ASAFCETIDA 361 



In regard to the modern employment of the article, S. W. WILLIAMS 1 

 writes, "It is brought from Bombay at the rate of $15 a picul, and 

 ranks high in the Materia Medicaof the Chinese physician; it is exhibited 

 in cholera, in syphilitic complaints and worms, and often forms an 

 ingredient in the pills advertised to cure opium-smokers." It is chiefly 

 believed, however, to assist in the digestion of meat and to correct the 

 poison of stale meats (ptomaine poisoning), mushrooms, and herbs. 2 

 In Annam it is carried in small bags as a preventive of cholera. 3 



The following ancient terms for asafcetida are on record: 



(1) Persian P3 BE 18 a-yti-tsie, *a-nu-zet = Middle Persian *anguzad; 

 New Persian anguZa, anguZad, anguydn, anguwdn, angudan, angi&ak 

 (stem awgtt-h2a<i = "gum" 4 ); Armenian ankuZad, anjidan, Old Arme- 

 nian angu&at, ang$at; Arabic anjuddn. GARCIA gives anjuden or angeidan 

 as name of the tree from which asa is extracted. 



(2) Sanskrit 1^11 kin-til, *hiii-gu; ^ BE kin-yU, *hiii-nu; HSI 

 hiin-k'ti, *hun-gu; corresponding to Sanskrit hingu. In my opinion, 

 the Sanskrit word is an ancient loan from Iranian. 5 GARCIA gives imgo 

 or imgara as Indian name, and forms with initial i appear in Indian 

 vernaculars: cf. Telugu inguva; cf., further, Japanese ingu, Malayan 

 angu (according to J. BONTIUS, who wrote in 1658, the Javanese and 

 Malayans have also the word kin) . 



(3) M Jft a-wei, *a-nwai; & &. (in the Nirvana-sfltra) yan-kwei, 

 *an-kwai, correspond to an Indian or Iranian vernacular form of the 

 type *ankwa or *ankwai, that we meet in Tokharian B or Kua ankwa. 6 

 This form is obviously based on Iranian angu, angwa. 



(4) Mongol N& iaf ?8 oca-si-ni (thus given as a Mongol term in the 

 Pen ts'ao kan mu after the Yin Ian Zen yao of the Mongol period, written 

 in 1331), corresponds to Persian kasni, kisni, or gism ("asafcetida")> 

 derived from the name of Gazni or Gazna, the capital of Zabulistan, 

 which, according to Huan Tsan, was the habitat of the plant. A Mon- 

 gol word of this type is not listed in the Mongol dictionaries of Kova- 

 levski and Golstunski, but doubtless existed in the age of the Yuan, 



1 Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 80. 



2 STUART, Chinese Materia Medica, p. 174. 



8 PERROT and HURRIER, Mat. m6d. et phannacope'e sino-annamites, p. 161. 



4 Cf. Sanskrit jatuka (literally, "gum, lac ") = asaf oetida. HUBSCHMANN, Armen. 

 Gram., p. 98. 



6 D'HERBELOT (Bibliotheque orientale, Vol. I, p. 226; Vol. II, p. 327) derived 

 the Persian word (written by him angiu, engiu, ingu; Arabic ingiu, ingudan) from 

 Indian henk and hengu, ingu, for the reason that in India this drug is principally 

 used; this certainly is not correct. 



6 Cf. Toung Pao, 1915, pp. 274-275. 



