496 Sino-Iranica 



Yuan H, Ibn Batata, Rubruk, Marco Polo, Pegoletti, etc. 1 W. Bang 

 has shown in a very interesting essay 2 that also the Codex Cumanicus 

 contains the term nac (Cumanian), parallel with Persian nagh and Latin 

 nachus, in the sense of "gold brocades," and that the introitus natorum 

 et nascitorum of the books of tax-rates of Genoa about 1420 refers to 

 these textiles, and has nothing to do with the endowment of the new- 

 born, as had been translated. Bang points out also "nachi, a kinde 

 of slight silke wouen stuff e" in Florio, "Queen Anna's New World of 

 Words" (London, 161 1). In mediaeval literature the term nac, nak, 

 naque, or nachiz occurs as early as the eleventh century, and figures in 

 an inventory of the Cathedral of Canterbury of the year 13 15. 



73. 1$ M hu-na, *yu-na, a textile product of Persia 3 (or IS -f*$). 4 An 

 ancient Iranian equivalent is not known to me, but must be supposed 

 to have been *7una or *guna. This word may be related to Sighnan 

 (Pamir language) ghdun ("coarse sack"), Kashmir gun, Sanskrit gonl; b 

 Anglo-Indian gunny, gunny-bag, trading-name of the coarse sacking 

 and sacks made from the fibre of the jute. 6 



74. W. fan, *dan, *tan, a textile product of Persia, likewise men- 

 tioned in the Sui Annals. This is doubtless the Middle-Persian des- 

 ignation of a textile connected with the root Vtan ("to spin"), of 

 which several Middle-Persian forms are preserved. 7 Compare Avestan 

 tanva, Middle Persian tanand, Persian taniban, tanando ("spider"), 

 and, further, Persian tan-basa, tan-blsa ("small carpet, rug"); tanid 

 ("a web"); tantdan ("to twist, weave, spin"). 



75. Jb "n $!) sa-ha-la or J§ &« p §l s so-ha-la, of green color, is men- 



1 See E. Bretschneider, Notices of the Mediaeval Geography, p. 288, or Me- 

 diaeval Researches, Vol. II, p. 124; Yule, Cathay, new ed. by Cordier, Vol. Ill, 

 PP- I55 -I 56, 169; Yule, Marco Polo, Vol. I, pp. 63, 65, 285; W. Heyd, Histoire 

 du commerce du levant au moyen age, p. 698; and, above all, P.-Michel, Recherches 

 sur le commerce etc., des £toffes de soie, Vol. I, pp. 261-264. A. Houtum-Schindler 

 (Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. VI, 1910, p. 265) states that nax occurs in a letter of 

 RaSid-eddin. 



2 Ueber den angeblichen "Introitus natorum et nascitorum" in den Genueser 

 Steuerbuchern, in Bull, de la Classe des Lettres de V Academie royale de Belgiaue, 

 No. 1, 1912, pp. 27-32. 



* Sui lu, Ch. 83, p. 7 b. / 



4 T'ai p'in hwan yii ki, Ch. 185, p. 18 b. 



5 W. Tomaschek, Pamirdialekte (Sitzber. Wiener Akad., 1880, p. 808). 



6 Yule, Hobson-Jobson, p. 403. 



7 Salemann, Grundriss iran. Phil., Vol. I, pt. 1, p. 303. 



8 This transcription is given in the C'an wu li U $$/} ]^i by Wen Cen-heh $£ 

 JH -^ of the Ming (Ch. 8, p. 1 b; ed. of Yue ya Van Is'un Su). He describes the 

 material as resembling sheep-wool, as thick as felt, coming from the Western 

 Regions, and very expensive. 



