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0185 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 185 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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ASAFOETIDA   359

"A-wei is produced in Gazna *11   ß (*Gia-ja-na);1 that is, in north-

ern India. In Gazna its name is hin-yz (Sanskrit hingu) . Its habitat is also in Persia, where it is termed a-yü-tsie (see below) . The tree grows to a height of eight and nine feet.2 The bark is green and yellow. In the third month the tree forms leaves which resemble a rodent's ear. It does not flower, nor does it produce fruit. The branches, when cut, have a continuous flow of sap like syrup, which consolidates, and is styled a-wei. The monk from the country Fu-lin, Wan 14 by name,

and the monk from Magadha, T`i-p`o     (*De-bwa, Sanskrit Deva),
agree in stating that the combination' of the sap with rice or beans, and powdered, forms what is called a-wei."4

Another description of a-wei by the Buddhist monk Hwei Zi born in A.D. 68o, has been made known by S. IAN? I.' The Chinese pilgrim points out that the plant is lacking in China, and is not to be seen in other kingdoms except in the region of Khotan. The root is as large as a turnip and white; it smells like garlic, and the people of Khotan feed on this root. The Buddhist pilgrim Yi Tsin, who travelled in A.D. 671-695, reports that a-wei is abundant in the western limit of India, and that all vegetables are mixed with it, clarified butter, oil, or any spice.6

Li Sün, who wrote in the second half of the eighth century, states that, "according to the Kwan ci, a-wei grows in the country K`un-lun; it is a tree with a :sap of the appearance of the resin of the peach-tree. That which is black in color does not keep; that of yellow color is the best. Along the Yangtse in Yün-nan is found also a variety like the one imported in ships, juicy, and in taste identical with the yellow brand, but not yellow in color." Su Sun of the Sung period remarks that there is a-wei only in Kwan-6ou (Kwan-tun), and that it is the coagulated sap of a tree, which does not agree with the statement of Su Kun. C'en C'en ß, *, a distinguished physician, who wrote the Pen ts'ao

' In the Pen ts'ao kan mu, where the text is quoted from the Hai yao pen ts'ao of Li San, Persia is coupled with Gazna. Gazna is the capital of Jaguçia, the Tsaokü-é'a of Hüan Tsann, the Zabulistan of the Arabs. Hüan Tsan reported that asafoetida is abundant there (S. JULIEN, Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales, Vol. II, p. 187. Cf. S. IAN'', Journal asiatique, 1915, I, p. 83).

2 Thus in the text of the Pen ts'ao; in the edition of Pai hai: eighty or ninety feet. In fact, the stems of Ferula reach an average height of from eight to ten feet.

s Instead of dip of the text I read Ill with the Pen ts'ao.

The translation of this passage by HIRTH (Chau Ju-kua, p. 225) does not render the sense correctly. The two monks mean to say that the sap or resin is a condiment added to a dish of rice or beans, and that the whole mixture bears the name a-wei.

Journal asiatique, 1915, I, p. 89.

6 TAKAKUSU, I-tsing, pp. 128, 137.