FRUOTUS PIPERIS NIGRI. 



m ( 



highly esteem pepper, which was neither a sweet taste nor attractive 

 appearance, or any desirable quality besides a certain pungency. 



In the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about A.D. Gi, it is 

 stated that pepper is exported from Barak^ the shipping place of 

 Nclkunda, in which region, and there only, it grows in great quantity. 

 These have been identified with places on the Malabar Coast between 



Mangalore and Calicut/ 



Long pepper and Black pepper are among the Indian spices on 



which the Romans levied duty at Alexandria about A.D. 17G.^ 



Cosmas Indicopleustes/ a merchant, and in later life a monk, who 

 wrote about A.D. 540, appears to have visited the Malabar Coast, or at 

 all events had some information about the pepper-plaiit from an ep 



witness. It is he 



that it is a climbi-.j, ^. , „ 



native country he calls Male' The Arabian authors of the middle ages, 

 as Ibn Khurdadbah {circa A.D. 869-885), Edrisi in the middle of the 

 12th, and Ibn Batuta in the 14th century, furnished nearly similar 



accounts. 



Among Europeans who described the pepper plant with some exact- 

 ness, one of the first was Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the Alalabar 

 Coast in A.D. 1166. Another was the Catalan friar, Jordanus, about 

 13.30; he described the plant as something like ivy, climbing trees and 

 forming fruit, like that of the wild vine. " This fruit he says, Js at 

 first green, then, when it comes to maturity, black." Nearly the same 

 statements are 'repeated by Nicolo Conti, a Venetian, who at t/ie 

 beginning of the 15th century, spent txventy-five years in the i.a|,L 

 He observed the plant in Sumatra, and also described it as resembling 



the most esteemed 



e who furnishes the first particulars about it, stating 

 ing plant, sticking close to high trees like a vine. Its 



ivy. 



c 



In Europe, pepper during the middle ages was 



trade 



rope 



aiiu important ot aii spices, ana tne veij^ o^ ...--; -. -. , 

 which Venice,^ Genoa, and the commercial cities ot V^°"Xnoe as a 

 were indebted for a la;ge part of their wealth; and its importance as a 

 means of promoting commercial activity during the middle ages, and 



the civilizing 

 overrated. 



intelrcourse of nation with nation, 



ages 

 can scarcely he 



"Tribute was levied in pepper,' and donations -re ma.le of^this 



spice, which was often used as a medium ^^ ^^5;''|:j^^ f tl^e Gotlis, 

 w;is scarce. During the siege of Rome t>y Alaiic ki ^^^^^ 



A.D, 408, the ransom demanded from the ^ity incm^^^ 3000 ponn 

 things 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 pounds of silvei, ana l 



other 



ds 



Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of 

 the Ancients, ii. (1807)458. 



n^incent, op. cU. ii. 754; also Meyer, 



^^schichte der Botamk, ii. (1805) 167- 



iligne, Pcttrolorjlre Onrsus, series Gra'ca, 

 Ixxxviii, (ISGO) -443. 446. 



*Bar {as in 'Multxbar) merely signifies in 

 Araljic, comt. 



^Mirab'dia dcacrlpta by Friar JonUniis, 

 translated by Col Yule. London, Hakluyt 

 Society, 1863. 27. 



"^"Piperis arbor perslmilis est cderre, 

 graua ejns viridia ad formam grani jnniperi, 

 fiufe medico ciuere aspersa torreuttir ad 



appears to ha% c^ ^^^ ^.^^^^ ^ ^ ^^ 

 Church b. ^^'^^^i" j„i Viadoomu del 

 I„ the \c-P;^-^2^ fairn-n court) iu 

 fontego ^'l^f^i%,Us, Berlin, 1874, 

 Venczia, edit oi x devoted to 



the chapter 228, ff'' „ 



20 



