338 Sino-Iranica 



seems more likely that the plant was transmitted to China from Persia 

 than from western Asia, but the accounts of the Chinese in this case are 

 too vague and deficient to enable us to reach a positive conclusion. 



In India, Lawsonia alba is said to be wild on the Coromandel coast. 

 It is now cultivated throughout India. The use of henna as a cosmetic 

 is universal among Mohammedan women, and to a greater or lesser 

 extent among Hindu also; but that it dates "from very ancient times," 

 as stated by Watt, 1 seems doubtful to me. There is no ancient Sanskrit 

 term for the plant or the cosmetic (mendhi or mendhika is Neo-Sanskrit), 

 and it would be more probable that its use is due to Mohammedan 

 influence. Joret 2 holds that the tree, although it is perhaps indigenous, 

 may have been planted only since the Mohammedan invasion. 3 



Francois Pyrard, who travelled from 1601 to 1610, reports the 

 henna-furnishing plant on the Maldives, where it is styled innapa 

 {—hlna-jai, "henna-leaf"). "The leaves are bruised," he remarks, 

 "and rubbed on their hands and feet to make them red, which they 

 esteem a great beauty. This color does not yield to any washing, nor 

 until the nails grow, or a fresh skin comes over the flesh, and then (that 

 is, at the end of five or six months) they rub them again." 4 



singulierement la dur6e de l'op6ration." While the Persians dye the whole of their 

 hands as far as the wrist, also the soles of their feet, the Turks more commonly 

 only tinge the nails; both use it for the hair. 



1 Commercial Products of India, p. 707. 



2 Plantes dans l'antiquitS, Vol. II, p. 273. 



8 Cf. also D. Hooper, Oil of Lawsonia alba, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. IV, 

 1908, p. 35- 



* Voyage of F. Pyrard, ed. by A. Gray, Vol. II, p. 361 (Hakluyt Society). The 

 first edition of this work appeared in Paris, 161 1. 



