290 Sino-Iranica 



Herodotus 1 emphasizes that the only oil used by the Babylonians 

 is made from sesame. Sesame is also mentioned among their products 

 by the Babylonian priest Berosus (fourth century B.C.). 2 



Aelius Gallus, a member of the Equestrian order, carried the Roman 

 arms into Arabia, and brought back from his expedition the report that 

 the Nomades (nomads) live on milk and the flesh of wild animals, and 

 that the other peoples, like the Indians, express a wine from palms and 

 oil from sesame. 3 According to Pliny, sesame comes from India, where 

 they make an oil from it, the color of the seeds being white. 4 Both the 

 seeds and the oil were largely employed in Roman pharmacology. 5 

 Megasthenes 6 mentions the cultivation of sesame in India. It likewise 

 occurs in the Atharva Veda and in the Institutes of Manu (Sanskrit 

 tila). 7 A. de Candolle's view 8 that it was introduced into India from 

 the Sunda Isles in prehistoric times, is untenable. This theory is based 

 on a purely linguistic argument: "Rumphius gives three names for 

 the sesame in these islands, very different one from the other, and from 

 the Sanskrit word, which supports the theory of a more ancient existence 

 in the archipelago than on the continent." This alleged evidence proves 

 nothing whatever for the history of the plant, but is merely a fact of 

 language. 9 There can now be no doubt that from a botanical viewpoint 

 the home of the genus is in tropical Africa, where twelve species occur, 

 while there are only two in India. 10 



In the Fan yi min yi tsi, 11 a Sanskrit synonyme of "sesame" is given as 

 M $1 @ & ife a-Vi-mu-to-k x ie f *a-di-muk-ta-g'a, i.e., Sanskrit adhi- 

 muktaka, which is identified with kil-hn (see below) and hu-ma. An 

 old gloss explains the term as "the foreign flower of pious thoughtful- 

 ness" (§an se i hwa W M 3^1 ^), an example of which is the lighting of 

 a lamp fed with the oil of three flowers (sandal, soma, and campaka 

 [Michelia champaca]) and the placing of this lamp on the altar of the 



1 1. 193- 



2 Muller, Fragmenta historiae graecae, Vol. II, p. 496. Regarding Egypt, 

 see V. Loret, Flore pharaonique, p. 57. 



8 Pliny, vi, 28, §161. 



4 Sesama ab Indis venit. Ex ea et oleum faciunt; colos eius candidus (xvm, 

 22, §96). 



6 Pliny, xxii, 64, §132. 



6 Strabo, XV. I, 13. 



7 Joret, Plantes dans l'antiquite\ Vol. II, p. 269. 



8 Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 422. 



9 The Malayan languages possess a common name for Sesamum indicum: 

 Javanese and Malayan Una, Batak Una, Cam lon'6 or land; Khmer lono. 



10 A. Engler, Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. IV, pt. 3 b, p. 262. 



11 Ch. 8, p. 6 (see above, p. 254). 



