99 
WAS THE COCOA-NUT KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT 
EGYPTIANS? : 
By BERTHOLD Seemann, Pu.D., F.LS., F.R.G.S. 
Mr. C. W. Goodwin, the learned Egyptologist, has raised a question 
of considerable interest to botanists by inserting in No. 17 of ‘ The Par- 
thenon ° the following communication :— 
“ The cocoa-nut palm is not now found in Egypt, nor do the ancient writers 
mention it as among the products of that country. It is well known to be 
exceedingly abundant in most tropieal regions near the sea, and it occurs on 
e i The origin of the name is involved in obscurity, but it 
has been thought to be derived from the Portuguese wo macaco, 
a monkey, the end of the nut having three black scars, which give it somewhat 
the ce of a monkey’s face. I think it may be shown that this fruit 
was known in very early times in Egypt, and that the name is derived from a 
word in language of that country. In the collection of ‘Egyptian 
Monuments,’ just published by Dr. Brugsch, there is an inscription (pl. xxxvi.) 
from th of a functionary who lived in the re hmes I., circa 
P.C. 1650. It gives a list of the trees which grew in the garden of t 
with the numbers of kind. Twenty species of trees are mentioned. 
The y sycamores, thirty-one perseas, five fig-trees, acac 
twelve vines, eight willows, ten tamarisks, and others which cannot be clearly 
iden ppended to the name of each tree is a determinative hieroglyphic 
hieroglyphic, a bunch of dates, of which the sound is known (from being pho- 
netically written in other texts) to be baner. It is the Coptic benne, the date-palm 
ber of t ind i 
hundred and seventy. Tn the next case the name is written phonetically mama. 
is was, in all probability, the doum-palm (Hyphene 
d 
Hyphene Argun, which 
of sixty cubits in height, upon which a 
or fruit); with Ahanini (same determinative) within the kuku ; 
within the khanini’ Here it is evident that 
same as that in M. Brugseh’s inscription — viz. the o 
Yionini. ‘The Fuku i» evidently its fruit; tho kianimi must be the kernel 
or flesh, within which is the well-known cocoa-nut milk. The height of the 
tree answers well, as the ordinary growth of the cocoa-nut palm is stated to be 
H 2 
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