552 SlNO-lRANICA 



judging from what Steingass says, is not exactly known. The Arabic 

 author, further, has a $ah-smi ("Chinese king"), described as a drug 

 in the shape of small, thin, and black tabloids prepared from the sap 

 of a plant. It is useful as a refrigerant for feverish headache and in- 

 flamed tumors. It is reduced to a powder and applied to the diseased 

 spot. 1 Leclerc annotates that, according to the Persian treatises, this 

 plant originating from China, as indicated by its name, is serviceable 

 for headache in general. Dimaski, who wrote about 1325, ascribes 

 $ah-ftm to the island of Cankhay in the Malayan Archipelago, saying 

 that its leaves are known under the name "betel." 2 STEINGASS, in 

 his Persian Dictionary, explains the term as "the expressed juice of 

 a plant brought from China, good for headaches." I do not know what 

 plant is understood here. 



14. According to Ibn al-Baitar, the mango (Arabic anbd) is 

 found only in India and China. 3 This is Mangifera indica (family 

 Anacardiaceae) , a native of India, and the queen of the Indian fruits, 

 counting several hundreds of varieties. Its Sanskrit name is amra, 

 known to the Chinese in the transcription ^ jH an-lo, *am-la(ra). 

 Persian amba and Arabic anbd are derived from the same word. During 

 the T'ang period the fruit was grown in Fergana. 4 Malayan manga 

 (like our mango) is based on Tamil mangas, and is the foundation of the 

 Chinese transcription mun HI . The an-lo tree is first mentioned for 

 Cen-la (Camboja) in the Sui Annals, 5 where its leaves are compared 

 with those of the jujube (Zizyphus vulgaris), and its fruits with those 

 of a plum (Prunus tri flora) . 



15. Isak Ibn Amran says, "Sandal is a wood that conies to us from 

 China." 6 Santalum album is grown in Kwan-tun to some extent, but it 

 is more probable that the sandal-wood used in western Asia came from 

 India (cf. Persian Randan, candal, Armenian candan, Arabic sandal, 

 from Sanskrit candand). 



1 6. Antaki notes the xalen tree ("birch") in India and China; and 

 Ibn al-Kebir remarks that it is particularly large in China, in the 

 country of the Rus (Russians) and Bulgar, where are made from it 

 vessels and plates which are exported to distant places; the arrows 

 made of this wood are unsurpassed. According to Qazwmi and Ibn 



1 Ibid., p. 314. 



2 G. FERRAND, Textes relatifs a I'Extr^me-Orient, p. 381. 



8 LECLERC, Trait< des simples, Vol. II, p. 471. Cf. Ibn Batata* ed. of DE- 

 FREMERY and SANGUINETTI, Vol. Ill, p. 127; YULE, Hobson-Jobson, p. 553. 

 4 T'ai p'in hwan yu ki, Ch. 181, p. 13 b. 

 6 Sui $u, Ch. 82, p. 3 b. 

 6 LECLERC, op. cit., p. 383. 



