558 Sino-Iranica 



Karabacek and Hoernle. 1 Let us assume for a moment that the prem- 

 ises on which this speculation is based are correct: how could the Uigur, 

 Persians, and Arabs make kdgad out of a Chinese kok-U (or dzi)? 

 How may we account for the vocalization a, which persists wherever the 

 word has taken root (Hindi kdgad, Urdu kdgaz, Tamil kdgidam, Mala- 

 yalam kdyitam, Kannada kdgada) ? 2 The Uigur and Persians, according 

 to their phonetic system, were indeed capable of reproducing the 

 Chinese word correctly if they so intended; in fact, Chinese loan-words 

 in the two languages are self-evident without torturing the evidence. 

 For myself, I am unable to see any coincidence between kok-U and 

 kdgad. But this alleged kok-U, in fact, does not exist. The word ku, 

 as written by Hirth, is known to every one as meaning "grain, cereals;" 

 and none of our dictionaries assigns to it the significance "mulberry." 

 It is simply a character substituted for kou HI (anciently *ku, without 

 a final consonant), which refers exclusively to the paper-mulberry 

 (Broussonetia papyrifera), expressed also (and this is the most common 

 word) by c'u fit. The Pen ts'ao kan mu z gives the character ku Wt on 

 the same footing with l x u, quoting the former from the ancient dic- 

 tionary Si min, 4 and adding expressly that it has the phonetic value of 

 m, and is written also W . The character ku, accordingly, to be read 

 kou, is merely a graphic variant, and has nothing to do with the word 

 ku (*kuk), meaning "cereals." 



According to Li Si-cen, this word kou (*ku) originates from the 



language of C'u l§, in which it had the significance "milk" (%u #L); 



and, as the bark of this tree contained a milk-like sap, this word was 



*~ transferred to the tree. It is noteworthy in this connection that Ts'ai ; 



\ Lun, the inventor of paper in a.d. 105, was a native of C'u. The | 



^dialectic origin of the word kou shows well how we have two root-words 



for exactly the same species of tree. This is advisedly stated by Li 



Si-cen, who rejects as an error the opinion that the two words should 



refer to two different trees; he also repudiates expressly the view that 



the word kou bears any relation to the word ku in the sense of cereals or 



rice. According to T'ao Huh-kih, the term kou U was used by the 



people of the south, who, however, said also £'w U; the latter word, 



1 Journal Roy. As. Soc, 1903, p. 671. 



2 According to Buhler (Indische Palaographie, p. 91), paper was introduced 

 into India by the Mohammedans after the twelfth century. The alleged Sanskrit 

 word for "paper," kayagata, ferreted out by Hoernle {Journal Roy. As. Soc, 191 1, 

 p. 476), rests on a misunderstanding of a Sanskrit text, as has been shown by Lieut.- 

 Col. Waddell on the basis of the Tibetan translation of this text {{ibid., 1914, 

 pp. 136-137). 



3 Ch. 36, p. 4. 



4 See above, p. 201. 



