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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

260   SING-IRANICA

of Su Tsûn g 01 into the Lin-nan mountains la     ill. The country

of Wu sent a messenger with provisions, stating in the accompanying

letter: `These fruits are walnuts   and fei-ian A f1(.2 The latter
come from southern China. The walnuts were originally grown abroad among the Western K`ian () 4 4 N A M- Idt) . Their exterior is hard, while the interior is soft and sweet. Owing to their durability I wish to present them to you as a gift.' i3 It is worthy of note, that, while the walnut is said in this text to hail from the Western K`ian, the term hu t`ao (not k`ian t`ao) is employed; so that we may infer that the introduction of the fruit from the Hu preceded in time the introduction from the K`ian. It is manifest also that in this narrative the walnut appears as a novelty.

The Tibetan name of the walnut in general corresponds to a type tar-ka, as pronounced in Central Tibetan, written star-ka, star-ga, and dar-sga.4 The last-named spelling is given in the Polyglot Dictionary of Kien-lun,s also in Jäschke's Tibetan Dictionary. The element ka or ga is not the well-known suffix used in connection with nouns,6 but is an independent base with the meaning "walnut," as evidenced by Kanauri kJ./ ("walnut ") .7 The various modes of writing lead to a restitution *tar, dar, d`ar (with aspirate sonant). This word is found also in an Iranian dialect of the Pamir: in Waxl the walnut is called

1 He died in A.D. 328. His biography is in the Tsin Su, Ch. ioo, p. 9. See also L. WIEGER, Textes historiques, p. I086.

2 Literally, " flying stalk of grain." Bretschneider and Stuart do not mention this plant. Dr. T. Tanaka, assistant in the Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, tells me that fei-Man is a synonyme of the fingered citrus

(fu Sou lean { .   , Citrus chirocarpus). He found this statement in the Honzô
kômoku keimô (Ch. 26, p. 18, ed. 1847) by Ono Ranzan, who on his part quotes the T'un ya 3t1ift by Fan I-ai.

3 The T'ai p`iit yü lan reads la 0,   J     . The raft Sun pai k`un

leu t`ie and the T `u .`u tsi 'Ceti, however, have   {J i   L~ `   , " their
substance resembles the ancient sages, and I wish to present them,"—apparently a corruption of the text.

4 W. W. ROCKHILL (Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Tibet, p. 34o) gives taga as pronunciation in eastern Tibet. J. D. HOOKER (Himalayan Journals, p. 237) offers taga-Sin (Sin, " tree") as Bhutia name.

b Ch. 28, p. 55.

6 SCHIEFNER, Mélanges asiatiques, Vol. I, pp. 380-382.

7 Given both by T. R. JosHI (Grammar and Dictionary of the Kanawari Language, p. 8o) and T. G. BAILEY (Kanauri-English Vocabulary, Journal Royal As. Soc., 1911, p. 332). Bailey adds to the word also the botanical term Juglans regia. The same author, further, gives a word gé as meaning "kernel of walnut; edible part of Pinus gerardiana"; while Joshi (p. 67) explains the same word as the "wild chestnut." Thus it seems that ge, ha, originally referred to an indigenous wild-growing fruit, and subsequently was transferred to the cultivated walnut.