Marco Polo; from the serial collection of models of commercial shipping, exhibited in the Commercial Museum, Philadelphia. |
The Arabian geographer Mas' udi mentions Chinese junks which came to Bassora in his time, and in the cave-paintings at Ajanta,
