492 Sino-Iranica 



and the latter a fine textile. In the Glossary of the T'ang Annals the 

 word tie is explained as "fine hair" $B 3s and "hair cloth" ^ ^ftf; these 

 terms indeed refer to cotton stuffs, but simultaneously hint at the fact 

 that the real nature of cotton was not yet generally known to the Chinese 

 of the T'ang period. In the Kwan yii ki, po-tie is named as a product of 

 Turf an; the threads, it is said, are derived from wild silkworms, and 

 resemble fine hemp. 



Russian altabds ("gold or silver brocade," "Persian brocade": 

 Dal'), Polish altembas, and French altobas, in my opinion, are nothing 

 but reproductions of Arabic-Persian al-dibadz", discussed above. The 

 explanation from Italian alto-basso is a jocular popular etymology; and 

 the derivation from Turkish altun ("gold") and b'az ("textile") 1 is 

 likewise a failure. The fact that textiles of this description were subse- 

 quently manufactured in Europe has nothing to do, nor does it conflict, 

 with the derivation of the name which Inostrantsev wrongly seeks in 

 Europe. 2 In the seventeenth century the Russians received altabds 

 from the Greeks; and Ibn Rosteh, who wrote about a.d. 903, speaks 

 then of Greek dlbadz? According to Makkari, dibadZ were manufac- 

 tured by the Arabs in Almeria, Spain, 4 the centre of the Arabic silk 

 industry. 5 



70. Hlf£f fa-ten, *dap ( = lil) 6 -dan ( = ^£), tap-tan, woollen rugs. 

 The name of this textile occurs in the Wei lio of the third century a.d. 

 as a product of the anterior Orient (Ta Ts'in) , 7 and in the Han Annals 



for cotton (Vial, Dictionnaire francais lo-lo, p. 97). Likewise it is sa-la in P'u-p'a, 

 so-1'6 in Co-ko {Bull, de I'Ecole frangaise, Vol. IX, p. ,554). In the same manner I 

 believe that *ku-dzun was the name of the same or a similar tree in the language of 

 the aborigines of Kwei-2ou. Compare Lepcha ka-cuk ki kun ("cotton-tree"), Sih-p'o 

 ga-dun ("cotton-tree"), given by J. F. Needham (Outline Grammar of the Singpho 

 Language, p. 90, Shillong, 1889), and MeoV^oa ("cotton"), indicated by M. L. 

 Pierlot (Vocabulaire m£o, Actes du XIV 8 Congres int. des Orientalistes Alger 

 1905, pt. I, p. 150). 



1 Proposed by Savel'ev in Erman's Archiv, Vol. VII, 1848, p. 228. 



1 K. Inostrantsev, Iz istorii starinnyx tkanei {Zapiski Oriental Section Russian 

 Archaeol. Soc, Vol. XIII, 1901, pp. 081-084). 



1 G. Jacob, Handelsartikel, p. 7; Waren beim arabisch-nordischen Verkehr, 

 p. 16. 



' G. Migeon, Manuel d'art musulman, Vol. II, p. 420. 



8 Defremerv, Journal asiatique, 1854, p. 168; Francisque-Michel, Recherches 

 sur le commerce, la fabrication et l'usage des 6toffes de soie, d'or et d'argent, Vol. I, 

 pp. 232, 284-290 (Paris, 1852). 



6 The/a» ts'ie is $E #$f; that is, *du-kiap = d'iap (Yi ts'ie kinyin i, Ch. 19, p. 9 b), 

 or *£ Wi *du-hap = dap (Hou Han $u, Ch. 118, p. 5 b). 



7 F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 71, 112, 113, 255. T'a-ten of five 

 and nine colors are specified. 



