424 Sino-Iranica 



passage: the two texts differ both as to descriptive matter and nomen- 

 clature. In regard to the Fu-lin information of Twan, Hirth's opinion 1 

 is perfectly correct: it was conveyed by the monk Wan, who had 

 hailed directly from Fu-lin. 2 The time when he lived is unknown, but 

 most probably he was a contemporary of Twan. The Fu-lin names, 

 accordingly, do not go back to the beginning of the eighth century, but 

 belong to the latter half of the ninth. 



An interesting point in connection with this subject is that both 

 the Iranian and the Malayan Po-se play their r61e with reference to 

 the plant and fruit in question. This, as far as I know, is the only in- 

 stance of this kind. Fortunately, the situation is perfectly manifest on 

 either side. The fact that Twan C'eh-si hints at the Iranian Po-se 

 (Persia) is well evidenced by his addition of the Iranian name; while 

 the tree itself is not found in Persia, and merely its fruit was imported 

 from Syria or India. The Po-se, alluded to in the Cen lei pen ts'ao and 

 presumably traceable to C'en Ts'an-k'i, unequivocally represents the 

 Malayan Po-se: it is joined to the names of Sumatra and P'o-lo-men; 

 and Cassia fistula is said to occur there, and indeed occurs in the Malayan 

 zone. Moreover, Li Si-cen has added such an unambiguous definition 

 of the location of this Po-se, that there is no room for doubt of its identity. 



45. Reference has been made to the similarity of cassia pods to 

 carob pods, and it would not be impossible that the latter were included 

 in the "Persian Gleditschia" of the Chinese. 



Ceratonia siliqua, the carob-tree, about thirty feet in height, is 

 likewise a genus of the family Leguminosae, a typical Mediterranean 

 cultivation. The pods, called carob pods, carob beans, or sometimes 

 sugar pods, contain a large quantity of mucilaginous and saccharine 

 matter, and are commonly employed in the south of Europe for feeding 

 live-stock, and occasionally, in times Of scarcity, as human food. The 

 popular names "locust-pods" or "St. John's Bread" rest on the suppo- 

 sition that the pods formed the food of St. John in the wilderness 

 (Luke, xv, 16); but there is better reason to believe that the locusts 

 of St. John were the animals so called, and these are still eaten in the 

 Orient. The common Semitic name for the tree and fruit is Assyrian 

 xarubu, Aramaic xdrubd, Arabic xarrub and xarnub? New Persian 

 xurnub (khurnub) or xarnub, also xarrub (hence Osmanli xartip* Neo- 



1 Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXX, 1910, p. 18. 



2 Cf. above, p. 359. 



3 Egyptian dzarudZ, garuta, darruga; Coptic garate, are Greek loan-words 

 (the tree never existed in Egypt, as already stated by Pliny, xin, 16), from Kepdrto. 



4 Also ketHbujnuzu ("goat's horn"). 



