520 



LAURACEiE. 



I 



exchange of 



It is also evident that both were regarded as among the most costly 

 of aromatics, for the offering made by Seleucus II. Caliinicus, king of 

 Syria, and his brother Antiochus Hierax, to the temple of Apollo at 

 Miletus, B.C. 243, consisting chiefly of vessels of gold and silver, and 

 olibanum, myrrh (g-/ulvpvt]), costus (page 382), included also two 

 pounds of Cassia {Ka<Tca)j and the same quantity of Cinnamon 



(Ktl/vd/iKCfXOP)-^ 



In connexion with this subject there is one remarkable fact to be 

 noticed, which is that none of the cinnamon of the ancients was obtained 

 from Ceylon. " In the pages of no author," says Tennent,^ " Europeai 

 or Asiatic, from the earliest ages to the close of the thirteenth century, 

 is there the remotest allusion to cinnamon as an indigenous production, 

 or even as an article of commerce in Cejdon/' Nor do the annuals of the 

 Chinese, between whom and the inhabitants of Ceylon, from the 4th to 

 the 8th centuries, there was frequent intercourse and 

 commodities, name Cinnamon as one of the productions of the island. 

 The Sacred Books and other ancient records of the Sini^halese are also 

 completely silent on this point. 



Cassia, under the name of Kicei, is mentioned in the earliest Chinese 

 herbal, — that of the emperor Shen-nung, who reigned about 2700 B.C'., 

 in the ancient Chinese^ Classics, and in the Rh-ya, a herbal dating from 

 1200 B.C. In the Hai-yao-jien-ts'ao, written in the 8th century, mention 

 is made of Tien-chu kivei. Tien-chu is the ancient name for India: 

 perhaps the allusion may be to the cassia bark of Malabar. 



In connexion with these extremely early references to the spice, it 

 may be stated that a bark supposed to be cassia is mentioned as im- 

 ported into Egypt together with gold, ivory, frankincense, precious 

 woods, and apes, in the 17th century B.C* 



The accounts given by Dioscorides, Ptolemy and the author of the 

 Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, indicate that cinnamon and cassia 

 were obtained from Arabia and Eastern Africa ; and we further kuow 

 that the importers were Phoenicians, who traded by Egypt and the Red 

 Sea with Arabia. Whether the spice under notice was really a produc- 

 tion of Arabia or Africa, or whether it was imjjorted thither from Soutliern 

 China (the present source of the best sort of cassia), is a question which 

 has excited no small amount of discussion. 



We are in favour of the second alternative, — firstly, because no sub- 

 stance of the nature of cinnamon is known to be produced in Arabia or 

 Africa; and secondly, because the commercial intercourse which ws 

 undoubtedly carried on by China with India and Arabia, and winch 

 also existed between Arabia, India and Africa, is amply sufficient to 

 explain the importation of Chinese produce.' That the spice was a 



^^Chishull, Antiquities Aaiaticce, 1728. 



; Ceyhn, i {1859) 575. 



We are iiulebtcil to Dr. Bretachneider 



ot 1 ekin for these references to Chinese 



literature. For information about some of 



the works quoted, see his pamphlet On 



"... That there was an ulterior com- 



merce beyond Ceylon is indubitable , f 

 at Ceylon the trade from Malacca and 

 Golden Chersonese met the mercham 

 fronx Arabia, Persia and I'-'Vpt- ^ . 

 might possibly have been in the aj"''; 

 the Malays or even the Chinese, who see^u 

 to have been navigators in all «as^vu _^ 



versallvas the Arabians c \fnrro 



op. cu'ii. 284. 285, -In the tune of M-^^o 

 Polo, the trade of China westwaid m^ 

 the trade of the Red Sea, no \HLr, 

 Ceylon, but on the coast of W-^i'^" 



