Irano-Sinica— Mango, Birch, Tea 553 



Fadlan, the tree occurred in Tabaristan, whence its wood reached the 

 comb-makers of Rei. 1 The Arabic xaleit, Persian xadan or xadanj, 

 is of Altaic origin: Uigur qadan, Koibal, Soyot and Karagas kaden, 

 Cuwas' xoran, Yakut xatyn, Mordwinian kilen, all referring to the birch 

 (Betula alba). It is a common tree in the mountains of northern China 

 (hwa %& ), first described by C'en Ts'an-k'i of the eighth century. 2 The 

 bark was used by the Chinese for making torches and candles filled with 

 wax, as a padding or lining of underclothes and boots, for knife-hilts 

 and the decoration of bows, the latter being styled "birch-bark bows." 3 

 The universal use of birch-bark among all tribes of Siberia for pails, 

 baskets, and dishes, and as a roof -covering, is well known. 



17. It would be very desirable to have more exact data as to 

 when and how the consumption of Chinese tea (Camellia theifera) 

 spread among Mohammedan peoples. The Arabic merchant Soleiman, 

 who wrote about a.d. 851, appears to be the first outsider who gives an 

 accurate notice of the use of tea-leaves as a beverage on the part of the 

 Chinese, availing himself of the curious name sax. 4 It is strange that_ 

 the followinglArabic authors who wrote on Chinese affairs have nothing^' 

 to say on the subject.J In the splendid collection of Arabic texts relative 

 to the East, so ably gathered and interpreted by G. Ferrand, tea 

 is not even mentioned. It is likewise absent in the Persian pharmacology 

 of Abu Mansur and in the vast compilation of Ibn al-Baitar. On the 

 other hand, Chinese mediaeval authors like Cou K'u-fei and Cao 2u- 

 kwa do not note tea as an article of export from China. As far as 

 we can judge at present, it seems that the habit of tea-drinking spread 

 to western Asia not earlier than the thirteenth century, and that i*j 

 was perhaps the Mongols who assumed the r61e of propagators. In 

 Mongol, Turkish, Persian, Indian, Portuguese, Neo-Greek, and Rus- 

 sian, we equally find the word &w, based on North-Chinese <?'a. 5 Ramu- 



1 G. Jacob, Handel sartikel der Araber, p. 60. 

 ■ Pen ts"ao kan mu, Ch. 35 B, p. 13. 



3 Ko ku yao lun, Ch. 8, p. 8 b. Cf. also O. Franke, Beschreibung des Jehol- 

 Gebietes, p. 77. 



4 Reinaud, Relation des voyages, Vol. I, p. 40 (cf- Yule, Cathay, new ed., 

 Vol. I, p. 131). Modern Chinese Va was articulated *ja (dza) in the T'ang period; 

 but, judging from the Korean and Japanese form sa, a variant sa may be supposed 

 also for some Chinese dialects. As the word, however, was never possessed of a 

 final consonant in Chinese, the final spirant in Soleiman's sax is a peculiar Arabic 

 affair (provided the reading of the manuscript be correct). 



5 The Tibetans claim a peculiar position in the history of tea. They still have 

 the Chinese word in the ancient form ja (dZa), and, as shown by me in T'oung Pao 

 (1916, p. 505), have imported and consumed tea from the days of the T'ang. In 

 fact, tea was the dominant economic factor and the key-note in the political rela- 

 tions of China and Tibet. 



