The Grape-Vine 231 



The pit in which the grapes are stored is covered with loam, and thus 

 an even temperature is secured throughout the winter. 1 



The Jesuit missionaries of the eighteenth century praise the raisins 

 of Hoai-lai-hien 1 on account of their size: "Nous parlons d'apres le 

 temoignage de nos yeux: les grains de ces grappes de raisins sont gros 

 comme des prunes damas-violet, et la grappe longue et grande a propor- 

 tion. Le climat peut y faire; mais si les livres disent vrai, cela vient 

 originairement de ce qu'on a ente* des vignes sur des jujubiers; et 

 I'epaisseur de la peau de ces raisins nous le ferart croire." 3 



Raisins are first mentioned as being abundant in Yun-nan in the 

 Y tin-nan ki* ("Memoirs regarding Yun-nan"), a work written in the 

 beginning of the ninth century. Li Si-cen remarks that raisins are made 

 by the people of the West as well as in T'ai-yuan and P'ih-yan in San-si 

 Province, whence they are traded to all parts of China. Hami in 

 Turkistan sends large quantities of raisins to Peking. 6 In certain parts 

 of northern China the Turkish word Hfrra'i for a small kind of raisin 

 is known. It is obtained from a green, seedless variety, said to originate 

 from Bokhara, whence it was long ago transplanted to Yarkand. 

 After the subjugation of Turkistan under K'ien-luh, it was brought to 

 Jehol, and is still cultivated there. 8 



Although the Chinese eagerly seized the grape at the first oppor- 

 tunity offered to them, they were slow in accepting the Iranian custom 

 of making and drinking wine. 7 The Arabic merchant Soleiman (or 

 whoever may be responsible for this account), writing in a.d. 851, 

 reports that "the wine taken by the Chinese is made from rice; they 

 do not make wine from grapes, nor is it brought to them from abroad; 



1 A similar contrivance for the storage of oranges is described in the Memoires 

 concernant les Chinois, Vol. IV, p. 489. 



* I presume that Hwai (or Hwo)-lu hien in the prefecture of Cen-tin, Ci-li 

 Province, is meant. 



* Memoires concernant les Chinois, Vol. Ill, 1778, p. 498. 



* T'ai p'in yii Ian, Ch. 972, p. 3. 



1 An article on Hami raisins is inserted in the Memoires concernant les Chinois 

 (Vol. V, 1780, pp. 481-486). The introduction to this article is rather strange, an 

 effort being made to prove that grapes have been known in China since times of 

 earliest antiquity; this is due to a confusion of the wild and the cultivated vine. 

 In Vol. II, p. 423, of the same collection, it is correctly stated that vine and wine be- 

 came known under the reign of the Emperor Wu. 



6 Cf. O. Franke, Beschreibung des Jehol-Gebietes, p. 76. 



7 The statement that Can K'ien taught his countrymen the art of making wine, 

 as asserted by Giles (Biographical Dictionary, p. 12) and L. Wieger (Textes 

 historiques, p. 499), is erroneous. There is nothing to this effect in the Si ki or in 

 the Han Annals. 



