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NARCISSUS

46. The Yu yah tsa tsu 1 contains the following notice: "The
habitat of the nai-k'i tft ffi is in the country Fu-lin (Syria). Its sprouts
grow to a height of three or four feet. Its root is the size of a duck's
egg. Its leaves resemble those of the garlic (Allium sativum). From the
centre of the leaves rises a very long stem surmounted by a six-petaled
flower of reddish-white color. 2 The heart of this flower is yellow-red, and
does not form fruit. This plant grows in the winter and withers during
the summer. It is somewhat similar to shepherd's-purse (tsi ?,
Capsella bursa-pastoris) and wheat. 3 An oil is pressed from the flowers,
with which they anoint the body as a preventive of colds, and is em-
ployed by the king of Fu-lin and the nobles in his country."

Li Si-cen, in his Pen ts'ao kan muf has placed this extract in his
notice of $wi sien ^K \& (Narcissus tazetta*), 5 and after quoting it, adds
this comment: "Judging from this description of the plant, it is similar
to Narcissus; it cannot be expected, of course, that the foreign name
should be identical with our own." 6 He is perfectly correct, for the
description answers this flower very well, save the comparison with
Capsella. Dioscorides also compares the leaves of Narcissus to those of
Allium, and says that the root is rounded like a bulb. 7

The philological evidence agrees with this explanation; for nai-k*i t
*nai-gi, apparently answers to Middle Persian *nargi, New Persian
nargis (Arabic narjis), 8 Aramaic narkim, Armenian narges (Persian

1 Ch. 18, p. 12 b.

2 Cf. the description of Theophrastus (Hist, plant., vn, 13): "In the case of
narcissus it is only the flower- stem which comes up, and it immediately pushes up
the flower." Also Dioscorides (iv, 158) and Pliny (xxi, 25) have given descriptions
of the flower.

3 This sentence is omitted (and justly so) in the text, as reprinted in the Pen
ts'ao kan mu; for these comparisons are lame.

4 Ch. 13, p. 16.

5 Also this species is said to have been introduced from abroad (Hwa mu siao li
xfE >fc /h ;S P- 19 b, in &un ts'ao fan tsi, Ch. 25).

6 In another passage of his work (Ch. 14, p. 10) he has the same text under
San nai \\j ff (Kcempferia galanga}, but here he merely adds that the description
of the Yu yan tsa tsu is "a little like san nai."

7 LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 368.

8 According to HUBSCHMANN (Armen. Gram., p. 201), the New-Persian form
would presuppose a Pahlavi *narkis. In my opinion, Greek pdp/ao-o-os is derived from
an Iranian language through the medium of an idiom of Asia Minor, not vice versa,
as believed by NOELDEKE (Persische Studien, II, p. 43).

427



428 SlNO-lRANICA

loan-word), denoting Narcissus tazetta, which is still cultivated in
Persia and employed in the pharmacopoeia. 1 Oil was obtained from the
narcissus, which is called vapdaawv in the Greek Papyri. 2

HiRTH 3 has erroneously identified the Chinese name with the nard.
Aside from the fact that the description of the Yu yan tsa tsu does not
at all fit this plant, his restoration, from a phonetic viewpoint, remains
faulty. K'aii-hi does not indicate the reading not for the first character,
as asserted by Hirth, but gives the readings nai, ni, and yin. The second
character reads k*i, which is evolved from *gi, but does not repre-
sent tij as Hirth is inclined to make out. 4

For other reasons it is out of the question to see the nard in the
term nai-k'i; for the nard, a product of India, is well known to the
Chinese under the term kan sun hian ~H* ^ . 5 The Chinese did not
have to go to Fu-lin to become acquainted with a product which reached
them from India, and which the Syrians themselves received from
India by way of Persia. 6 Hebrew nerd (Canticle), Greek vapdos, 7
Persian nard and nard, are all derived from Sanskrit nalada, which
already appears in the Atharvaveda. 8 Hirth 's case would also run
counter to his theory that the language of Fu-lin was Aramaic, for
the word nard does not occur there.

