498 Sino-Iranica 



so that the Chinese reference to Samarkand becomes intelligible. The 

 Chinese reports of sa-ha-la in India, Ormuz, and Aden, however, evi- 

 dently refer to European broadcloth, as does also Tibetan sag-lad. 1 



The Ain-i Akbari speaks of sukldt (saqaldt) of Rum (Turkey), 

 FarangI (Europe), and Purtagall (Portugal); and the Persian word is 

 now applied to certain woollen stuffs, and particularly to European 

 broadcloth. 



The Persian words sakirlat and saqaldt are not interrelated, as is 

 shown by two sets of European terms which are traced to the two 

 Persian types: sakirlat is regarded as the ancestor of "scarlet" (med. 

 Latin scarlatum, scarlata; Old French escarlate, New French ecarlate, 

 Middle English scarlat, etc.); saqldtun or siqldtun is made responsible 

 for Old French siglaton, Provencal sisclaton (twelfth century), English 

 obs. ciclatoun (as early as 1225), Middle High German cicldt or sigldt. 

 Whether the alleged derivations from the Persian are correct is a de- 

 batable point, which cannot be discussed here; the derivation of siglaton 

 from Greek Ku/cXds {cyclas), due to Du Cange, is still less plausible. 2 

 Dr. Ross {I.e.) holds that "the origin of the word scarlet seems to be 

 wrapped in mystery, and there seems to be little in favor of the argu- 

 ment that the word can be traced to Arabic or Persian sources." 



76. Toward the close of the reign of Kao Tsun ftS Hx, better known 

 as Wen C'eh j£ $ (a.d. 452-465) of the Hou Wei dynasty (386-532), 

 the king of Su-le (Kashgar) sent an emissary to present a garment 

 (kdsdya) of C akyamuni Buddha, over twenty feet in length. On ex- 

 amination, Kao Tsuh satisfied himself that it was a Buddha robe. It 

 proved a miracle, for, in order to get at the real facts, the Emperor 

 had the cloth put to a test and exposed to a violent fire for a full day, but 

 it was not consumed by the flames. All spectators were startled and 

 spell-bound. 3 This test has repeatedly^ been made everywhere with 

 asbestine cloth, of which many examples are given in my article 

 "Asbestos and Salamander." 4 The Chinese themselves have recog- 

 nized without difficulty that this Buddha relic of Kashgar was made 

 of an asbestine material. In the Lu Van kun H k%? a modern work, 



1 See Loan-Words in Tibetan, No. 119. 



2 Cf. also F.-Michel, Recherches sur le commerce etc., des 6toffes de soie, 

 Vol. I, pp. 233-235. The Greek word in question does not refer to a stuff, but to a 

 robe (kvkX&s, "round, circular," scil., e<rdr)s, "a woman's garment with a border all 

 round it "). Cycladatus in Suetonius (Caligula, lii) denotes a tunic with a rich border. 



3 Wei Su, Ch. 102, p. 4 b. 



4 T'oung Pao, 1915, pp. 299-373. 



5 Ed. of Ts'in lao Van ts'un $u, p. 40 (see above, p. 346). On p. 41 b there is a 

 notice of fire-proof cloth, consisting of quotations from earlier works, which are 

 all contained in my article. 



