PEPPER 



27. The pepper-plant (hu tsiao, Japanese ko$5, 1$ W>, Piper nigrum) 

 deserves mention in this connection only inasmuch as it is listed among 

 the products of Sasanian Persia. 1 Ibn Haukal says that pepper, sandal, 

 and various kinds of drugs, were shipped from Siraf in Persia to all 

 quarters of the world. 2 Pepper must have been introduced into Persia ' 

 from India, which is the home of the shrub. 3 It is already enumerated 

 among the plants of India in the Annals of the Han Dynasty. 4 The . 

 Yu yan tsa tsu & refers it more specifically to Magadha, 6 pointing out 

 its Sanskrit name marica or marica in the transcription &fc JH ^ mei- 

 li-li? The term hu tsiao shows that not all plants whose names have 

 the prefix hu are of Iranian origin: in this case hu distinctly alludes 

 to India. 8 Tsiao is a general designation for spice-plants, principally 

 belonging to the genus Zanthoxylon. Li Si-cen 9 observes that the black 

 pepper received its name only for the reason that it is bitter of taste 

 and resembles the tsiao, but that the pepper-fruit in fact is not a tsiao. 

 It is interesting to note that the authors of the various Pen ts'ao seem 

 to have lost sight of the fact of the Indian origin of the plant, and do 

 not even refer to the Han Annals. Su Kuh states that hu tsiao grows 

 among the Si Zun, which plainly shows that he took the word hu in 

 the sense of peoples of Central Asia or Iranians, and substituted for it 



1 Suisu, Ch. 83, p. 7 b; Cou Su, Ch. 50, p. 6; and Weisu, Ch. 102, p. 6. According 

 to Hirth (Chau Ju-kua, p. 223), this would mean that pepper was brought to China 

 by Persian traders from India. I am unable to see this point. The texts in question 

 simply give a list of products to be found in Persia, and say nothing about exporta- 

 tion of any kind. V 



2 W. Ouseley, Oriental Geography of Ebn Haukal, p. 133. Regarding the for- 

 mer importance of Siraf, which "in old times was a great city, very populous and 

 full of merchandise, being the port of call for caravans and ships," see G. Le Strange, 

 Description of the Province of Fars, pp. 41-43. 



8 In New Persian, pepper is called pilpil (Arabicized filfil, fulful), from the 

 Sanskrit pippaM. 



* Hou Han Su, Ch. 118, p. 5 b. 



s Ch. 18, p. 11. 



8 Cf. Sanskrit magadha as an epithet of pepper. 



7 In fact, this form presupposes a vernacular type *meri&. 



8 Hu tsiao certainly does not mean "Western Barbarians (Tartar) pepper," 

 as conceived by Waiters (Essays on the Chinese Language, p. 441). What had 

 the "Tartars" to do with pepper? The Uigur adopted simply the Sanskrit word in 

 the form murl. 



9 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 32, p. 3 b. 



374 