1 SCHLIMMER, Terminologie, p. 390. Narcissus is mentioned among the aromatic
flowers growing in great abundance in Biavur, province of Pars, Persia (G. LE
STRANGE, Description of the Province of Pars, p. 51). It is a flower much praised
by the poets Hafiz and Jaml.

2 T. REIL, Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Gewerbes im hellenistischen Aegypten,
p. 146. Regarding narcissus-oil, see Dioscorides, I, 50; and LECLERC, Traite" des
simples, Vol. II, p. 103.

3 Journal Am. Or. Soc., Vol. XXX, 1910, p. 22.

4 See particularly PELLIOT, Bull, de I'EcolefranQaise, Vol. IV, p. 291.
6 STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 278.

6 I. LOEW, Aram. Pflanzennamen, pp. 368-369.

7 First in Theophrastus, Hist, plant., IX. vn, 2.
s See p. 455.



THE BALM OF GILEAD

47. The Yu yan tsa tsu 1 has the following notice of an exotic plant
referred exclusively to Syria: "The plant H ^ & a-p'o-ts'an (*a-bwut-
sam) has its habitat in the country Fu-lin (Syria) . The tree is over ten
feet high. Its bark is green and white in color. The blossoms are
fine &lfl, two being opposite each other (biflorate) . The flowers resemble
those of the rape-turnip, man-tsm IE W (Brassica rapa-depressa) ,
being uniformly yellow. The seeds resemble those of the pepper-plant,
hu-tsiao ~$ft $& (Piper nigrum). By chopping the branches, one obtains
a juice like oil, that is employed as an ointment, serving as a remedy for
ringworm, and is useful for any disease. This oil is held in very high
esteem, and its price equals its weight in gold."

As indicated in the Pen ts'ao kan mu $i i? the notice of the plant
a-p'o-san has been adopted by two works, the C*enfu t'un hwi @ S$t
^t H", which simply notes that it grows in Fu-lin; and the Hwa i hwa
mu k'ao IS Jt ffi /fC ^ ("Investigations into the Botany of China and
Foreign Countries")) which has copied the account of the Yu yan tsa
tsu without acknowledgment. Neither of these books gives any addi-
tional information, and the account of the Yu yan tsa tsu remains the
only one that we possess.

The transcription *a-bwut(bwur)-sam, which is very exact, leads
to Aramaic and Talmudic afursama NDD^BNS (Greek fiaXcranov,
Arabic balessdn), the balm of Gilead (Amyris gileadensis, Balsamoden-
dron giliadense, or Commiphora opobalsamum, family Burseraceae) of
ancient fame. This case splendidly corroborates Hirth's opinion that
the language of Fu-lin (or rather one of the languages of Fu-lin) was
Aramaic. The last two characters p'o-ts'an (*bwut-sam) could very
well transcribe Greek balsam; but the element H excludes Greek and
any other language in which this word is found, and admits no other
than Aramaic. In Syriac we have apursama and pursdma (pursma),
hence Armenian aprsam or aprasam* In Neo-Hebrew, afobalsmon or

1 Ch. 18, p. 12.

2 Ch. 4, p. 15.

3 1. LOEW, Aramaeische Pflanzennamen, p. 73. Also afarsma and afarsmon
(]. BUXTORF, Lexicon chaldaicum, p. 109; J. LEVY, Neuhebr. Worterbuch, Vol. I,
p. 151). Cf. S. KRAUSS, Talmudische Archaologie, Vol. I, pp. 234-236.

4 HUBSCHMANN, Armenische Grammatik, p. 107. I do not believe in the Persian
origin of this word, as tentatively proposed by this author.

429



43 SlNO-lRANICA



afofalsmon is derived from the Greek oTrofiaXo-anov. 1 It is supposed also
that Old-Testament Hebrew bdsdm refers to the balsam, and might
represent the prototype of Greek balsamon, while others deny that the
Hebrew word had this specific meaning. 2 In my opinion, the Greek
/ cannot be explained from the Hebrew word.

