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0163 Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1
Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 / Page 163 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000246
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109 A. CAMOCAS   147

believe in such a distinction. What remains to be considered is that the forms in -d and in -b spread to various directions.

So many influences have been at work in Malayan that no conclusion can be drawn from the coexistence there, as foreign words, of both kimhd and kimhdb (cf. FAVRE, Dict. franç.-malais, I, 353). But in India, the only current forms are Hindi kamkhdb, kamkhwdb, «vulgarly»

kimkhwâb, Bengali kimkhvdb, with a popular etymology Pers. käm   wdb, «little sleep »; the
word became familiar in Anglo-Indian as « kincob », « keemcob », etc., in the 18th cent. (cf. YULE, Hobson-Jobson 2, s. v. «kincob », but YULE'S definition « gold brocade », though reproduced by LAUFER, TP, 1916, 477, and Sino-Iranica, 539, is discountenanced by the very examples he quotes). The tibetanized form rkyen-k'ab probably came from India (cf. LAUFER, in TP, 1916, 478). I am in doubt whether we should trace to India or direct to Persia the form kimgdb which I have heard in Kâsyar and Turfan.

Kämhd has been more prolific in its progeny than kimhdb. Not only is it the basis of the mediaeval forms of the « camocas » type, but it has spread to the Turkish and Slavonic languages. Here again, the term is of fairly late appearance. No such word is known from Uighur texts, nor is it listed in 1076 by Kâsyari, although Kâsyari mentions other Chinese textiles. In modern Turkish dialects, we find Alt. Tel. Kir. Khir. qamqa, Sag. gamyi (RADLOV, II, 490), Crim. kimhha (ibid. II, 1405). From Turk. qamqa come Serb. kamka, Pol. kamcha (ch — h), Russ. kamka (BERNEKER, II, 477; already in THEVET, 16th cent.; cf. BOYER, in Rec. de mél. orient., 1905, 468), all meaning « damask ». cay. qumqa of RADLOV, II, 1049, and BLOCHET, Moufazzal, 119 (cf. also Bl, i, 245), is probably to be read gomga < qamqa. HERZFELD'S hypothesis (Iranische Felsreliefs, 175), which would connect kimhd with xavvâxfs, is certainly a failure. It is probable that the word is of Chinese origin.

Any attempt at a Chinese etymology must start from the kimhdw of the 9th cent., that is to say must have kim as its first element, and a second one ending with some labial sound. DOZY (Glossaire 2, 246), quoting HOFFMANN, had proposed Ch. « kincha ou kimcha », which YULE (Hobson-Jobson 2, s. v. «kincob »), mistaking DozY's French spelling with ch = ! for kh, hence

« kin-khan, tentatively read   E chin-hua, « golden flowers », chin being pronounced kim in
Fu-chien (this is, however, not quite true). KARABAEK (in Mitt. d. K. K. Oester. Mus. f. Kunst u. Ind., VII [1879], 302) again adduced HOFFMANN'S Chinese « kincha » or « kimcha » which has been adopted by HEYD (Hist. du commerce, ii, 697), CORDIER (in Y1, iii, 155) and LOKOTSCH

(Etym. Wörterbuch, No. 1043). HOFFMANN probably meant   chin-sha, « golden gauze », a
possible, though unusual combination. HIRTH (JNCB, xxll [1888], III) thought he could find corroboration of YULE'S chin-hua in Chinese dictionaries. PHILLIPS (JNCB, xxiii [1889], 2830, and TP, 1890, 237) preferred ,Ÿ chin-ch'i, «damasked silks». ROCKHILL, certainly unaware of the history of « kincob », wrote it « kincob » or « chincob », took it to be Tibetan and

proposed to derive it from what he read   ri chin-chia and translated by «gold brocade edging»
(JRAS, 1891, 125); in the same year (The Land of the Lamas, 282), he spoke of the «gold brocades» called « chincob », the latter name being derived « from the Chinese chin (or kin), 'gold and cha (or ka), ' to twist, to weave in ', gold threads being woven in among the silk ones ». LAUFER, who reproduced ROCKHILL'S explanation (TP, 1916, 477), did not notice that RoCKHILL's

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