THE WATER-MELON 443 



a variety of sweet melon (Cucumis melo), called in Uigur and Djagatai 

 kogun, kavyn, or kaun, in Turk! qawa and qawaq. 



It is said to have been introduced into China as late as the K'an-hi 

 era (1662-1721), and was still expensive at that time, but became 

 ubiquitous after the subjugation of Turkistan. 1 Of other foreign 

 countries that possess the water-melon, the Yin yai $en Ian mentions 

 Su-men-ta-la (Sumatra), where the fruit has a green shell and red 

 seeds, and is two or three feet in length, 2 and Ku-li "& M (Calicut) in 

 India, where it may be had throughout the year. 3 In the country of the 

 Mo-ho the fruits are so heavy that it takes two men to lift them. They 

 are said to occur also in Camboja. 4 If it is correct that the first report 

 of the water-melon reached the Chinese not earlier than the tenth 

 century (and there is no reason to question the authenticity of this 

 account), this late appearance of the fruit would rather go to indicate 

 that its arrival in Central Asia was almost as late or certainly not much 

 earlier; otherwise the Chinese, during their domineering position in 

 Central Asia under the T'ang, would surely not have hesitated to 

 appropriate it. This state of affairs is confirmed by conditions in Iran 

 and India, where only a mediaeval origin of the fruit can be safely sup- 

 posed. 



The point that the water-melon may have been indigenous in 

 Persia from ancient times is debatable. Such Persian terms as hindewane 

 ("Indian fruit") [Afghan hindwdnd] or battix indi (" Indian melon") 5 

 raise the suspicion that it might have been introduced from India. 6 

 GARCIA DA ORTA states, "According to the Arabs and Persians, this 

 fruit was brought to their countries from India, and for that reason they 



1 Hui k'ian i, Ch. 2; and Ci wu min Si t'u k'ao, Ch. 16, p. 85. 



2 Malayan mandetikei, tambikei, or semanka (Javanese semonka, Cam samkai). 

 Regarding other Malayan names of cucurbitaceous plants, see R. BRANDSTETTER, 

 Mata-Hari, p. 27; cf. also J. CRAWFURD, History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. I, 

 P- 435- 



3 Regarding other cucurbitaceous plants of Calicut, see ROCKHILL, T'oung Pao, 

 I 9 I 5. PP- 459. 460; but tun kwa is not, as there stated, the cucumber, it is Benincasa 

 cerifera. 



4 Kwan k'iin fan p'u, Ch. 14, p. 18. Cf. PELLIOT, Bull, de VEcole fran$aise, 

 Vol. II, p. 169. Water-melons are cultivated in Siam (PALLEGOIX, Description 

 du royaume Thai, Vol. I, p. 126). 



5 From the Arabic; Egyptian bettu-ka, Coptic betuke; hence Portuguese and 

 Spanish pasteca, French pastegue. The batfix hindi has already been discussed by Ibn 

 al-Baitar (L. LECLERC, Traite" des simples, Vol. I, p. 240) and by Abu Mansur (AcnuN- 

 DOW, p. 23). Armenian ttum bears no relation to the dudaim of the Bible, as tenta- 

 tively suggested by E. SEIDEL (Mechithar, p. 121). The latter refers to the man- 

 dragora. 



6 Thus also SPIEGEL, Eranische Altertumskunde, Vol. I, p. 259. 



