FLORA VITIENSIS. oo) 
The trade in Sandal-wood, still important, has been going on since the dawn of history, and will 
probably not cease until the connection between sandal-trees and idolaters, existing from time immemorial, 
shall have been broken up by either the one or the other becoming as extinct a race as the Archeopteryx, 
the Moa, or the Dodo. ‘The religious sentiment of millions of human beings is still intimately associated 
with this wood. When the Hindoo or Buddhist beholds its smoke, incense-like, gently curling heayen- 
wards, he feels that he has acted up to the religious duties expected from him, and that the perfume, 
smelling sweetly in the nostrils of his deity, “ will cover a multitude of sins,” of which he may have been 
guilty. History fails to reeord why sandal was chosen for offices so important, but we may easily fill up 
the blank. Mankind in its infancy attributed to the gods all the passions, weaknesses, and predilections 
common to men. Sandal-wood as a perfume was in high esteem throughout tropical Asia, and for people 
with so limited conceptions nothing was more natural than to suppose it acceptable to supreme beings 
having passions identical with those of the worshippers. Some of the most ancient records inform us of 
the prominent part played by the wood in India; and since the introduction of Buddhism into China, 
that country, itself destitute of the trees producing it, has become the principal market for this important 
production. The usual size preferred in the Celestial empire is of a diameter of four to six inches, and a 
length of three feet. A piece of these proportions (eight or twelve of which generally weighing one picul 
= 133 lbs.) is regarded as the most acceptable offering a person can make to the idols of the temples. 
Large pieces are presented by the rich to burn on particular occasions. On certain festivals, for instance 
the beginning of the New Year, small pieces are abundantly sold in the streets to the lower classes. This 
is the case especially in the northern provinces of the empire; in Canton and other coast districts the 
population is less superstitious, and consequently less inclined to invest in sandal-wood.* JI visited a good 
many temples in Southern China, and never noticed whole pieces of the wood, but thousands of so-called 
* Joss-sticks ” (pastile-like preparations, made of the sawdust of sandal-wood and the dung of swine, stuck 
in pots of sand) burning slowly before the grave faces of the idols. 
The perfume of the wood is owing to an essential oil, chiefly situated in the heart of the tree and 
near the root, the outer parts of old trunks and young trees being almost entirely without scent ; hence the 
sandal cutters carefully remove the outer and generally lighter portion of the wood, which they term the 
“sap.” The oil is easily extracted, a pound of wood yielding about two drachms, and it is wonderfully 
strong and penetrating. Mixed with pure alcohol it forms the perfumer’s “ Extrait de bois de Santal,” 
and in order to sweeten it for handkerchief use a slight addition of rose is required. It mixes well with 
soap. With charcoal and a little mitre it forms sandal pastiles for perfuming apartments; but these are 
indifferent in odour, Finally, from mixing favourably with otto of rose, it is often employed for adulte- 
rating that article. The seeds of the Santalwm album also yield by expression an oil, but that is thick and 
viscid, only fit for burning, and employed in that way by the poorer classes in India. 
The chief European reputation for sandal rests upon its being a most excellent wood for carving. In 
the Indian collection of the Great Exhibition of 1862 there were an infinite variety of elaborately worked 
card-ecases, work-boxes, trays for cards, walking-sticks, fly-flaps, and similar pieces of workmanship of it. 
The ancients seem to have been fully aware of this peculiarity, and the algum or almug trees which the 
fleets of Hiram and Solomon brought from Ophir, mentioned both in the first book of Kings (x. 11, 12) 
and the second of Chronicles (ix. 10, 11), never seen before that time in the land of Judah, and employed 
for making pillars and terraces for the temple and the king’s house, and harps and psalteries for the 
singers,—are supposed to have been sandal-trees. A more recent use has been prominently brought before 
the Indian public by Dr. Hunter, who has shown how admirably it is adapted for wood-engravings. Some 
yarious Asiatic names of the sandal-wood :—“ Sandal is termed ‘ Chandana’ in Sanscrit, and is the name 
of the tree as well as its wood and the perfumes prepared from it. ‘ Chandana-chala’ is another name of 
the ‘Malaya Mountain,’ a part of the Southern Ghats, whence a great deal of sandal-wood is derived. 
The name does not imply fragrant wood or sweet wood.—The term ‘Sandal’ is Arabic, and also used in 
Hindustani; but does not seem to have any meaning save that of sandal-wood. That the Biblical Algum 
or Almug means sandal-wood is a mere recent conjecture. The Talmud identifies it, perhaps on account 
of the colour, with corals. Celsius believes it to be a spurious red sandal-wood (Pterocarpus santalinus), 
while the LXX. translate it reAexyrd, wevxwa, and the Vulgate, Cina (Hyedar? African Arbor vite? or a 
kind of Pine?). David Kimchi, a commentator of the twelfth century, regards it as the Arabic ‘ Al- 
Baceam’ (almond-tree, Cesalpinia Sappan, Pterocarpus santalinus?). But this, too, is mere guess-work. 
The word is not of Hebrew or even of Semitic origin, but seems to have been handed over by the Arabs, 
who probably derived it from India. Alnug, however,—remember al is the article,—somewhat recalls 
the Sanserit terms, ‘ Mocha,’ ‘ Mochata,’ which also signify sandal-wood. You may, however, rest satis- 
fied that nothing certain is known about the foregoing terms. They seem as if dropped from the sky, and 
philologists would be obliged to any one who could throw some light on them.” an. 
* G. Bennett, in Loudon’s ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ series i, vol. vy. p. 205 (1832), 
