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Where we found him, he could not have been. It is endless ocean. A raft might float there, but a man cannot survive. I thought him possessed because he spoke a language of the strangest sounds. But when we put water on his tongue, he drank. When we put rice to his lips, he ate. Finally I knew that this man had walked down the foaming steps to the kingdom far beneath the restless surface of the waves. There he learned a language unknown to men, a language of the secret world. Then he ascended those vast and shifting steps to return to the world above. To the rarest goods of trade, the precious gifts from mighty kings, and the celestial unicorn, I add this man, to be brought in safety to my glorious emperor Chu Ti. So will it be done.

From the log of Cheng Ho, admiral of the western seas, voyage of the fifth armada