326 SlNO-lRANICA 



!? 1? 1S, in his Yu sie Si lun $u H IS f *\* ifr, says, 1 'These are hun- 

 lan (Carthamus): 2 did you know these previously, Sir, or not? The 

 people of the north gather these flowers, and dye materials a red-yellow 

 by rubbing their surface with it. The fresh blossoms are made into a 

 cosmetic. 3 Women, when dressing, use this pigment, it being the fashion 

 to apply only a piece the size of a small bean. When distributed evenly, 

 the paint is pleasing, as long as it is fresh. In my youth I observed this 

 cosmetic again and again; and to-day I have for the first time beheld 

 the hun-lan flower. Afterwards I shall raise its seeds for your benefit, 

 Sir. The Hiun-nu styled a wife yen-li (RJ &, 4 a word just as pleasing as 

 yen-li #8 5 ('cosmetic ') . The characters $9 and #3 have the same sound 

 yen-, the character J has the sound 5i &'. I expect you knew this 

 before, Sir, or you may read it up in the Han Annals.' Cen K'ien SB ft 5 

 says that a cosmetic may be prepared from pomegranate flowers." 6 



The curious word yen-li has stirred the imagination of Chinese 

 scholars. It is not only correlated with the Hiuii-nu word yen-ti, as 

 was first proposed by Si Ts'o-6'i, but is also connected with a Yen-Si 

 mountain. Lo Yuan, in his Er ya i, remarks that the Hiun-nu had a 

 Yen-i mountain, and goes on to cite a song from the Si ho kiu Si 15 W 

 iff ^, 7 which says, "If we lose our K'i-lien mountain tfP 31 llj, 8 we cause 

 our herds to diminish in number; if we lose our Yen-i mountain, we 

 cause our women to go without paint. " J The Pei pien pei tui At jft 

 ifi f, a work of the Sung period, states, "The yen-ti 3S ~& of the Yen-ci 

 mountain ^t j UJ is the yen-U $5 Ba of the present time. This moun- 



1 This author is stated to have lived under the Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-419) 

 in the T'u Su tsi t'en, XX, Ch. 158, where this passage is quoted; but his book is 

 there entitled Yu yen wan Su $L ^ 3 lip. The same passage is inserted in the 

 Er ya i of Lo Yiian $31 H$l of the twelfth century, where the title is identical with 

 that given above. 



2 In the text of the T'u Su: "At the foot of the mountain there are hun Ian." 

 1 Carthamus was already employed for the same purposes in ancient Egypt. 



4 This is the Hiun-nu word for a royal consort, handed down in the Han Annals 

 (Ts'ien Han $u, Ch. 94 A, p. 5). See my Language of the Yue-chi, p. 10. 

 6 Author of the lost Hu pen ts'ao (above, p. 268). 



6 Then follow a valueless anecdote anent a princess of the T'ang dynasty pre- 

 paring a cosmetic, and the passage of the Ku kin cu given above. 



7 Mentioned in the T'ang literature, but seems to date from an earlier period 

 (BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. i, p. 190). 



8 A mountain-range south-west of Kan &>u in Kan-su (Si ki, Ch. 123, p. 4). 

 The word k'i-lien belongs to the language of the Hiun-nu and means "heaven." 

 In my opinion, it is related to Manchu kulun, which has the same meaning. The 

 interpretations given by WAITERS (Essays, p. 362) and SHIRATORI (Sprache der 

 Hiung-nu, p. 8) are not correct. 



9 The same text is quoted in the commentary to the Pei hu lu (Ch. 3, p. II b). 



