﻿OF THE ANTIENTS. 409 



the next day an extract from the Dictionary of Na- 

 tural History, to which he had referred ; and I pre- 

 sent you with a translation of all that is material in it. 



u i. Sud has a roundish olive-shaped root, exter- 

 " nally black, but white internally, and so fragrant as 

 " to have obtained in Persia the name of Subterranean 

 '* Mush : its leaf has some resemblance to that of a 

 " leek, but is longer and narrower, strong, somewhat 

 * s rough at the edges, and tapering to a point. 2. Sum- 

 *' bid means a spike or ear, and was called nard by 

 11 the Greeks. There are three sorts of Sumbul or 

 " Nardin ; but, when the word stands alone, it means 

 .*' the Sumbul of India, which is an herb without flower 

 *' or fruit (he speaks of the drug only) like the tail 

 r< of an eimine, or of a small weasel, but not quite so 

 ** thick, and about the length of a finger. It is dark- 

 11 ish, inclining to yellow, and very fragrant ; it is 

 " brought from Hindustan , and its medicinal virtue 

 *' lasts three iyears." It was easy to procure the dry 

 Jatamansi, which corresponded perfectly with the de- 

 scription of the Sumbul; and, though a native Mus el- 

 man afterwards gave me a Persian paper, written by 

 himself, in which he represents the Sumbul of India, 

 the Sweet Sumbul* and the Jatamansi as three different 

 plants, yet the authority of the Tohfatul Mumenin is 

 decisive that the Sweet Sumbul is only another deno- 

 mination of nard ; and the physician who produced 

 that authority, brought, as a specimen of Sumbul, 

 the very same drug which my Pandit, who is also a 

 physician, brought as a specimen of the Jatamansi. 

 A Brahmen of eminent learning gave me a parcel of 

 the same sort, and told me that it was used in their 

 sacrifices ; that, when fresh, it was exquisitely sweet, 

 and added much to the scent of rich essences, in winch 

 it was a principal ingredient ; that the merchants 

 brought it from the mountainous country to the 

 north -east of Bengal', that it was the entire plane, 

 Dd 4 



