MANNA 



21. The word "manna," of Semitic origin (Hebrew man, Arabic 

 mann), has been transmitted to us through the medium of Greek ^vva 

 in the translation of the Septuaginta and the New Testament. Manna 

 is a saccharine product discharged from the bark or leaves of a number 

 of plants under certain conditions, either through the puncture of insects 

 or by making incisions in the trunk and branches. Thus there are 

 mannas of various nature and origin. The best-known manna is the 

 exudation of Fraxinus ornus (or Ornus europaea), the so-called manna- 

 ash, occurring in the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor. 1 The chief 

 constituent of manna is manna-sugar or mannite, which occurs in 

 many other plants besides Fraxinus. 



The Annals of the Sui Dynasty ascribe to the region of Kao-c'an 

 iSJ II (Turf an) a plant, styled yan ts*e ^ lW ("sheep-thorn"), the upper 

 part of which produces honey of very excellent taste. 2 



C'en Ts'an-k'i, who wrote in the first part of the eighth century, 

 states that in the sand of Kiao-ho 3? W (Yarkhoto) there is a plant 

 with hair on its top, and that in this hair honey is produced; it is styled 

 by the Hu (Iranians) S ft ( = ffr) $k k*ie-p*o-lo, *k'it(k'ir)-bwu5-la. 3 

 The first element apparently corresponds to Persian xdr ("thorn") or 

 the dialectic form yar;* the second, to Persian burra or bura ("lamb"), 5 

 so that the Chinese term yan ts'e presents itself as a literal rendering 

 of the Persian (or rather a Middle-Persian or Sogdian) expression. 

 In New Persian the term xar-i-$utur ("camel-thorn") is used, and, 

 according to AITCHISON, also ocar-i-buzi ("goat's thorn"). 6 



It is noteworthy that the Chinese have preserved a Middle-Persian 

 word for "manna," which has not yet been traced in an Iranian source. 

 The plant (Hedysarum alhagi), widely diffused over all the arid lowlands 



1 Cf . the excellent investigation of D. HANBURY, Science Papers, pp. 355-368. 



2 Sui $u, Ch. 83, p. 3 b. The same text is also found in the Wei $u and Pei Si; 

 in the T'ai p'in hwan yu ki (Ch. 180, p. n b) it is placed among the products of 

 Ku-Si ^ ftp in Turf an. 



s STUART (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 258) erroneously writes the first char- 

 acter IB . He has not been able to identify the plant in question. 



4 P. HORN, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 70. 



6 In dialects of northern Persia also varre, varra, and werk (J. DE MORGAN, 

 Mission en Perse, Vol. V, p. 208). 



6 Cf. D. HOOPER, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. V, 1909, p. 33. 



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