S — SUCLÁT to SUGAR (Part 3 of 4)

phraseology continued down to the Middle Ages, at least in its application to uncrystallised products of the sugar-cane, and analogous substances. In the quotation from Pegolotti we apprehend that his three kinds of honey indicate honey, treacle, and a syrup or treacle made from the sweet pods of the carob- tree.

Sugar does not seem to have been in early Chinese use. The old Chinese books often mention shi-mi or ‘stone-honey’ as a product of India and Persia. In the reign of Taitsung (627–650) a man was sent to Gangetic India to learn the art of sugar-making; and Marco Polo below mentions the introduction from Egypt of the further art of refining it. In India now, Chini (Cheeny) (Chinese) is applied to the whiter kinds of common sugar; Misri (Misree) or Egyptian, to sugar-candy; loaf-sugar is called kand.

c. A.D. 60.—

“Quâque ferens rapidum diviso gurgite fontem
Vastis Indus aquis mixtum non sentit Hydaspen:
Quique bibunt tenerâ dulcis ab arundine succos. …”

Lucan, iii. 235.

„ “Aiunt inveniri apud Indos mel in arundinum foliis, quod aut nos illius cœli, aut ipsius arundinis humor dulcis et pinguis gignat.”—Seneca, Epist. lxxxiv.

c. A.D. 65.—“It is called [Greek Text] sakcaron, and is a kind of honey which solidifies in India, and in Arabia Felix; and is found upon canes, in its substance resembling salt, and crunched by the teeth as salt is. Mixed with water and drunk, it is good for the belly and stomach, and for affections of the bladder and kidneys.”—Dioscorides, Mat. Med. ii. c. 104.

c. A.D. 70.—“Saccharon et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India. Est autem mel in harundinibus collectum, cummium modo candidum, dentibus fragile, amplissimum nucis abellanae magnitudine, ad medicinae tantum usum.”—Plin. Hist. Nat. xii. 8.

c. 170.—“But all these articles are hotter than is desirable, and so they aggravate fevers, much as wine would. But oxymeli alone does not aggravate fever, whilst it is an active purgative. … Not undeservedly, I think, that saccharum may also be counted among things of this quality. …”—Galen, Methodus Medendi, viii.

c. 636.—“In Indicis stagnis nasci arundines calamique dicuntur, ex quorum radicibus expressum suavissimum succum bibunt. Vnde et Varro ait:

Indica non magno in arbore crescit arundo; Illius et lentis premitur radicibus humor, Dulcia qui nequeant succo concedere mella.” Isidori Hispalensis Originum, Lib. xvii. cap. vii.

c. 1220.—“Sunt insuper in Terra (Sancta) canamellae de quibus zucchara ex compressione eliquatur.”—Jacobi Vitriaci, Hist. Jherosolym, cap. lxxxv.

1298.—“Bangala est une provence vers midi. … Il font grant merchandie, car il ont espi e galanga e gingiber e succare et

de maintes autres chieres espices.”—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxxvi.

1298.—“Je voz di que en ceste provences” (Quinsai or Chekiang) “naist et se fait plus sucar que ne fait en tout le autre monde, et ce est encore grandissime vente.”—Ibid. ch. cliii.

1298.—“And before this city” (a place near Fu-chau) “came under the Great Can these people knew not how to make fine sugar (zucchero); they only used to boil and skim the juice, which, when cold, left a black paste. But after they came under the Great Can some men of Babylonia” (i.e. of Cairo) “who happened to be at the Court proceeded to this city and taught the people to refine sugar with the ashes of certain trees.”—Idem. in Ramusio, ii. 49.

c. 1343.—“In Cyprus the following articles are sold by the hundred-weight (cantara di peso) and at a price in besants: Round pepper, sugar in powder (polvere di zucchero) … sugars in loaves (zuccheri in pani), bees’ honey, sugar-cane honey, and carob-honey (mele d’ape, mele di cannameli, mele di carrube). …”—Pegolotti, 64.

„ “Loaf sugars are of several sorts, viz. zucchero muchhera, caffettino, and bambillonia; and musciatto, and dommaschino; and the mucchera is the best sugar there is; for it is more thoroughly boiled, and its paste is whiter, and more solid, than any other sugar; it is in the form of the bambillonia sugar like this D; and of this mucchara kind but little comes to the west, because nearly the whole is kept for the mouth and for the use of the Soldan himself.

“Zucchero caffettino is the