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0285 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 285 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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AROMATICS—STORAX   459

purple-red of color, resembling the tse t`an   fa (Pterocarpus santalinus,

likewise ascribed to K`un-lun), strong, solid, and very fragrant.' This is Liquidambar altingiana or Altingia excelsa, a lofty deciduous tree growing in Java, Burma, and Assam, with a fragrant wood yielding a scented resin which hardens upon exposure to the air. The Arabs imported liquid storax during the thirteenth century to Palembang on Sumatra;2 and the T `ai p`in hwan yü ki states that su-ho oil is produced in Annam, Palembang (San fu-ts`i), and in all barbarous countries, from a tree-resin that is employed in medicine. The Mon ki pi tan discriminates between the solid storax of red color like a hard wood, and the liquid storax of glue-like consistency which is in general use.'

The Chinese transcription su-ho, *su-gap, has not yet been explained. HIRTH'S4 suggestion that the Greek crrvpa should have been "mutilated" into su-ho is hardly satisfactory, for we have to start from the ancient form *su-gab, which bears no resemblance to the Greek word save the first element. In the Papyri no name of a resin has as yet been discovered that could be compared to *su-gab.5 Nor is there any such Semitic name (cf. Arabic lubnâ) . In view of this situation, the question may be raised whether *su-gab would not rather represent an ancient Iranian word. This supposition, however, cannot be proved, either, in the present state of science. Storax appears in the Persian materia medica of Abu Mansur under the Arabic name mi`a.6 The storax called rose-maloes is likewise known to the Persians, and is said to be derived

j Gen lei pen tstao, 1. c. This tree is mentioned in the Ku kin cu (Ch. c, p. 1 b, as a product of Fu-nan, and by Cao 2u-kwa as a variety of sandal-wood (HIRTH) Chao Ju-kua, p. 208). Li Si-ben (Pen ts`ao katt mu, Ch. 34, p. 12) says that the

people of Yün-nan call tse ran by a peculiar word,   sett; this is pronounced sen

in Yün-nan, and accordingly traceable to a dialectic variation of candan, sandan, sandal. The Japanese term is .itan (MATSUMURA, No. 2605).

2 HIRTH, Chao Ju-kua, p. 61.

3'Cf. Pien tse lei pien, Ch. 195, p. 8 b; BRETSCHNEIDER, Bot. Sin., pt. III,

p. 464. The Hiatt p'u quoted in the Pen ts`ao is the work of Ye T`in-kwei   g 3,

not the well-known work by Hun C `u, in which the passage in question does not occur (see p. 2, ed. of raft Sun ts`utt Su, where it is said that it is difficult to recognize the genuine article). For further information on liquid storax, see HIRTH, Chao Ju-kua, p. 200.

4 Chao Ju-kua, p. 200.

6 MUSS-ARNOLT (Transactions Am. Phil. Assoc., Vol. XXIII, p. 117) derives the Greek word from Hebrew z'ri; the Greek should have assimilated the Semitic loan-word to crbpat ("spike"). This is pure fantasy. The Hebrew word, moreover, does not relate to storax, but, according to GESENIUS, denotes a balsam or resin like mastic (above, p. 252). The Hebrew word for Styrax officinalis is said to be nâtâf (ExoDus, xxx, 34), Septuaginta ararci, Vulgata stacte (E. LEVESQUE in Dictionnaire de la Bible, Vol. V, col. 1869-70).

6 ACHUNDOW, Abu Mansur, p. 138.