464 Sino-Iranica 



K'un-lun of the Southern Sea; 1 and Su Kun of the T'ang says that, of 

 the two kinds of mu-hian (known to him), that of K'un-lun is the best, 

 while that from the West Lake near Hah-cou is not good. 2 In the time 

 of T'ao Hun-kin (a.d. 451-536) the root was no longer brought from 

 Yuh-c'an; but the bulk of it was imported on foreign ships, with the 

 report that it came from Ta Ts'in (the Hellenistic Orient), 3 — hence 

 presumably the same article as the Arabian or Syrian costus of Dios- 

 corides. The Nan fan ts'ao mu Iwan is cited by Cen Kwan of the seventh 

 century as saying that the root is produced in India, being the product 

 of an herbaceous plant and of the appearance of licorice. The same 

 text is ascribed to the Nan Zou i wu U of the third century in the T'ai 

 pHn yii Ian* while the Kwan U attributes the product to Kiao-cou 

 (Tonking) and India. A different description of the plant is again given 

 by Su Sufi. Thus it is no wonder that the specimens from China 

 submitted for identification have proved to be from different plants, 

 as Aplotaxis auriculata, Aristolochia kaempferi, Rosa banksia, etc. 5 If, 

 accordingly, costus (to use this general term) was found not only in 

 India and Kashmir, but also in Arabia, Syria, Tibet, Mongolia, China, 

 and Malacca, it is equally possible also that Persia had a costus of her 

 own or imported it from Syria as well as from India. 6 This is a question 

 which cannot be decided with certainty. The linguistic evidence is 

 inconclusive, for the New-Persian kust is an Arabic loan-word, the 

 latter, of course, being traceable to Sanskrit kustha, which has obtained 

 a world-wide propagation. 7 Like so many other examples in the his- 

 tory of commerce, this case illustrates the unwillingness of the world 

 to tolerate monopolies for any length of time. The real costus was 

 peculiar (and still is) to Kashmir, but everywhere attempts were con- 

 stantly made to trace equivalents or substitutes. The trade-mark 

 remained the same, while the article was subjected to changes. 



59. Under the term nan (or an) -si hiah $c ® ^r the Chinese have 



1 Pelliot, Bull, de VEcole frangaise, Vol. IV, p. 226. 



2 The attribution of the root to K'un-lun is not fiction, for this tradition is 

 confirmed by Garcia da Orta, who localizes pucho on Malacca, whence it is exported 

 to China. 



3 This text is doubtless authentic; it is already recorded in the T'ai p'in yii Ian 

 (Ch. 991, p. 11). 



4 Ch. 982, p. 3. 



5 Hanbury, Science Papers, p. 257; Stuart, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 43. 



6 In the sixteenth century, as we learn from Garcia (Markham, Colloquies, 

 p. 150), costus was shipped from India to Ormuz, and thence carried to Persia and 

 Khorasan; it was also brought into Persia and Arabia by way of Aden. 



7 In Tokharian it is found in the form ka$$u (S. Levi, Journal asiatique, 1911, 

 II, p. 138). 



