


84 REPORT—1849. 
Egyptian papyrus, and still more closely the preparation of the South Sea cloth, the 
raw material being exactly the same. With the exception of the Javanese, it does 
not seem that the natives of the Archipelago ever wrote with ink before they were 
instructed by the Arabs. Even paper is generally known to the Indian islanders by 
its Arabian name of Kartas: so that it is probable that a true paper was imported 
long before the arrival of Europeans, although the natives were never taught the art 
of preparing it. At present European paper is in general use by all the more civilized 
nations, to the exclusion of Asiatic. 
On the Oriental Words adopted in English. By J. CRAw¥FurpD, F.RS. 
The following is a list, according to Mr. Crawfurd, of such words of Oriental lan- 
guages as in comparatively modern times have found their way into our own tongue. 
The greater number will be found in Todd’s edition of Johnson’s Dictionary; and 
the rest, with few exceptions, in Webster’s American Dictionary. The words that 
he has collected amount to 160, and came to us, he says—often indirectly, how- 
ever,—from the Arabic, the Persian, the Turkish, the Hindai, the Malay, the Chinese, 
and the Polynesian tongues. Following this arrangement of Janguages, Mr. Craw- 
furd gave the list in alphabetical order for each class. 
Words derived from the Arabic :—Admiral, Alchemist, Alchemy, Alcohol, Alcoran, 
Alcove, Alembic, Algebra, Alkali, Amber, Ambergris, Arab, Arabian, Arabesque, 
Arabic, Arrachi, Arack, Assassin, Barb, Cadi, Caliph, Chemistry, Civet, Chouse, 
Coffee, Coffin, Cotton, Damask, Damaskeen (damson), Dragoman, Faquaer, Gal- 
lant, Gallantry, Hegira, Hookah, Hur, Huri, Islam, Lemon, Lime, Mahomet, Mame- 
luke, Minaret, Mohair, Moslem, Musselman, Mosque, Nabob, Nadir, Naphtha, Nard, 
Spikenard, Olibanum, Opium, Orange, Otto of Roses, Ottoman, Ryat, Salam, Saracene, 
Saracenic, Scullion, Sherbet, Shrub, Sofa, Soldan (sultan), Sophy, Tabour, Tam~- — 
bourine, Talisman, Tamarind. Examples of these derivations :—Alcohel. Al kahala 
means the sulphuret or common ore of antimony, used by the Arabian women to 
blacken the eyelashes. According to the Dicticnary of the Spanish Academy, the 
alchemists were in the habit of distilling this mineral along with ardent spirit, 
believing that a highly concentrated spirit was the result; and hence the word 
alcohol, a corruption of al kahala.—Alembic. Anbik, a still, with the article al pre- 
fixed.—Coffee. Arabic, kahwah,—Turkish, kahve. The English word evidently — 
comes direct from the Turkish. The coffee plant is a native of Abyssinia, and not 
of Arabia, for it was not known at Mecca until 1454, only forty years before the — 
discovery of America. The true name of the plant is ban; and kahwa, or coffee — 
means ‘“ wine,”’ as a substitute for which the decoction was used, although the — 
legality of the practice was long a subject of dispute by the Mohammedan doctors. [ 
From Arabia it spread to Egypt and Turkey, and from the last-named country was © 
brought to England in 1650. ~ @ 
Before quitting the list of Arabic words, Mr. Crawfurd said it might be noticed ~ 
that the Arabs had effected, although in a rude way, far more than the Greeks and 
Romans towards making the eastern and western worlds acquainted with each other 
and communicating arts and knowledge. These (until inspired by the fanaticism of 
a new religion) house-keeping barbarians pushed their religion, arms, arts, and trade 
within thirty years to the western confines of India, and in eighty-eight years to 
Spain. They pushed their commerce to China and the remotest islands of the Indian 
Ocean, which neither Greek nor Roman had ever reached. We owe to their fana- 
ticism cotton, coffee, the sugar-cane and culture of sugar, paper, arithmetical nota- 
tion, race-horses, the whole citron or orange tribe of fruits, and all the various pro- 
ducts of distillation. 
From the Persian and Turkish languages there are,— Bashaw, Can, Caravan, Cara- 
vansary, Dervise, Emerald, Fairie, Hindu, Hindustan, India, Indigo, Jackall, Jani- 
zary, Jasmine, Lac, Lacker, Mogul, Musk, Satrap, Scimitar, Sepoy, Seraglio, 
Shawl, Semindah, Senanah, Tartar, Turband, Turk. We take as an example— 
Sepoy. Persian, sapahi, a soldier, from sapah, an army. We have two forms of 
this word in English. We write the word sepoy when applied to an Indian soldier, 
and spahi when it applies to a disciplined Turkish soldier. 
From the Indian and Hindu languages there are,—Araca, Avatar, Bamboo, Banian, 
