BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 89 



Others translate the Garum and the Spanish fishes by the words 

 Spanish Mackerel, and they bolster up the assumption by stating 

 that these fishes were, or are, very common on the Spanish coast. 

 There is no ground that I know of for the statement ; Mackerel 

 have no more right to be called Spanish than Finnish. It is to be 

 hoped that this specimen of classical criticism is not a sample of 

 the whole. 



The word is found in Greek lexicons also as ydpov and yapos 

 translated garum, or a pickle of fish made with salt. 



To sum up : the result of these quotations seems to be beyond all 

 doubt, that the Garum or Garos known to the Romans and 

 Greeks was a sauce composed of fish preserved in brine. It must 

 have been very like the Indian Balachan, which is partly fluid, 

 from the fish of which it is composed being allowed to ferment 

 and disintegrate. There appear to have been different kinds 

 amongst the ancients. The word Gar am is, no doubt, of Sanscrit 

 origin derived from the name of sauce or pickle, represented in 

 Malay and its dialects in the present day by the same, or 

 nearly the same designation. 



Professor Stephens of the Sydney University has added at my 

 request the following note : — 



It may seem at first sight so improbable that a Malay word 

 should have gained a footing in the vocabulary of Greek and Latin 

 cooks or epicures, that it may be worth our while to consider 

 very briefly the circumstances of the case. The earliest mention 

 of " Garum " is made by Cratinus, in the fifth century before the 

 Christian era (apud Ath. II., xxv., 75), " Your basket shall be 

 filled to the rim with Garum." Pherecrates, about the same date 

 has "He got his beard with the Garum all befouled" (Ath. I.e.). 

 Sophocles (ibid.), " Of the Garum of salt fish." Plato, the comic 

 dramatist, " With stinking Garum will they drench and smother 

 me." Another passage is quoted by Atheneeus from .ZEschylus, 

 to show that the noun might be masculine or neuter (ydpos or ydpov). 

 In like manner Pliny uses both Garo and Garum, H.N., XXXI., 



