368 Sino-Iranica 



where they are styled Jf£ ft£ mo-tsei, ""mwa-dzak. 1 The tree grows to 

 a height of from six to seven feet, 2 with a circumference of from eight to 

 nine feet. The leaves resemble those of the peach, but are more oblong. 

 It blossoms in the third month, the flowers being white, and their 

 heart reddish. The seeds are round like pills, green in the beginning, 

 but when ripe turning to yellow-white. Those punctured by insects 

 and perforated are good for the preparation of leather; those without 

 holes are used as medicine. This tree alternately produces galls one 

 year and acorns (J$t M -?■ pa-lii tse, *bwa5-lu; Middle Persian *ballu, 

 barru [see below], New Persian baluf), the size of a finger and three 

 inches long, the next." 3 The latter notion is not a Chinese fancy, but 

 the reproduction of a Persian belief. 4 



The Geography of the Ming (Ta Min i Vuh Zi) states that galls are 

 produced in the country of the Arabs (Ta-si) and all barbarians, and 

 that the tree is like the camphor-tree (Laurus camphor a), the fruits 

 like the Chinese wild chestnuts (mao-li ^ W) . 



The Chinese transcriptions of the Iranian name do not "all repre- 

 sent Persian mdzu," as reiterated by Hirth after Watters, but repro- 

 duce older Middle-Persian forms. In fact, none of the Chinese render- 

 ings can be the equivalent of mdzu. 



(i) J^ {$ (Yu yah tsa tsu) mo-tsei, *mwa-d2ak (dzak, zak), answers 

 to a Middle Persian *mad2ak (madzak or mazak). 



(2) M ^ mo-Si, *mak-zak,= Middle Persian *maxzak. 



(3) M li wu-U, *mwu-zak, = Middle Persian *muzak. 



(4) $t ?J mu-H, *mut-zak, = Middle Persian *muzak. Compare 

 with these various forms Tamil malakai, Telugu maUkai, and the 

 magican of Barbosa. 



(5) J|l <$r 5 mo-t'u, *mwa-du,= Middle Persian *madu. 



^ $£ # to-mu-lii (in Cao 2u-kwa), *sa-mut-lwut, answers to Iranian 



1 Instead of tsei, some editions write %$ tso (*dzak, dzak), which is phonetically 

 the same. 



2 The text has JJC, which should be corrected into /^, for the tree seldom rises 

 higher than six feet. 



8 The text of the following last clause is corrupted, and varies in the different 

 editions; it yields no acceptable sense. Hirth's translation (Chao Ju-kua, p. 215) 

 is not intelligible to me. Watters (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 349) is 

 certainly wrong in saying that "the Chinese do not seem to know even yet the 

 origin of these natural products" (oak-galls); this is plainly refuted by the above 

 description. The T'u $u tsi I'en (XX, Ch. 310) and Ci wu min H t K u k'ao (Ch. 35, 

 p. 21) even have a tolerably good sketch of the tree, showing galls on the leaves. 



4 E. Seidel, Mechithar, p. 127. 



6 The character 3fc £'a in Cao Zu-kwa, and thus adopted by Hirth (p. 215), is 

 an error. 



