Changes

I. The earliest extant literary allusion to alfalfa1 alfalfa<ref>I use this term (not lucerne) in accordance with the practice of the U. S. Department of Agriculture; it is also the term generally used and understood by the people of the United States. The word is of Arabic origin, and was adopted by the Spaniards, who introduced it with the plant into Mexico and South America in the sixteenth century. In 1854 it was taken to San Francisco from Chile (J. M. Westgate, Alfalfa, p. 5, Washington, 1908).</ref> (''Medicago sativa'') is made in 424 B.C. in the Equites ("The Knights") of Aristophanes, who says (V, 606) :

The term "MedikeMēdikē" is derived from the name of the country Media. In his description of Media, Strabo* <ref>XI. XVII, 7.</ref> states that the plant constituting the chief food of the horses is called by the Greeks "MedikeMēdikē" from its growing in Media in great abundance. He also mentions as a product of Media ''silphion'', from which is obtained the Medic juice. 3 <ref>Theophrastus (Hist. plant., VIII. VII, 7) mentions alfalfa but casually by saying that it is destroyed by the dung and urine of sheep. Regarding ''silphion'' see p. 355. </ref> Pliny 4 <ref>XIII, 43.</ref> intimates that "Medica" is by nature foreign to Greece, and that it was first introduced there from Media in consequence of the Persian wars under King Darius. Dioscorides6 Dioscorides<ref>II, 176.</ref> describes the plant without referring to a locality, and adds that it is used as forage by the cattlebreederscattle-breeders. In Italy, the plant was disseminated from the middle of the second century B.C. to the middle of the first century aA.dD., 8—almost <ref>Hehn, Kulturpflanzen, 8th ed., p. 412.</ref> — almost coeval with its propagation to China. The Assyriologists claim that ''aspasti '' or ''aspastu'', the Iranian designation of alfalfa, is mentioned in a Babylonian text of ca. 700 B.C.; 7 <ref>Schrader in Hehn, p. 416; C. Joret (Plantes dans l'antiquité, Vol. II, p. 68) states after J. Halévy that ''aspasti'' figures in the list drawn up by the gardener of the Babylonian king Mardukbalidin (Merodach-Baladan), a contemporary of Ezechias King of Juda.</ref> and it would not be impossible that its favorite fodder followed the horse at the time of its introduction from Iran into Mesopotamia. A. de Candolle8 Candolle<ref>Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 103.</ref> states that ''Medicago ''

''sativa '' has been found wild, with every appearance of an indigenous plant, in several provinces of Anatolia, to the south of the Caucasus, in several parts of Persia, in Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and in Kashmir.1 <ref>As to Kashmir, it will be seen, we receive a confirmation from an ancient Chinese document. See also G. Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Vol. V, pp. 199-203.</ref> Hence the Greeks, he concludes, may have introduced the plant from Asia Minor as well as from India, which extended from the north of Persia. This theory seems to me inadmissible and superfluous, for the Greeks allude solely to Media in this connection, not to India. Moreover, the cultivation of the plant is not ancient in India, but is of recent date, and hardly plays any r61e rô1e in Indian agriculture and economy.

In ancient Iran, alfalfa was a highly important crop closely associated with the breeding of superior races of horses. Pahlavi ''aspast '' or ''aspist '' New Persian ''aspust'', ''uspust'', ''aspist'', ''ispist'', or ''isfist '' (Pu§tu Puštu or Afghan ''spastu'', SpeZta''špēšta''), is traceable to an Avestan or Old-Iranian *aspoaspō-asti (from the root ''ad'', "to eat"), and literally means "horse-fodder."2 <ref>Neldeke, ZDMG, Vol. XXXII, 1878, p. 408. Regarding some analogous plant-names, see R. v. Stackelberg, ''ibid.'', Vol. LIV, 1900, pp. 108, 109.</ref> This word has penetrated into Syriac in the form aspesta ''aspestā'' or pespestd ''pespestā'' (the latter in the Geoponica). Khosrau I (aA.dD. 531-578) of the Sasanian dynasty included alfalfa in his new organization of the land-tax:3 <ref>Nöldeke, Tabari, p. 244.</ref> the tax laid on alfalfa was seven times as high as that on wheat and barley, which gives an idea of the high valuation of that forage-plant. It was also employed in the pharmacopoeia, being dealt with by Abu Mansur in his book on pharmacology. 4 <ref>Achundow, Abu Mansur, p. 73 (cf. above, p. 194).</ref> The seeds are still used medicinally. 5 <ref>Schlimmer, Terminologie, p. 365. He gives ''yondže'' as the Persian name, which, however, is of Turkish origin (from ''yont'', "horse"). In Asia Minor there is a place Yonjali ("rich in alfalfa").</ref> The Arabs derived from the Persians the word ''isfist'', Arabicized into ''fisfisa''; Arabic designations being ''ratba '' and ''qatt'', the former for the plant in its natural state, the latter for the dried plant. <ref>Leclerc, Traité des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 35.</ref>

