ana. From these data HEHN' infers that under the rule of the Persians, and possibly in consequence of their rule, rice-cultivation advanced from the Indus to the Euphrates, and that from there came also the Greek name ipva. This rice-cultivation, however, can have been but sporadic and along the outskirts of Iran; it did not affect Persia as a whole. The Chinese verdict of "no rice" in Sasanian Persia appears to me conclusive, and it further seems to me that only from the Arabic period did the cultivation of rice become more general in Persia. This conclusion is in harmony with the account of Hwi Cao c, a traveller in the beginning of the eighth century, who reports in regard to the people of Mohammedan Persia that they subsist only on pastry and meat, but have also rice, which is ground and made into cakes.2 This conveys the impression that rice then was not a staple food, but merely a side-issue of minor importance. Ydqût mentions rice for the provinces Khuzistan and Sabur.3 Abu Mansur, whose work is largely based on Arabic sources, is the first Persian author to discuss fully the subject of rice.4 Solely a New-Persian word for "rice" is known, namely birinj or gurinj (Armenian and Ossetic brinj), which is usually regarded as a loan-word from Sanskrit vrihi; Afghan vriie (with Greek öpv-a, )3A-a) is still nearer to the latter. In view of the historical situation, the reconstruction of an Avestan *verenja5 or an Iranian *vrinji,6 and the theory of an originally Aryan word for "rice," seem to me inadmissible.
I Kulturpflanzen, p. 505.
2 HIRTH, Journal Am. Or. Soc., Vol. XXXIII, 1913, pp. 202, 204, 207.
3 B. DE MEYNARD, Dictionnaire géographique de la Perse, pp. 217, 294.
4 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 5. J. SCHILTBERGER (1395-1427), in his Bondage and Travels (p. 44, ed. of Hakluyt Society, 7879) speaks of the "rich country called Gilan, where rice and cotton alone is grown."
6 P. HORN, Neupersische Etymologie, No. 208. 6 H. HÜBSCHMANN, Persische Studien, p. 27.
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