1847.] Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, §~c. 41 



that under this designation, it was brought into India by those who 

 prepared it. It is more probable, that Malabathrum is derived from 

 the Sanscrit words mala (a garland) and putra (a leaf) ; the compound 

 malapatra, which is thus formed, and which signifies a garland or string 

 of leaves, having been subsequently corrupted into iJ-aAafiaQpov or Mala- 

 bathrum. This etymology of the term, indeed, is indicated by the 

 details given in the text regarding the mode of preparing Malabathrum ; 

 for it is there mentioned, that the leaves were made into balls, and that 

 the fibres of the plant were passed through them ; " that in this form" 

 the article took the name of Malabathrum : and that " under this deno- 

 mination," it was brought [from the confines of Thina or borders of 

 Assam] into India, by those who prepared it. The name, it will be ob- 

 served, was not given to the leaves in their original state, or the state in 

 which they were brought by the Sesatse from the forests in the interior ; 

 but was applied to them after they had undergone a certain manipula- 

 tion, viz., when made into small balls, and strung together on the fibres 

 of the plant, in the form of a garland or a thread of beads. This mode 

 of preparing the leaves of the Cinnamon or Cassia tree appears to have 

 been adopted in order to preserve the aromatic-stimulant properties of 

 Malabathrum during its transportation to distant countries. The small 

 balls, of which Malabathrum consisted, were each composed of a single 

 leaf (the Pilulse Malabathri of the older commentators), and were used 

 as a masticatory. That Malabathrum was applied to this purpose, is 

 stated in the text ; and, that it was so used by the Greeks and Romans, 

 is tolerably certain from the remarks which are made regarding it by 

 ancient authors. Dioscorides states that it was placed under the tongue 

 to purify the breath ; and that it was a tonic to the stomach : vmyrie&rai 

 5e rri y^axrav *pbs ivwdiav sSfiaros. Pliny also ascribes the former property to 

 it : "sapor ejus nardo similis esse debet sub lingua oris et halitus suavi- 

 tatem commendat linguae subditum folium.* Eastern India appears to 

 have furnished the greater portion, if not the whole, of the Malabathrum 

 that was imported by the ancients. Though Cinnamomum albiflorum 

 is indigenous in Malabar, and Coromandel, yet no mention is made of 

 Malabathrum having been prepared from it in these countries. This 

 article together with others is noticed as an import into Nelkunda on the 

 Malabar coast, from countries farther to the east,f c\4(pas koI dgovia a-npiKit 

 * Pliny. Lib. XXIII. Chap. 48. f Vincent's Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, p. 462. 



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