Twan C'en-si's description of the tree, made from a long-distance
report, is tolerably exact. The Amyris gileadensis or balsam-tree is an
evergreen shrub or tree of the order Amyridaceae , belonging to the
tropical region, chiefly growing in southern Arabia, especially in the
neighborhood of Mecca and Medina, and in Abyssinia. As will be seen,
it was transplanted to Palestine in historical times, and Twan was
therefore justified in attributing it to Fu-lin. The height of the tree is
about fourteen feet, with a trunk eight or ten inches in diameter. It
has a double bark, an exterior one, thin and red, and an interior one,
thick and green; when chewed, it has an unctuous taste, and leaves an
aromatic odor. The blossoms are biflorate, and the fruit is of a gray
reddish, of the size of a small pea, oblong, and pointed at both ends.
The tree is very rare and difficult to cultivate. Twan's oil, of course,
is the light green, fragrant gum exuded from the branches, always highly
valued as a remedy, especially efficacious in the cure of wounds. 3 It
was always a very costly remedy, and Twan's valuation (equaling its
weight in gold) meets its counterpart in the statement of Theophrastus
that it sells for twice its weight in silver.

Flavius Josephus (first century A.D.) 4 holds that the introduction
of the balsam-tree into Palestine, which still flourished there in his
time, is due to the queen of Saba. In another passage 5 he states that
the opobalsamum (sap of the tree) grows at Engedi, a city near the lake
Asphaltitis, three hundred furlongs from Jerusalem; and again, 6 that it
grows at Jericho: the balsam, he adds in the latter passage, is of all
ointments the most precious, which, upon any incision made in the wood
with a sharp stone, exudes out like juice.

From the time of Solomon it was cultivated in two royal gardens.

1 J. LEVY, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 137.

2 E. LEVESQUE in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Vol. I, col. 1517. The rapproche-
ment of basam and balsamon has already been made by D'HERBELOT (Bibliotheque
orientale, Vol. I, p. 377), though he gives basam only as Persian. The Arabic form
is derived from the Greek.

3 Jeremiah, vm, 22. Regarding its employment in the pharmacology of the
Arabs, see LECLERC, Traite* des simples, Vol. I, pp. 255-257.

4 Antiquitates judaicae, VIII. VI, 6.
^ Ibid., IX. i, 2.

Ibid., XIV. iv, i.



THE BALM OF GILEAD 431

This fact was already known to Theophrastus, 1 who gives this account:
"Balsam grows in the valley of Syria. They say that there are only
two parks in which it grows, one of about four acres, the other much
smaller. The tree is as tall as a good-sized pomegranate, and is much
branched; it has a leaf like that of rue, but it is pale; and it is ever-
green. The fruit is like that of the terebinth in size, shape, and color,
and this too is very fragrant, indeed more so than the gum. The gum,
they say, is collected by making incisions, which is done with bent
pieces of iron at the time of the Dog-star, when there is scorching heat;
and the incisions are made both in the trunks and in the upper parts
of the tree. The collecting goes on throughout the summer; but the
quantity which flows is not very large: in a day a single man can
collect a shell-full. The fragrance is exceedingly great and rich, so that
even a small portion is perceived over a wide distance. However,
it does not reach us in a pure state: what is collected is mixed with
other substances; for it mixes freely with such, and what is known in
Hellas is generally mixed with something else. 2 The boughs are also
very fragrant. In fact, it is on account of these boughs, they say, that
the tree is pruned (as well as for a different reason), since the boughs
cut off can be sold for a good price. In fact, the culture of the trees has
the same motive as the irrigation (for they are constantly irrigated).
And the cutting of the boughs seems likewise to be partly the reason
why the trees do not grow tall ; for, since they are often cut about, they
send out branches instead of putting out all their energy in one direc-
tion. Balsam is said not to grow wild anywhere. From the larger park
are obtained twelve vessels containing each about three pints, from the
other only two such vessels. The pure gum sells for twice its weight
in silver, the mixed sort at a price proportionate to its purity. Balsam
then appears to be of exceptional value."

As the tree did not occur wild in Palestine, but only in the state of
cultivation, and as its home is in southern Arabia, the tradition of
Josephus appears to be well founded, though it is not necessary to
connect the introduction with the name of the Queen of Saba.