6 The mere fact that the Greeks received ''Medicago '' from the Persians, and christened it "Medic grass," by no means signifies or proves at the outset that ''Medicago '' represents a genuinely Iranian cultivation. It is well known how fallacious such names are: the Greeks also had the peach under the name "Persian apple," and the apricot as "Armenian apple;" yet peach and apricot are not originally Persian or Armenian, but Chinese cultivations: Iranians and Armenians in this case merely

acted as mediators between the far east and the Mediterranean. However, the case of alfalfa presents a different problem. The Chinese, who cultivate alfalfa to a great extent, do not claim it as an element of their agriculture, but have a circumstantial tradition as to when and how it was received by them from Iranian quarters in the second century B.C. As any antiquity for this plant is lacking in India or any other Asiatic country, the verdict as to the centre of its primeval cultivation is decidedly in favor of Iran. The contribution which the Chinese have to make to the history of ''Medicago '' is of fundamental importance and sheds new light on the whole subject: in fact, the history of no cultivated plant is so well authenticated and so solidly founded.

In the inscription of Persepolis, King Darius says, "This land Persia which Auramazda has bestowed on me, being beautiful, populous, and abundant in horses— horses — according to the will of Auramazda and my own, King Darius—it Darius — it does not tremble before any enemy." I have alluded in the introduction to the results of General Can Čaṅ K'ien's memorable expedition to Central Asia. The desire to possess the fine Iranian thoroughbreds, more massively built than the small Mongolian horse, and distinguished by their noble proportions and slenderness of feet as well as by the development of chest, neck, and croup, was one of the strongest motives for the Emperor Wu (140-87 B.C.) to maintain regular missions to Iranian countries, which led to a regular caravan trade with Fergana and Parthia. Even more than ten such missions were dispatched in the course of a year, the minimum being five or six. At first, this superior breed of horse was obtained from the Wu-sun, but then it was found by Can Čaṅ K'ien that the breed of Fergana was far superior. These horses were called "blood-sweating" (han-hue ff jfiLhüe <>), 1 <ref>This name doubtless represents the echo of some Iranian mythical concept, but I have not yet succeeded in tracing it in Iranian mythology.</ref> and were believed to be the offspring of a heavenly horse {Vien (''t'ien ma % fi$'' <>). The favorite fodder of this noble breed consisted in ''Medicago sativa''; and it was a sound conclusion of General Can Čaṅ K'ien, who was a practical man and possessed of good judgment in economic matters, that, if these much-coveted horses were to continue to thrive on Chinese soil, their staple food had to go along with them. Thus he obtained the seeds of alfalfa in Fergana, 2 <ref>In Fergana as well as in the remainder of Russian Turkistan ''Medicago sativa'' is still propagated on an immense scale, and represents the only forage-plant of that country, without which any economy would be impossible, for pasture-land and hay are lacking. Alfalfa yields four or five harvests there a year, and is used for the feeding of cattle either in the fresh or dry state. In the mountains it is cultivated up to an elevation of five thousand feet; wild or as an escape from cultivation it reaches | an altitude up to nine thousand feet. Cf. S. Koržinski, Vegetation of Turkistan (in Russian), p. 51. Russian Turkistan produces the largest supply of alfalfa-seed for export (E. Brown, Bull. Dep. of Agriculture, No. 138, 1914).</ref> and presented them in 126 B.C. to his imperial master, who had wide tracts of land near his palaces covered

