442 Sino-Iranica 



fruit is inferior in taste to that of the north." He distinguishes sweet, 

 insipid, and sour varieties. 



In the T'ao hun kin lu ¥$ ^ 2r i£ l it is stated that in Yun-kia 

 3R H (in the prefecture of Wen-cou, Ci-li) there were han kwa ^ jK. 

 ("cold melons") of very large size, which could be preserved till the 

 coming spring, and which are regarded as identical with the water- 

 melon. Li Si-Sen justly objects to this interpretation, commenting that, 

 if the water-melon was first introduced in the Wu-tai period, the name 

 si kwa could not have been known at that time. This objection must 

 be upheld, chiefly for the reason that we have no other records from the 

 fourth century or even the T'ang period which mention the water- 

 melon: it is evidently a post-T'ang introduction. 2 



Ye Tse-k'i, in his Ts'ao mu tse W-JIs-f* written in 1378, remarked 

 that water-melons were first introduced under the Yuan, when the 

 Emperor Si-tsu tfr JfiH. (Kubilai) subjugated Central Asia. This view 

 was already rejected under the Ming in the Cen cu c'wan & *%. $& by 

 C'en Ki-zu $1 $1 Hf , who aptly referred to the discovery of the fruit by 

 Hu Kiao, and added that it is not mentioned in the Er ya, the various 

 older Pen ts'ao, the TsH min yao Su, and other books of a like character, 

 it being well known that the fruit did not anciently exist in China. As 

 to this point, all Chinese writers on the subject appear to be agreed; and 

 its history is so well determined, that it has not given rise to attempts 

 of antedating or "changkienizing" the introduction. 



The Chinese travellers during the Mongol period frequently allude 

 to the large water-melons of Persia and Central Asia. 3 On the other 

 hand, Ibn Batata mentions the excellent water-melons of China, which 

 are like those of Khwarezm and Ispahan. 4 



According to the Manchu officers Fusambd and Surde, who pub- 

 lished an account of Turkistan about, 1772, 5 the water-melon of this 

 region, though identical with that of China, does not equal the latter 

 in taste; on the contrary, it is much inferior to it. Other species of melon 

 belong to the principal products of Turkistan; some are called by the 

 Chinese "Mohammedan caps" and "Mohammedan eyes." The so- 

 called "Hami melon," which is not a water-melon, and ten varieties 

 of which are distinguished, enjoys a great reputation. Probably it is 



1 Apparently a commentary to the works of T'ao Hun-kin (a.d. 451-536). 



2 The alleged synonyme han kwa for the water-melon, adopted also by Bret- 

 schneider {Chinese Recorder, 1871, p. 223) and others, must therefore be weeded out. 



3 Cf. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, pp. 20, 31, 67, 89. 



4 Yule, Cathay, new ed., Vol. IV, p. 109. 



8 Hui k'ian U, see above, p. 230; and below, p. 562. 