Strabo, 3 describing the plain of Jericho, speaks of a palace and the
garden of the balsamum. "The latter," he says, "is a shrub with an
aromatic odor, resembling the cytisus (Medicago arbored) and the
terminthus (terebinth-tree) . Incisions are made in the bark, and vessels

1 Hist, plant., IX, 6 (cf. the edition and translation of A. HORT, Vol. II, p. 245).

2 E. WIEDEMANN (Sitzber. phys.-med. Soz. Erl., 1914, pp. 178, 191) has dealt
with the adulteration of balsam from Arabic sources.

3 XVI. n, 41.



432 SlNO-lRANICA

are placed beneath to receive the sap, which is like oily milk. When
collected in vessels, it becomes solid. It is an excellent remedy for head-
ache, incipient suffusion of the eyes, and dimness of sight. It bears
therefore a high price, especially as it is produced in no other place. "

Dioscorides 1 asserts erroneously that balsam grows only in a certain
valley of India and in Egypt; while Ibn al-Baitar, 2 in his Arabic trans-
lation of Dioscorides, has him correctly say that it grows only 'in Judaea,
in the district called Rur (the valley of the Jordan). It is easily seen
how Judasa in Greek writing could be misread for India.

To Pliny, 3 balsamum was only known as a product of Judaea (uni
terrarum ludaeae concessum). He speaks of the two gardens after
Theophrastus, and gives a lengthy description of three different kinds
of balsamum.

In describing Palestine, Tacitus 4 says that in all its productions it
equals Italy, besides possessing the palm and the balsam; and the
far-famed tree excited the cupidity of successive invaders. Pompey
exhibited it in the streets of Rome in 65 B.C., and one of the wonderful
trees accompanied the triumph of Vespasian in A.D. 79. During the
invasion of Titus, two battles took place at the balsam-groves of Jericho,
the last being intended to prevent the Jews from destroying the trees.
They were then made public property, and were placed under the
protection of an imperial guard; but it is not recorded how long the two
plantations survived. Tn this respect, the Chinese report of the Yu yah
tsa tsu is of some importance, for it is apt to teach that the balm of
Gilead must still have been in existence in the latter part of the ninth
century. It further presents clear-cut evidence of the fact that
Judaea was included in the Chinese notion of the country Fu-lin.

Abd al-Latif (n6i-i23i) 5 relates how in his time balsam was col-
lected in Egypt. The operation was preferably conducted in the summer.
The tree was shorn of its leaves, and incisions were made in the trunk,
precaution being taken against injuring the wood. The sap was col-
lected in jars dug in the ground during the heat, then they were taken
out to be exposed to the sun. The oil floated on the surface and was
cleanc d of foreign particles. This was the true and purest balsam, form-
ing omy th^ tenth part of the total quantity produced by a tree. At
present, in Arabia leaves and branches of the tree are boiled. The first

1 1, 18.

2 LECLERC, Trait6 des simples, Vol. I, 255.

xn, 25, in.

4 Hist., v, 6.

6 SILVESTRE DE SACY, Relation de 1'Egypte, p. 20 (Paris, 1810).



THE BALM OF GILEAD 433

floating oil is the best, and reserved for the harem; the second is for
commerce.

The tree has existed in Egypt from the eleventh to the beginning
of the seventeenth century. It was presumably introduced there by the
Arabs. D'HERBELOT 1 cites an Arabic author as saying that the balm
of Mathara near Cairo was much sought by the Christians, owing to
the faith they put in it. It served them as the chrism in Confirmation.

The Irish pilgrim Symon Semeonis, who started on his journey to
the Holy Land in 1323, has the following interesting account of the
balsam-tree of Egypt: 2 "To the north of the city is a place called
Matarieh, where is that famous vine said to have been formerly in
Engaddi (cf. Cant., i, 13), which distils the balsam. It is diligently
guarded by thirty men, for it is the source of the greater portion of the
Sultan's wealth. It is not like other vines, but is a small, low, smooth
tree, and odoriferous, resembling in smoothness and bark the hazel
tree, and in leaves a certain plant called nasturtium aquaticum. The
stalk is thin and short, usually not more than a foot in length; every
year fresh branches grow out from it, having from two to three feet in
length and producing no fruit. The keepers of the vineyard hire Chris-
tians, who with knives or sharp stones break or cut the tops of these
branches in several places and always in the sign of a cross. The balsam
soon distils through these fractures into glass bottles. The keepers
assert that the flow of balsam is more abundant when the incision
is made by a Christian than by a Saracen." 3

In 1550 PIERRE BELON* still noted the tree in Cairo. Two speci-
mens Were still alive in 1612. In 1615, however, the last tree died.

