

558 SlNO-lRANICA 



KARABACEK and HoERNLE. 1 Let us assume for a moment that the prem- 

 ises on which this speculation is based are correct : how could the Uigur, 

 Persians, and Arabs make kdgad out of a Chinese kok-li (or dzi)? 

 How may we account for the vocalization a, which persists wherever the 

 word has taken root (Hindi kdgad, Urdu kdgaz, Tamil kdgidam, Mala- 

 yalam kdyitam, Kannada kdgada) ? 2 The Uigur and Persians, according 

 to their phonetic system, were indeed capable of reproducing the 

 Chinese word correctly if they so intended; in fact, Chinese loan-words 

 in the two languages are self-evident without torturing the evidence. 

 For myself, I am unable to see any coincidence between kok-ti and 

 kdgad. But this alleged kok-ci, in fact, does not exist. The word ku, 

 as written by Hirth, is known to every one as meaning " grain, cereals; " 

 and none of our dictionaries assigns to it the significance "mulberry." 

 It is simply a character substituted for kou HI (anciently *ku, without 

 a final consonant), which refers exclusively to the paper-mulberry 

 (Broussonetia papyri/era), expressed also (and this is the most common 

 word) by fru fif. The Pen ts'ao kan mu z gives the character ku i on 

 the same footing with *u, quoting the former from the ancient dic- 

 tionary Si min* and adding expressly that it has the phonetic value of 

 $$*, and is written also S . The character ku, accordingly, to be read 

 kou, is merely a graphic variant, and has nothing to do with the word 

 ku (*kuk), meaning "cereals." 



According to Li Si-Sen, this word kou (*ku) originates from the 

 language of C'u 3&, in which it had the significance "milk" (Zu ?L); 

 and, as the bark of this tree contained a milk-like sap, this word was 

 transferred to the tree. It is noteworthy in this connection that Ts'ai 

 Lun, the inventor of paper in A.D. 105, was a native of C'u. The 

 dialectic origin of the word kou shows well how we have two root-words 

 for exactly the same species of tree. This is advisedly stated by Li 

 Si-en, who rejects as an error the opinion that the two words should 

 refer to two different trees; he also repudiates expressly the view that 

 the word kou bears any relation to the word ku in the sense of cereals or 

 rice. According to T'ao Hun-kin, the term kou li was used by the 

 people of the south, who, however, said also ?u ci; the latter word, 



1 Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1903, p. 671. 



2 According to BUHLER (Indische Palaographie, p. 91), paper was introduced 

 into India by the Mohammedans after the twelfth century. The alleged Sanskrit 

 word for "paper," kdyagata, ferreted out by HOERNLE (Journal Roy. As. Soc., 1911, 

 p. 476), rests on a misunderstanding of a Sanskrit text, as has been shown by Lieut.- 

 Col. WADDELL on the basis of the Tibetan translation of this text ((ibid., 1914, 

 pp. 136-137). 



3 Ch. 36, p. 4. 



4 See above, p. 201. 



