Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/100

 butter, when melted over a gentle fire, and freed from impurities, is preserved in small earthen pots, and forms a part in most of their dishes; it serves likewise to anoint their heads, and is bestowed very liberally on their faces and arms." (Travels of Mungo Park, London: 1799. Chap. IV.)

14. Honey from the reed called sacchari is the first mention in the history of the European world of sugar as an article of commerce. It was known to Pliny as a medicine. Sacchari is the Prakrit form of the Sanscrit sarkara, Arabic sukkar, Latin saccharum.

Periplus 090 Grinding Sugar.png Grinding sugar in Western India.

The modern languages reflect the Arabic form—Portuguese, assucar, Spanish azucar, French sucre, German zucker, English sugar. The sugar is derived from Saccharum officinarum, Linn., order Gramineae. It was produced in India, Burma, Anam and Southern China, long before it found its way to Rome, and seems to have been cultivated and crushed first in India.

14. Exchange their cargoes.—This trade of the Indian ships at Opone and elsewhere, is so like that described on the same