Chapter SAMPAN to SANDOWAY of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

suggest, as a possible origin of this, the fact that its powder “mixed with oil is used for bathing and purifying the skin” (Drury, s.v.), much as the true sandal-wood powder also is used in the East.

c. 545.—“And from the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places of export, the imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, Sandalwood ( [Greek Text] tzandanh), and so forth. …”—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c., clxxvii.

1298.—“Encore sachiez que en ceste ysle a arbres de sandal vermoille ausi grant come sunt les arbres des nostre contrée … et il en ont bois come nos avuns d’autres arbres sauvajes.”—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxci.

c. 1390.—“Take powdered rice and boil it in almond milk … and colour it with Saunders.”—Recipe quoted by Wright, Domestic Manners, &c., 350.

1554.—“Le Santal donc croist es Indes Orientales et Occidentales: en grandes Forestz, et fort espesses. Il s’en treuue trois especes: mais le plus pasle est le meilleur: le blanc apres: le rouge est mis au dernier ranc, pource qu’il n’a aucune odeur: mais les deux premiers sentent fort bon.”—Matthioli (old Fr. version), liv. i. ch. xix.

1563.—“The Sandal grows about Timor, which produces the largest quantity, and it is called chundana; and by this name it is known in all the regions about Malaca; and the Arabs, being those who carried on the trade of those parts, corrupted the word and called it sandal. Every Moor, whatever his nation, calls it thus …”— Garcia, f. 185c. He proceeds to speak of the sandalo vermelho as quite a different product, growing in Tenasserim and on the Coromandel Coast.

1584.—“… Sandales wilde from Cochin. Sandales domestick from Malacca. …”— Wm. Barrett, in Hakl. ii. 412.

1613.—“… certain renegade Christians of the said island, along with the Moors called in the Hollanders, who thinking it was a fine opportunity, went one time with five vessels, and another time with seven, against the said fort, at a time when most of the people … were gone to Solor for the Sandal trade, by which they had their living.”—Bocarro, Decada, 723.

1615.—“Committee to procure the commodities recommended by Capt. Saris for Japan, viz. … pictures of wars, steel, skins, sanders-wood.”—Sàinsbury, i. 380.

1813.—“When the trees are felled, the bark is taken off; they are then cut into billets, and buried in a dry place for two months, during which period the white ants will eat the outer wood without touching the sandal; it is then taken up and … sorted into three kinds. The deeper the colour, the higher is the perfume; and hence the merchants sometimes divide sandal into red, yellow, and white; but these are all different shades of the same colour.”— Milburn, i. 291.

1825.—“REDWOOD, properly RED Saunders, is produced chiefly on the Coromandel Coast, whence it has of late years been imported in considerable quantity to England, where it is employed in dyeing. It … comes in round billets of a thickish red colour on the outside, a deep brighter red within, with a wavy grain; no smell or taste.”—Ibid. ed. 1825, p. 249.

SANDOWAY, n.p. A town of Arakan, the Burmese name of which is Thandwé (Sand-wé), for which an etymology (‘iron-tied’), and a corresponding legend are invented, as usual [see Burmah Gazetteer, ii. 606]. It is quite possible that the name is ancient, and represented by the Sada of Ptolemy.

1553.—“In crossing the gulf of Bengal there arose a storm which dispersed them in such a manner that Martin Affonso found himself alone, with his ship, at the island called Negamale, opposite the town of Sodoe, which is on the mainland, and there was wrecked upon a reef …”— Barros, IV. ii.].

In I. ix. 1, it is called Sedoe.

1696.—“Other places along this Coast subjected to this King (of Arracan) are Coromoria, Sedoa, Zara, and Port Magaoni.” —Appendix to Ovington, p. 563.

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