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11,11 GHAKU-WOOD, 205
is pruned off the tree with a knife while still growing, whereas shou-ch'on,
or «ripe» (fb) gharu, drops from the tree of itself*. The produce of the Lower
Coast is called fan-cJi'on (^ JJg «foreign gharu-wood»). Its smell catches
the breath and its taste is bitter and pungent. As it is used for curing chills,
5 it is also called yau-c¥on (^ ^ cmedicinal gharu-wood»). Hai-nan also
prodnces^gharu-wood of a pure and lasting fragrance; it is called jp'ow^-Zai-
Uang (^ ^ ^y.
Notes.
1) Ch'on-Mang means literally Ksinking-incensei); it is thus called because it sinks in
10 water. Its name in Malay and Javanese is Tcalambak or Manibah, but it is also known in those
languages by that of gharu or Jcayu gharu, gharu-wood, a corruption of the Sanskrit agaru,
which in turn is the original from which the Portuguese formed the name of i^ao d'aguila, whence
the French lois d'aigle and our « eagle- toooda. The name, «aloes-wood» or «aIoes», which is also
given it in the Bible and by Arab and other mediaeval writers, is likewise derived from the
15 Sanskrit form. The French «bois de calaniboura is derived from the Malay name TcoHambak.
On the division of countries into aUpper Coast» and «Lower Coast» countries, conf. supra,
p. 79, lines 37—40. Ta-shl is here to be understood as the Arab colonies in Sumatra, and the
lower part of the Malay Peninsula. See also quotation from Ling-wai-tai-ta in Note 2.
2) Nan-fang-ts'au-mu-chuang, the earliest Chinese work in which I have found gharu
20 described, says (2,3) «The mi-hiang (^ ^) tree of Kiau-chi has a trunk like the kii-Uu (iig MB
a kind of elm), its flowers are white and abundant. Its leaves are like those of the orange
(tw)' ^^ °^^ wants to get the aromatic substance, it must first be cut into *^s following
(-(^c))
year its root, stem, branches and joints are each of a different colour. The (parts of the) heart
of the wood and of the joints ("fff)) which are hard and black, and which sink in water, are
25 ch'on-hiang; those which float on the surface of water are M-ku-hiang (^^ *h* ^i achicken
bone perfume))); its root is called huang-shou-Mang (^^ Sfti its ^^)> trunk is chan-hiang
('W ^)) its small branches which are hard and unbroken are ts'ing-kui-hiang (^ jl^ ^^
ffgreen cassia perfume»); the knots in the root which are light and of large size are ma-t'i-hiang
fjPy ^^ -^^ Bhorse-hoof perfumea). The flowers have no perfume. When the fruit has ripened
30 it is aromatic and is known as Jci-sho-hiang (^^ ^S" ^^ «chicken-tongue perfume))). It is
certainly a most wonderful wood!)) On the true nature of ki-sho-hiang, see infra, p. 210.
The same work (2,6) says the kind of paper called mi-hiang-chi is made from the bark
and leaves of a mi-hiang tree. It is somewhat of a yellow clay colour and has markings in it like
fish-roe. It is strongly perfumed, strong and tough, though soft. Soaking in water does not disinte-
35 grate it.» In A. D. 284 a mission from Ta-ts'in presented 30,000 rolls of it to the Emperor of
China. The mission had, of course, landed in Tongking, and had purchased the paper there as an
acceptable present. See Hirth, China and Roman Orient, 272, 275. A paper known by the same
name was, at a later date, made in the province of Kuang-tung at Lo-ch6u (^g wl) from the
bark of a tree called chan-hiang (^& ^^)- ^^^ Ling-piau-lu-i (written in the T'ang dynasty), 2,^.
40 Ling-wai-tai-ta, 7,i says: «The best ch'on-hiang comes from Chon-la (Kamboja), the second
best from Chan-ch'ong (Tongking). The Chon-la kind is the hardest, that from T6ng-liu-mei
(Ligor possibly, in Malaly Peninsula; see supra, p. 57) the most aromatic. The San-fo-ts'i product is
called «Lower Coast incensea, that from P'o-lo-man (i^ probably an error for Fo-
^ ^
lo-an, see supra, p. 69) is far superior to the Lower Coast incense.»
45 Ibn Batuta, Voyages, IV, 242 says the best quality of lign-aloes was that of Kakulah
and Kamarah (the Khmer country, Kamboja). The Arabs knew also the lign-aloes of Chan-ch'ong
(their Sanf), which they called Sanfi. See Heyd, Hist, du Commerce, II, 581, 584.
According to Loureiro, Flor. Cochin., 327, gharu is a product of the Aloexylon agallochum
(the Aquilaria agalocha, Koxb.), Bretschneider, Bot. Sinic, III, 459. W. W. Skeat, Malay