G04 GEAMINEJS. 



That the cultivation of rice had widely spread in the time of 

 Alexander (400 B.C.) we learn from Strabo, who says, ^' accord- 

 ing to AristobuluSj rice grows in Bactriana^ Babylonia, Susida/^ 

 and he adds, *' we may also say in Lower Syria/^ Further on 

 he notes that the Indians use it for food, and extract a spirit 

 from it. The Greek names for rice are derived from the Sans- 

 krit Vrihi; the'earliest form occurs in a fragment of Sophocles, 

 where rice-bread is called oplvSr]^ tlpros ; in later writers we meet 

 with the form opvfa. The Arabic names have the same deri- 

 vation, the oldest form being E,unz, occurring in the local 



dialect of the Abd-el-Kais, near Bahrain, and the more modern 

 forms Aruzz and Ruzz. In Persian the form of Birinj is cur- 

 rent, as well as the Sanskrit name Shali, for unhusked rice. 

 Dioscorides briefly mentions rice as being of little nutritive 

 value and apt to cause costiveness. Celsus (ii., 20) classes it 

 along with wheat and spelt as '^ res boni succi.*^ According to 

 Sanskrit writers, the best class of grains includes wheat, rice, 



iteA to the class Kshudra 



t> ^'-^^a 



dhanija OX inferior grains. The preparations of rice used in 

 the diet of sick people, and described in Sanskrit medical 

 works, are : 



m^ 



It is made 



of three strengths, namely, with nine, eleven, and nineteen parts 

 of water, called, respectively, Vilepi, Peija, and Manila. Instead 

 of water, a light decoction of some aromatic and carminative 



drug, such as ginger or popper, may be used in preparing 

 yavdgii. 



OTsrr 



It is used 



as light and digestible diet for the sick. 



^^ff^TT 



It is used for the same purposes as laja. 



fi^ (prithuka) or unhusked rice moistened, parched, and 

 afterwards flattened and the husk removed. It is soaked in 

 water or boiled and given with curdled milk as an astringent 

 diet in diarrhoea or dysentery. 



