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0169 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 169 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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MANNA

21. The word "manna," of Semitic origin (Hebrew man, Arabic mann), has been transmitted to us through the medium of Greek plcvva in the translation of the Septuaginta and the New Testament. Manna is a saccharine product discharged from the bark or leaves of a number of plants under certain conditions, either through the puncture of insects or by making incisions in the trunk and branches. Thus there are mannas of various nature and origin. The best-known manna is the exudation of Fraxinus ornus (or Ornus europaea), the so-called manna-ash, occurring in the Mediterranean region and Asia Minor.' The chief constituent of manna is manna-sugar or mannite, which occurs in many other plants besides Fraxinus.

The Annals of the Sui Dynasty ascribe to the region of Kao-6`an

r~r

(Turfan) a plant, styled yan ts`e 4- *{J (" sheep-thorn"), the upper part of which produces honey of very excellent taste.2

C`en Ts`an-k`i, who wrote in the first part of the eighth century,

states that in the sand of Kiao-ho   (Yarkhoto) there is a plant
with hair on its top, and that in this hair honey is produced; it is styled

by the Hu (Iranians) th   (= tiJ)   k`ie-p`o-lo, *k'it(k'ir)-bwub-la.3
The first element apparently corresponds to Persian xär ("thorn") or the dialectic form yar; 4 the second, to Persian burra or bura ("lamb "),5 so that the Chinese term yan ts`e presents itself as a literal rendering of the Persian (or rather a Middle-Persian or Sogdian) expression. In New Persian the term xar-i-.utur (" camel-thorn") is used, and, according to AITCHISON, also xar-i-buzi (" goat's thorn ").6

It is noteworthy that the Chinese have preserved a Middle-Persian word for "manna," which has not yet been traced in an Iranian source. The plant (Hedysarum alhagi), widely diffused over all the arid lowlands

'Cf. the excellent investigation of D. HANBURY, Science Papers, pp. 355-368.

2 Sui Su, Ch. 83, p. 3 b. The same text is also found in the Wei Su and Pei Si; in the T'ai p`in hwan ki (Ch. 18o, p. I 1 b) it is placed among the products of -Si * 0 in Turfan.

STUART (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 258) erroneously writes the first char-

acter   He has not been able to identify the plant in question.

P. HORN, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 70.

In dialects of northern Persia also varre, varra, and werk (J. DE MORGAN, Mission en Perse, Vol. V, p. 208).

6 Cf. D. HOOPER, Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Vol. V, 1909, p. 33.

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