with this novel plant, and enjoyed the possession of large numbers of celestial horses.1 <ref>''Ši ki'', Ch. 123.</ref> From the palaces this fodder-plant soon spread to the people, and was rapidly diffused throughout northern China. According to Yen SiŠi-ku (aA.dD. 570-645), this was already an accomplished fact during the Han period. As an officinal plant, alfalfa appears in the early work ''Pie lu''. 1 <ref>Cf. Chinese Clay Figures, p. 135.</ref> The TsH ''Ts'i min yao iu šu'' of the sixth century aA.dD. gives rules for its cultivation; and T'ao HunHuṅ-kin kiṅ (aA.dD. 451-536) remarks that "it is grown in gardens at CČ'anaṅ-han ṅan (the ancient capital in SenŠen-si), and is much valued by the northerners, while the people of KiahKiaṅ-nan do not indulge in it much, as it is devoid of flavor. Abroad there is another ''mu-su '' plant for healing eye-diseases, but different from this species." 3<ref>''Čeṅ lei pen ts'ao'', Ch. 27, p. 23. It is not known what this foreign species is.</ref>

Can Čaṅ K'ien was sent out by the Emperor Wu to search for the YueYüe-£i či and to close an alliance with them against the Turkish HiunHiuṅ-nu. The YueYüe-6iči, in my opinion, were an Indo-European people, speaking a North-Iranian language related to Scythian, Sogdian, YagnObiYagnōbi, and Ossetic. In the course of his mission, Can Čaṅ K'ien visited Fergana, Sogdiana, and Bactria, all strongholds of an Iranian population. The "West" for the first time revealed by him to his astounded country men was Iranian civilization, and the products which he brought back were thoroughly and typically Iranian. The two cultivated plants (and only these two) introduced by him into his fatherland hailed from Fergana: Ferganian was an Iranian language; and the words for the alfalfa and grape, ''mu-su '' and ''p'u-Vaot'ao'', were noted by Can Čaṅ K'ien in Fergana and transmitted to China along with the new cultivations. These words were Ferganian; that is, Iranian.4 Can <ref>Hirth's theory (''Journal Am. Or. Soc.'', Vol. XXXVII, 1917, p. 149), that the element yüan of Ta-yüan (Fergana) might represent a "fair linguistic equivalent" of Yavan (Yavana, the Indian name of the Greeks), had already been advanced by J. Edkins (''Journal China Branch Roy. As. Soc.'', Vol. XVIII, 1884, p. 5). To me it seems eccentric, and I regret being unable to accept it. In the T'ang period we have from Hüan Tsaṅ a reproduction of the name Yavana in the form <> Yen-mo-na, *Yam-mwa-na (Pelliot, ''Bull. de I'Ecole francaise'', Vol. IV, p. 278). For the Han period we should expect, after the analogy of <> Ye-tiao, *Yap (Džap)-div (Yavadvīpa, Java), a transcription <> Ye-na, *Yap-na, for Yavana. The term <> Yü-yüe, *Yu-vat(var), does not represent a transcription of Yavana, as supposed by Chavannes (Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. IV, 1901, pp. 558-559), but is intended to transcribe the name Yṷan (*Yuvar, Yṷar), still employed by the Čam and other peoples of Indo-China as a designation of Annam and the Annamese (cf. Čam Yṷan or Yṷōn, Bahnar, Juōn, Khmer Yuon, Stieṅ Juôn). This native name, however, was adapted to or assimilated with Sanskrit Yavana; for in the Sanskrit inscriptions of Campā, particularly in one of the reign of Jaya-Rudravarman dated A.D. 1092, Annam is styled Yavana (A. Bergaigne, L'Ancien royaume de Campā, p. 61 of the reprint from ''Journal asiatique'', 1888). In the Old-Javanese poem Nāgarakrtāgama, completed in A.D. 1365, Yavana occurs twice as a name for Annam (H. Kern,''Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde'', Vol. LXXII, 1916, p. 399). Kern says that the question as to how the name of the Greeks was applied to Annam has not been raised or answered by any one; he overlooked the contribution of Bergaigne, who discussed the problem.</ref> Čaṅ K'ien himself was