ASAFGETIDA 357 



el nombre le llaman Rabacuz. De suerte que Robalcuz en Arabio, quiere 

 dezir c.umo basto de Regaliza: porque Rob, es cumo basto, y Al, ar- 

 ticulo de genitiuo, de, y Cuz, regaliza, y todo junto significa cumo 

 basto de Regaliza: y assi no se puede Uamar a este cumo Assa dulcis. 

 Los Indios la loan para el estomago, para facilitar el vientre, y para 

 consumir las ventosidadas. Tambien curan con esta medicina los 

 cauallos, que echan mucha ventosidad. En tanto tienen esta medicina 

 que le llama aquella gente, principalmente la de Bisnaguer, manjar 

 delos Dioses." 



John Fryer 1 relates, "In this country Assa Foetida is gathered at 

 a place called Descoon; 2 some deliver it to be the juice of a cane or reed 

 inspissated; others, of a tree wounded: It differs much from the stink- 

 ing stuff called Hing, it being of the Province of Carmania: 3 This latter 

 is that the Indians perfume themselves with, mixing it in all their pulse, 

 and make it up in wafers to correct the windiness of their food, which 

 they thunder up in belchings from the crudities created in their stom- 

 achs; never thinking themselves at ease without this Theriac: And this 

 is they cozen the Europeans with instead of Assa Faetida, of which 

 it bears not only the smell, but color also, only it is more liquid." 



J. A. de Mandelslo 4 reports as follows: "The Hingh, which our 

 dragsters and apothecaries call Assa fcetida, comes for the most part 

 from Persia, but that which the Province of Utrad produces in the Indies 

 is the best, and there is a great trafhck driven in it all over Indosthan. 

 The plant which produces it is of two kinds; one grows like a bush, and 

 hath small leaves, like rice, and the other resembles a turnip-leaf, and 

 its greenness is like that of fig-tree leaves. It thrives best in stony and 

 dry places, and its gum begins to come forth towards the latter end 

 of summer, so that it must be gathered in autumn. The traffick of it 

 is so much the greater in those parts, upon this account, that the 

 Benjans of Guzuratta make use of it in all their sawces, and rub their 



1 New Account of East India and Persia, Vol. II, p. 195 (Hakluyt Soc, 1912). 



1 Kuh-i Dozgan, west of Kuristan. 



s Hing is mentioned by Fryer (Vol. I, p. 286) as in use among the natives of 

 southern India, "to correct all distempers of the brain, as well as stomach," "a sort 

 of liquid Assa Fcetida, whereby they smell odiously." This is the product of Ferula 

 alliacea, collected near Yezd in Khorasan and in the province of Kerman, and 

 chiefly used by the natives of Bombay (FlCckiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 

 pp. 319-320; Watt, Commercial Products of India, p. 534). Fryer's distinction be- 

 tween hing and asafcetida shows well that there were different kinds and grades of 

 the article, derived from different plants. Thus there is no reason to wonder that 

 the Chinese Buddhist authors discriminate between hingu and a-wei (Chavannes 

 and Pelliot, Traits manicheen, p. 234); the £'ou ts'ai ("stinking vegetable") is 

 probably also a variety of this product. 



4 Voyages and Travels, p. 67 (London, 1669). 



