260 Sino-Iranica 



of Su Tsun 1£ $t l into the Lin-nan mountains $8> ^c \U. The country 

 of Wu sent a messenger with provisions, stating in the accompanying 

 letter: 'These fruits are walnuts $1 $li and fei-San M IS. 2 The latter 

 come from southern China. The walnuts were originally grown abroad 

 among the Western K'iah (^^^^feffi^^H). Their exterior is hard, 

 while the interior is soft and sweet. Owing to their durability I wish to 

 present them to you as a gift.' " 3 It is worthy of note, that, while the 

 walnut is said in this text to hail from the Western K'iah, the term 

 hu t'ao (not kHan Vao) is employed; so that we may infer that the intro- 

 duction of the fruit from the Hu preceded in time the introduction 

 from the K'iah. It is manifest also that in this narrative the walnut 

 appears as a novelty. 



The Tibetan name of the walnut in general corresponds to a type 

 tar-ka, as pronounced in Central Tibetan, written star-ka, star-ga, 

 and dar-sga} The last-named spelling is given in the Polyglot Dic- 

 tionary of K'ien-luh, 5 also in Jaschke's Tibetan Dictionary. The element 

 ka or ga is not the well-known suffix used in connection with nouns, 6 

 but is an independent base with the meaning " walnut," as evidenced 

 by Kanaurl ka ("walnut"). 7 The various modes of writing lead to a 

 restitution *tar, dar, d'ar (with aspirate sonant). This word is found 

 also in an Iranian dialect of the Pamir: in Waxi the walnut is called 



1 He died in a.d. 328. His biography is in the Tsin Su, Ch. 100, p. 9. See also 

 L. Wieger, Textes historiques, p. 1086. 



2 Literally, "flying stalk of grain." Bretschneider and Stuart do not mention 

 this plant. Dr. T. Tanaka, assistant in the Bureau of Plant Industry, Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington, tells me that fei-San is a synonyme of the fingered citrus 

 (/m Sou kan / fj$j ^ tfl*, Citrus chirocarpus). He found this statement in the Honzo 

 kdmoku keimo (Ch. 26, p. 18, ed. 1847) by Ono Ranzan, who on his part quotes the 

 T'un ya $§ #ft by Fan I-ci. 



3 The Tai p'in yu Ian reads % VX §? $C JrJL ^ M The Tan Sun pai k'un 

 leu Vie and the T'u S'u tsi ten, however, have ^fimi^lif^JcJiJL^Jli "their 

 substance resembles the ancient sages, and I wish to present them," — apparently a 

 corruption of the text. 



4 W. W. Rockhill (Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet, p. 340) 

 gives taga as pronunciation in eastern Tibet. J. D. Hooker (Himalayan Journals, 

 p. 237) offers taga-Hn (Sin, "tree") as Bhutia name. 



6 Ch. 28, p. 55. 



6 Schiefner, Melanges asiatiques, Vol. I, pp. 380-382. 



7 Given both by T. R. Joshi (Grammar and Dictionary of the Kanawari Lan- 

 guage, p. 80) and T. G. Bailey (Kanauri-English Vocabulary, Journal Royal As. 

 Soc, 191 1, p. 332). Bailey adds to the word also the botanical term Juglans regia. 

 The same author, further, gives a word ge as meaning "kernel of walnut; edible part 

 of Pinus gerardiana" ; while Joshi (p. 67) explains the same word as the "wild 

 chestnut." Thus it seems that ge, ka, originally referred to an indigenous wild-grow- 

 ing fruit, and subsequently was transferred to the cultivated walnut. 