The Semitic word introduced into China by the Yu yan tsa tsu
seems to have fallen into oblivion. It is not even mentioned in the
Pen ts'ao kan mu. The word "balsam," however, was brought back to
China by the early Jesuits. In the famous work on the geography of
the world, the Cifan wai ki tt 3f 9\- S, 5 first draughted by Pantoja, and
after his death enlarged and edited in 1623 by Giulio Aleni (1582-1649),
the Peru balsam is described under the name pa'r-sa-mo $t Iff 3St If .
The same word with reference to the same substance is employed by

1 Bibliotheque orientale, Vol. I, p. 392.

2 M. ESPOSITO, The Pilgrimage of Symon Semeonis: A Contribution to the
History of Mediaeval Travel (Geographical Journal, Vol. LI, 1918, p. 85).

3 Cf. the similar account of K. v. MEGENBERG (Buch der Natur, p. 358, writ-
ten in 1349-50).

4 Observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouve"es en
Grece, Asie, Iude, Egypte, Arabie, p. 246.

5 Ch. 4, p. 3 (ed. of Sou San ko ts*un $u).



434 SlNO-lRANICA

Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-88) in his K'un yti t*u $wo ty H [3 1, and
was hence adopted in the pharmacopoeia of the Chinese, for it figures
in the Pen ts'ao kan mu & i. 1 The Chinese Gazetteer of Macao 2 mentions
pa 'r-su-ma aromatic B W ? Ok W as a kind of benjoin. In this case
we have a transcription of Portuguese bdlsamo.

1 Ch. 6, p. 19. See, further, WAITERS, Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 339.

2 Ao-men li lio, Ch. B, p. 41 (cf. WYLIE, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 60).



NOTE ON THE LANGUAGE OF FU-LIN

48. The preceding notes on Fu-lin plants have signally confirmed
Hirth's opinion in regard to the language of Fu-lin, which was Aramaic.
There now remains but one Fu-lin plant-name to be identified. This is
likewise contained in the Yu yan tsa tsu. 1 The text runs as follows:

"The p'an-nu-se ^^^ tree has its habitat in Po-se (Persia),
likewise in Fu-lin. In Fu-lin it is styled k'un-han l St. The tree is
thirty feet high, and measures from three to four feet in circumference.
Its leaves resemble those of the si Sun % $? (the Banyan tree, Ficus
retusa). It is an evergreen. The flowers resemble those of the citrus,
ku , and are white in color. The seeds are green and as large as a
sour jujube, swan tsao Sc Si (Diospyros lotus). They are sweet of taste
and glossy (fat, greasy). They are eatable. The people of the western
regions press oil out of them, to oint their bodies with to ward off
ulcers."

The transcription p'an-nu-se answers to ancient *bwan-du-sek;
and k'un-han, to ancient g'win-xan. Despite a long-continued and
intensive search, I cannot discover any Iranian plant-name of the type
bandusek or wandusek, nor any Aramaic word like ginxan. The botanical
characteristics are too vague to allow of a safe identification. Never-
theless I hope that this puzzle also will be solved in the future. 2

In the Fu-lin name a-li-k'u-fa we recognized an Indian loan-word in
Aramaic (p. 423). It would be tempting to regard as such also the
Fu-lin word for "pepper" *a-li-xa-da Rf 83 M RE (a-U-ho-Vo), which
may be restored to *alixada, arixada, arxad; but no such word is known
from Indian or in Aramaic. The common word for " pepper " in Aramaic
isfilfol (from Sanskrit pippala). In certain Kurd dialects ]. DE MORGAN S
has traced a word alat for "pepper," but I am not certain that this is

