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0269 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 269 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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THE WATER-MELON   443

a variety of sweet melon (Cucumis melo), called in Uigur and Djagatai kogun, kavyn, or kaun, in Turki gdwa and gawdq.

It is said to have been introduced into China as late as the K`an-hi era (1662-1721), and was still expensive at that time, but became ubiquitous after the subjugation of Turkistan.' Of other foreign countries that possess the water-melon, the Yin yai .en lan mentions Su-men-ta-la (Sumatra), where the fruit has a green shell and red seeds, and is two or three feet in length,2 and Ku-li 1 V. (Calicut) in India, where it may be had throughout the year.3 In the country of the Mo-ho the fruits are so heavy that it takes two men to lift them. They are said to occur also in Camboja.4 If it is correct that the first report of the water-melon reached the Chinese not earlier than the tenth century (and there is no reason to question the authenticity of this account), this late appearance of the fruit would rather go to indicate that its arrival in Central Asia was almost as late or certainly not much earlier; otherwise the Chinese, during their domineering position in Central Asia under the Tang, would surely not have hesitated to appropriate it. This state of affairs is confirmed by conditions in Iran and India, where only a media val origin of the fruit can be safely supposed.

The point that the water-melon may have been indigenous in Persia from ancient times is debatable. Such Persian terms as hindewdne (" Indian fruit ") [Afghan hindwdnd] or battix indi (" Indian melon ")5 raise the suspicion that it might have been introduced from India.' GARCIA DA ORTA states, "According to the Arabs and Persians, this fruit was brought to their countries from India, and for that reason they

1 Hui k`ian ci, Ch. 2; and Ci wu min Si t`u k`ao, Ch. 16, p. 85.

2 Malayan mandelikei, tambikei, or semanka (Javanese semonka, Cam samkai). Regarding other Malayan names of cucurbitaceous plants, see R. BRANDSTETTER, Mata-Hari, p. 27; cf. also J. CRAWFURD, History of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. I,

P. 435.

3 Regarding other cucurbitaceous plants of Calicut, see ROCKHILL, T`oung Pao, 1915, pp. 459, 46o; but tun kwa is not, as there stated, the cucumber, it is Benincasa cerifera.

' Kwan k`ün fan p`u, Ch. 14, p. 18. Cf. PELLIOT, Bull. de l'Ecole française, Vol. II, p. 169. Water-melons are cultivated in Siam (PALLEGOIX, Description du royaume Thai, Vol. I, p. 126).

From the Arabic; Egyptian bettu-ka, Coptic betuke; hence Portuguese and Spanish pasteca, French pastèque. The baux hindi has already been discussed by Ibn al-Baitar (L. LECLERC, Traité des simples, Vol. I, p. 240) and by Abu Mansur (ACHUNDOW, p. 23). Armenian ttum bears no relation to the dudaim of the Bible, as tentatively suggested by E. SEIDEL (Mechithar, p. 12I). The latter refers to the mandragora.

6 Thus also SPIEGEL, Eranische Altertumskunde, Vol. I, p. 259.