390 Sino-Iranica 



giraffes. 1 It likewise appears in the list of countries visited by Cen Ho, 2 

 where Ma-lin and La-sa M %& are named, the latter apparently being 

 identical with the older Lao-p'o-sa. 3 



The Chinese knew, further, that the date thrives in the country of 

 the Arabs (Ta-si), 4 further, in Oman, Basra, and on the Coromandel 

 Coast. 5 It is pointed out, further, for Aden and Ormuz. 6 



There is no doubt that the date-palm has existed in southern Persia 

 from ancient times, chiefly on the littoral of the Persian Gulf and in 

 Mekran, Baluchistan. It is mentioned in several passages of the 

 Bundahisn. 7 Its great antiquity in Babylonia also is uncontested 

 (Assyrian giUmmaru). 8 Strabo 9 reports how Alexander's army was 

 greatly distressed on its march through the barren Gedrosian desert. 

 The supplies had to come from a distance, and were scanty and un- 

 frequent, so much so that the army suffered greatly from hunger, the 

 beasts of burden dropped, and the baggage was abandoned. The army 

 was saved by the consumption of dates and the marrow of the palm- 

 tree. 10 Again he tells us that many persons were suffocated by eating 

 unripe dates. 11 Philostratus speaks of a eunuch who received Apollonius 

 of Tyana when he entered the Parthian kingdom, and offered him 

 dates of amber color and of exceptional size. 12 In the Province of Fars, 

 the date-palm is conspicuous almost everywhere. 13 In Babylon, Persian 

 and Aramaic date-palms were distinguished, the former being held in 

 greater esteem, as their meat perfectly detaches itself from the stone, 

 while it partially adheres in the Aramaic date. 14 The same distinction 



I Ta Miii i t'ufi ii, Ch. 90, p. 24. 

 s Min Si, Ch. 304. 



* It is not Ma-lih-la-sa, the name of a single country, as made out by Groene- 

 veldt (Notes on the Malay Archipelago, p. 170). 



* T'ai p'in hivan yu ki, Ch. 186, p. 15 b.\ 

 5 Hirth, Chau Ju-kua, pp. 133, 137, 96. 



8 Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 609. The word to-Sa-pu, not explained by 

 him, represents Arabic duSdb (" date- wine" ; see Leclerc, Traits des simples, 

 Vol. II, p. 49). Noldeke (Persische Studien, II, p. 42) explains this word from 

 dills ("honey") and Persian db ("water"). 



7 Above, p. 193. 



8 Herodotus, 1, 193; E. Bonavia, Flora of the Assyrian Monuments, p. 3; 

 Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology, pp. 12-13. 



9 xv, 2, § 7. 



10 Cf. Theophrastus, Histor. plant., IV. iv, 13. 



II Ibid., IV. iv, 5; and Pliny, xm, 9. 



12 C. Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite\ Vol. II, p. 93. 



13 G. Le Strange, Description of the Province of Fars, pp. 31, 33, 35, 39, 40, 

 etc. 



14 1. Loew, Aramaeische Pflanzennamen, p. 112. 



