GOO SANTALACE^. 



Sandal wood is named by Masudi ^ as one of the costly aromatics of 

 the Eastern Archipelago. In India it was used in the most sacred 

 buildings, of which a memorable example still exists in the famous 

 gates of Somnath, supposed to be 1000 years old.- 



In the 11th century sandal wood was found among the treasures of 

 the Egyptian khalifs, as stated in our article on camphor at page 511. 



Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus, who flourished 

 at Salerno in the 11th century, was one of the earliest to mention 

 Sandalum.^ Ebn Serabi, called Serapion the Younger, who lived about 

 the same period, was acquainted with white, yelloiv, and 7'ed sandal 

 wood,^ All three kinds of sandal wood also occur in a list of drugsMn 

 use at Frankfort, cfc7r(^ A.D. 1450; and in the Compendiitm Aromata- 

 riorum of Saladinus, published in 1488, we find mentioned as proper to 

 be kept by the Italian apothecary, — " Saadali trimn genencm^ scilicet 

 alhi, ruhii et citriniJ' 



Whether the red sandal lierc coupled with ivhite and yelloiv was 

 the inodorous wood of Ptcrocarpus santcdinus, now called Lignim 

 santalinum ruhruni or lied Sanders (see p. 199), is extremely doubtful. 

 It may have meant real sandal wood, of wliich three shades, designated 

 tvhite, red, and yelloiv, are still recognized by the Indian traders.^ 



On the other hand, we learn from Barbosa' that about 1511 loMte 

 and yelloiv sandal wood were worth at Calicut on the Malabar Coast 

 from eight to ten times as much as the red, which would show that in 

 his day the red was not a mere variety of the other two, but something 

 far cheaper, like the Red Sanders Wood of modern commerce. 



In 1635 the subsidy levied on sandal wood imported into England 

 was Is. per lb. on the wJtite, and 2s. per lb. on the yellow.^ 



The first figure and satisfactory description of Santaltm alhim 

 occur in the Herbarium Aviboinense of Rumphius (ii. tab. 11). 



Production — The dry tracts producing this valuable wood occupy 

 patches of a strip of country lying chiefly in Mysore and Coimbatore, 

 about 250 miles long, north and north-west of the Neilgherry HiIlS; 

 and having Coorg and Canara between it and the Indian Ocean; also a 

 piece of country further eastward in the districts of Salem and North 

 Arcot, where the tree grows from the sea-level up to an elev^itiou ot 

 3000 feet. In Mysore, where ' " . • i- — 



r nro 



pr 



Government 



the proper officers. This'^privilege was conferred on the East India 

 Company by a treaty with Hyder Ali, made 8 August 1770, and the 



n. 222 in the work quoted in the * Liher Seraplonls ag(jre<jntus in mdic^i^ 



"^K^T ''• ,,. simpUcihus, U-a. 



" ihey are 11 feet high and 9 feet wide, s Fiuckiger, D!eFranl/i 



and richly carved out of sandal wood ; they 1873. 11. , ^ ,„,rce 



were constructed for the temple of Som- « Thus Milbum in hi's Oriental Conmer 



uoth m Guzerat. once esteemect the holiest (1813) says-" ... the deeper the coio. 



temple m India. On its destruction in a.d. the higher is tlie perfume; aud hence t' 



1U.O the gates were carried off to Ghuzni merchants sometimes divide sandal nto 



m Afghanistan, M-here they remained until 7jrlloir, an.l <rhifr, hut these are all dm. 



the capture of that city by the En^di^sh iu shades of the same colour, and do not a 



lb4., when they were taken Lack to In.Iia. from any difference in the species oi 



aTtI '"'"p"'"^ preserved in the citadel of tree." -(i. 201.) , „. , • etc., 



C.f 1..' ""/* .'■*'^^'"''^"*^'^«" 0^ t'le gates, ^Ramusio, Aavi„atiom et ^ "ff;,.ardo 



InT'i^'^',' ,\^.^- <^^4) pi. 14. Venet. 1554. fol. 357 h., Lihro di Odoa: 



'^^^- « Thr Rat,, of MarchandrM, T-onc'- 