1 Ch. 18, p. 10 b.

2 My colleague, Professor M. Sprengling at the University of Chicago, kindly
sent me the following information: "Olive-oil was used to ward off ulcers (see
WINER, Bibl. Realwortb., Vol. II, p. 170; and KRAUSS, Archaeologie des Talmud,
Vol. I, pp. 229, 233, 683). Neither in Krauss nor elsewhere was I able to find the
name of an oil-producing tree even remotely resembling ginxan. There is a root
qnx ('to wipe, to rub, to anoint'). It is theoretically possible that q is pronounced
voiced and thus becomes a guttural g, and that from this root, by means of the
suffix -an, may be derived a noun *qmxan, *ginxan to which almost any significance
derived from 'rubbing, anointing' might be attached. But for the existence of such
a noun or adjective I have not the slightest evidence."

3 Mission scientifique en Perse, Vol. V, p. 132.

435



436 SlNO-lRANICA

connected with our Fu-lin word, which at any rate represents a loan-
word.

There is another Fu-lin word which has not yet been treated cor-
rectly. The T'ang Annals, in the account of Fu-lin (Ch. 221), mention
a mammal, styled ts'un If, of the size of a dog, fierce, vicious, and
strong. 1 BRETSCHNEiDER, 2 giving an incorrect form of the name, has
correctly identified this beast with the hyena, which, not being found
in eastern Asia, is unknown to the Chinese. Ma Twan-lin adds that
some of these animals are reared, 3 and the hyena can indeed be tamed.
The character for the designation of this animal is not listed in K'an-hi's
Dictionary; but K'an-hi gives it in the form U 4 with the pronunciation
hien (fan-ts'ie 3t ffc, sound equivalent JS), quoting a commentary to
the dictionary Er ya, which is identical with the text of Ma Twan-lin
relative to the animal ts'un. This word hien (or possibly hiian) can be
nothing but a transcription of Greek vaiva, hyaena, or valvrj. On the
other hand, it should be noted that this Greek word has also passed as
a loan into Syriac; 5 and it would therefore not be impossible that it
was Syrians who transmitted the Greek name to the Chinese. This
question is altogether irrelevant; for we know, and again thanks to
Hirth's researches, that the Chinese distinguished two Fu-lin, the
Lesser Fu-lin, which is identical with Syria, and the Greater Fu-lin, the
Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as capital. 6 Byzantine Greek,
accordingly, must be included among the languages spoken in Fu-lin.

As to the origin of the name Fu-lin, I had occasion to refer to Pel-
liot's new theory, according to which it would be based on Rom,
Rum. 7 I am of the same opinion, and perfectly in accord with the
fundamental principles by which this theory is inspired. In fact, this
is the method followed throughout this investigation: by falling
back on the ancient phonology of Chinese, we may hope to restore
correctly the prototypes of the Chinese transcriptions. Pelliot starts
from the Old-Armenian form Hrom or HrOm, 8 in which h represents

1 HIRTH, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 60, 107, 220.

2 Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs, p. 24.

3 HIRTH (op. cit., p. 79) translates, "Some are domesticated like dogs." But
the phrase f{ J6j following ^f ^ ^ forms a separate clause. In the text printed
by Hirth (p. 115, Q 22) the character jfr is to be eliminated.

