National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0065 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 65 (Color Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000248
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

THE GRAPE-VINE   239

This wine was so disagreeable to us, that none of us would drink it. The East India ships never fail taking wine to China, where they often sell it to considerable advantage. The Xeres (sherry) wine, for which at Cadiz we paid thirteen piastres an anchor, we sold here at thirty-three piastres an anchor. But in this case you stand a chance of having your tons split by the heat during the voyage. I have since been told, that in 1754, the price of wine was so much lowered at Canton, that our people could with difficulty reimburse themselves. The Spaniards send wines to Manilla and Macao, whence the Chinese fetch a considerable quantity, especially for the court of Peking. The wine of Xeres is more agreeable here than any other sort, on account of its strength, and because it is not liable to change by heat. The Chinese are very temperate in regard to wine, and many dare not empty a single glass, at least not at once. Some, however, have learned from foreigners to exceed the limits of temperance, especially when they drink with them at free cost."

Grape-wine is attributed by the Chinese to the Arabs.' The Arabs cultivated the vine and made wine in the pre-Islamic epoch. Good information on this subject is given by G. JACOB.2

Theophrastus3 states that in India only the mountain-country has the vine and the olive. Apparently he hints at a wild vine, as does also Strabo,4 who says after Aristobulus that in the country of Musicanus (Sindh) there grows spontaneously grain resembling wheat, and a vine producing wine, whereas other authors affirm that there is no wine in India. Again, he, states' that on the mountain Meron near the city Nysa, founded by Bacchus, there grows a vine which does not ripen its fruit; for, in consequence of excessive rains, the grapes drop before arriving at maturity. They say also that the Sydracae or Oxydracae are descendants of Bacchus, because the vine grows in their country. The element -dracae (drakai) is probably connected with Sanskrit drâWi ("grape ") . These data of the ancients are vague, and do not prove at all that the grape-vine has been cultivated in India from time immemorial, as inferred by JoRET.' Geographically they only refer to the regions bordering on Iran. The ancient Chinese knew only of grapes in Kashmir (above, p. 2 2 2) . The Wei §u7 states that grapes were ex-

1 HIRTH, Chao Ju-kua, pp. 115, 121.

2 Altarabisches Beduinenleben, 2d ed., pp. 96-109.

3 Hist. plant., IV. Iv, II. 9 XV, 22.

5 XV. I,8.

6 Plantes dans l'antiquité, Vol. II, p. 280.

7 Ch. 102, p. 8.