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114 THE AEABS. 1,21
Si-tan ehang-shu appears to mean the «Siddbanta Book of Eules», and the work was
probably one on astronomy. Alberuni says in his India (Sachau's translation, I, 153) «The book
known among Muslims as Sindhind is called by them [the Hindus] Siddhanta, i. e., straight, not
crooked nor changing. By this name they call erery standard book on astronomy, even such
books as, according to our opinions, do not come up to the mark of our so-called ZiJ, i. e., hand-
books of mathematical astronomy. They hare five Siddhantas». See also Lassen, Indische Alter-
thumsk., IV, 621. On the usual, or orthodox, Buddhist sense of the word si-tan, i. e., a syllabary,
see Watters, On Yuan-chwang's Travels, I, 155—159 and Eitel, Handbook, 152. The text
is a quotation from T'ang-shu 221^,25*, the characters missing in_our text can be supplied
from it. The passage reads as follows ^^^^ij^S^^^H^^^-
«They. are able astronomers and they study (the work called) Si-tan-ehang, erroneously called
(by the Chinese) Fan t'ien-fa (i. e., Indian Astronomy))).
The H6u Han-shu, 118,12* and Liang-shu, 54,16* remarked on the Indians' cowardice and
weakness.
Pei-to (in Sanskrit patra, «a leafs) are the leaves of the borassus flabelliformis. Yu-yang- li
tsa-tsu, 18,7* says there are three kinds of jiei-lo tree in Magadha (Central India), the largest is
called to-lo-p'o li-ch'a pei-to (^ ^ ]^ "fl ^ M ^) which is in Sanskrit tala vrlcsa
patra «leaf of the tala tree.
5) The name of this priest, probably a transcription of Rahula, has often been used by
Buddhist monks ; it was the name of the son of the Buddha Gautama. The term hu, rendered 2*
aforeigns, is sometimes applied to Indians (see Pei-won yttn-fu, 70A s. v. ^ .^ "j^ ), though
usually used to designate the people of Western Asia.
Sung-shi, 490,s'' has it that in the yung-hi period (A. D. 984—988, the same in which
Lo-hu-na came to Ts'aan-ch6u), Tzi-huan (^fe !^)> *' priest of Wei-ch6u (^^ ^|>| ), came
back to China from the Western Regions with a foreign priest ("AH i@') by the name of Mi- 2S
tan-lo (0^ j^ ^^)" They presented to the Emperor letters from the Prince of Northern
India, and also from Na-lan-t'o (^^ ^ [i£)' Prince of the Diamond Throne (^ |^|J ^
-p i. e., Vajrasana, Buddhgaya). Mi-tan-lo is a transcription of Mitra, a common termination
of Indian Buddhist names.
22. 30
THE ARABS.
Ta-shi (;Ac ^).
«The Ta-shi ^ are to the west and north (or north-west) of Ts'uan-chou
at a very great distance from it, so that the foreign ships (^ ^) find it
difficult to make the voyage there direct. After these ships have left Ts'uan- 35
chou they come in some forty days to Lan-li (^ ||.), where they trade.
The following year they go to sea again, when with the aid of the regular
wind dp ^) they take some sixty days to make the journey».
The products of the country are for the most part brought to San-
fo-ts'i, where they are sold to merchants who forward them to China ^. 10
10