4 Thus reproduced by PALLADIUS in his Chinese-Russian Dictionary (Vol. I,
p. 569) with the reading siian.

5 R. P. SMITH, Thesaurus syriacus, Vol. I, col. 338.

6 Cf. HIRTH, Journal Am. Or. Soc., Vol. XXXIII, 1913, pp. 202-208.

7 The Diamond (this volume, p. 8). PELLIOT'S notice is in Journal asiatique,
1914, I, pp. 498-500.

8 Cf. HUBSCHMANN, Armen. Gram., p. 362.



NOTE ON THE LANGUAGE OF FU-LIN 437

the spiritus asper of the initial Greek r. In some Iranian dialects the
spiritus asper is marked by an initial vowel: thus in Pahlavi Arum, in
Kurd Urum. The ancient Armenian words with initial hr, as explained
by A. Meillet, were borrowed from Parthian dialects which transformed
initial Iranian / into h: for instance, Old Iranian framana (now fermanj
"order") resulted in Armenian hraman, hence from Parthian *hraman.
Thus *From, probably conveyed by the Sogdians, was the prototype
from which Chinese Fu-lin, *Fu-lim, was fashioned. In my opinion,
the Chinese form is not based on *From, but on *Frim or *Frim. Rim
must have been an ancient variant of Rum; Rim is still the Russian
designation of Rome. 1 What is of still greater importance is that, as
has been shown by J. J. MoDi, 2 there is a Pahlavi name Sairima, which
occurs in the Farvardin Yast, and is identified with Rum in the Bun-
dahisn; again, in the Sahnameh the corresponding name is Rum. This
country is said to have derived its name from Prince Selam, to whom
it was given; but this traditional opinion is not convincing. A form
Rima or Rim has accordingly existed in Middle Persian; and, on the
basis of the Chinese transcription *Fu-lim or *Fu-rim, it is justifiable
to presuppose the Iranian (perhaps Parthian) prototype *Frim, from
which the Chinese transcription was made.

1 What Pelliot remarks on the Tibetan names Ge-sar and P'rom is purely
hypothetical, and should rather be held in abeyance for the present. We know so
little about the Ge-sar epic, that no historical conclusions can be derived from it.
For the rest, the real Tibetan designation for Byzance or Turkey, in the same
manner as in New Persian, is Rum (T'oung Poo, 1916, p. 491). In regard to the
occurrence of this name in Chinese transcriptions of more recent date, see BRET-
SCHNEIDER, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. II, p. 306; and HIRTH, Chau Ju-kua, p. 141.

2 Asiatic Papers, p. 244 (Bombay, 1905).



THE WATER-MELON

49. This Cucurbitacea (Citrullus wlgaris or Cucurbita citrullus)
is known to the Chinese under the name si kwa B jK. (" melon of the
west"). The plant now covers a zone from anterior Asia, the Caucasus
region, Persia to Turkistan and China, also southern Russia and the
regions of the lower Danube. There is no evidence to lead one to sup-
pose that the cultivation was very ancient in Iran, India, Central Asia,
or China; and this harmonizes with the botanical observation that
the species has not been found wild in Asia. 1

A. ENGLER 2 traces the home of the water-melon to South Africa,
whence he holds it spread to Egypt and the Orient in most ancient times,
and was diffused over southern Europe and Asia in the pre-Christian
era. This theory is based on the observation that the water-melon
grows spontaneously in South Africa, but it is not explained by what
agencies it .was disseminated from there to ancient Egypt. Neverthe-
less the available historical evidence in Asia seems to me to speak
in favor of the theory that the fruit is not an Asiatic cultivation; and,
since there is no reason to credit it to Europe, it may well be traceable
to an African origin.

The water-melon is not mentioned by any work of the T'ang dy-
nasty; notably it is absent from the T'ai p'in hwan yii ki. The earliest
allusion to it is found in the diary of Hu Kiao iS ^H, entitled Hien lu ki
PS 18 ffi, which is inserted in chapter 73 of the History of the Five Dy-
nasties (Wu tai Si), written by Nou-yaii Siu Bfc il H (A.D. 1017-72)
and translated by E. CHAVANNES. S Hu Kiao travelled in the country
of the Kitan from A.D. 947 to 953, and narrates that there for the first
time he ate water-melons (si kwa). 4 He goes on to say, "It is told that
the Kitan, after the annihilation of the Uigur, obtained this cultivation.
They cultivated the plant by covering the seeds with cattle-manure
and placing mats over the beds. The fruit is as large as that of the

1 A. DE CANDOLLE, Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 263.

2 In Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, p. 323.

Voyageurs chinois chez les Khitan (Journal asiatique, 1897, I, pp. 390-442).

4 Chavannes' translation "melons" (p. 400) is inadequate; the water-melon
is styled in French past&que or melon d'eau. Hu Kiao, of course, was acquainted
with melons in general, but what he did not previously know is this particular species.
During Napoleon's expedition to Egypt, "on mangeait des lentilles, des pigeons, et
un melon d'eau exquis, connu dans les pays me"ridionaux sous le nom de pastique.
Les soldats 1'appelaient sainte pasttque" (THIERS, Histoire de la revolution francaise).

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