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0079 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 79 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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THE PISTACHIO   253

mdstdki.l The Persianized form is masdax; in Kurd it is mstekki. "On these mountains the Mastich Tree brings forth plenty of that gum, of which the country people make good profit. . . . As for the Mastick Trees, they bore red berries, and if wounded would spew out the liquid resin from the branches; they are not very tall, of the bigness of our Bully Trees: Whether they bring forth a cod or not, this season would not inform me, nor can I say it agrees in all respects with the Lentisk Tree of Clusius."2 The resin (mastic) occurs in small, irregular, yellowish tears, brittle, and of a vitreous fracture, but soft and ductile when chewed. It is used as a masticatory by people of high rank in India to preserve the teeth and sweeten the breath, and also in the preparation of a perfume.' It is still known in India as the "gum mastic of Ram.i4

The case of the pistachio (and there are several others) is interesting in showing that the Chinese closely followed the development of Iranian speech, and in course of time replaced the Middle-Persian terms by the corresponding New-Persian words.

1 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, pp. 137, 267.

2 ,JOHN FRYER, New Account of East India and Persia, Vol. II, p. 202 (Hakluyt Soc., 1912).

3 WATT, Commercial Products of India, p. 902.

4 D. C. PHILLOTT, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. VI, 1910, p. 81.

-r-