480 Sino-Iranica 



the countries beyond the sea and south of China, has recorded several 

 products of Po-se, which, as we have seen, must be interpreted as the 

 Malayan region of this name. Such is the case with benjoin (p. 464) 

 and cummin (p. 383). 



We noticed (p. 460) that the Nan lou ki and three subsequent works 

 attribute myrrh to Po-se, but that this can hardly be intended for 

 the Iranian Po-se, since myrrh does not occur in Persia. Here the 

 Malayan Po-se is visualized, inasmuch as the trade in myrrh took its 

 route from East Africa and the Hadramaut coast of Arabia by way of 

 the Malay Archipelago into China, and thus led the Chinese (errone- 

 ously) to the belief that the tree itself grew in Malaysia. 



64. The case of aloes {Aloe vulgaris and other species) presents a 

 striking analogy to that of myrrh, inasmuch as this African plant 

 is also ascribed to Po-se, and a substitute for it was subsequently found 

 in the Archipelago. Again it is Li Sun of the T'ang period who for the 

 first time mentions its product under the name lu-wei Htl?, stating 

 that it grows in the country Po-se, has the appearance of black con- 

 fectionery, and is the sap of a tree. 1 Su Sun of the Sung dynasty 

 observes, "At present it is only shipped to Canton. This tree grows in 

 the mountain-wilderness, its sap running down like tears and coagulat- 

 ing. This substance is gathered regardless of the season or month." 

 Li Si-cen feels doubtful as to whether the product is that of a tree or of 

 an herb ^: he points out that, according to the Ta Min i t'un Zi y 

 aloes, which belongs to the class of herbs, is a product of Java, Sumatra 

 (San-fu-ts'i), and other countries, and that this is contradictory to 

 the data of the T'ang and Sung Pen-ts'ao. It was unknown to him, 

 however, that the first author thus describing the product is Cao 

 2u-kwa, 2 who indeed classifies Aloe among herbs, and derives it from 

 the country Nu-fa $2 H, a dependency of the Arabs, and in another 

 passage from an island off the Somali coast, evidently hinting at Socotra. 

 This island is the home of the Aloe perryi, still imported into Bombay. 3 



The name lu-wei is traced by Hirth to Persian alwa. This theory is 

 difficult to accept for many reasons. Nowhere is it stated that lu-wei 

 is a Persian word. Li Si-Sen, who had good sense in diagnosing foreign 

 words, remarks that lu-wei remains unexplained. The Chinese his- 

 torical texts relative to the Iranian Po-se do not attribute to it this 

 product, which, moreover, did not reach China by land, but exclusively 



1 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 34, p. 21 b. The juice of Aloe abyssinica is sold in the 

 form of flat circular cakes, almost black in color. 



2 Cufan U, Ch. B, p. 11 (cf. Hirth's translation, p. 225). 



3 Regarding the history of aloes, see especially Fluckiger and Hanbury, 

 Pharmacographia, p. 680. 



