It is sometimes stated that the ancients supposed ebony to come only from India. This arose pro bably from the passage of Virgil (Georg-. ii. 116, 17) sola India nigrum Fert ebenurn But the term 'India' had often a very wide significa tion, and included even Ethiopia. Several of the ancients, however, mention both Indian and Ethio pian ebony, as Dioscorides and Pliny ; while some mention the Indian, and others the Ethiopian only, as Lucan (Phars. x. 304).
— nigris Meroe fecunda colonis, Leta ebeni.' The only objection to the above conclusion of any weight is, that hobninz is in the plural form. To this Bochart and others have replied, that there were two kinds of ebony, as mentioned by Theo phrastus, Dioscorides, etc., one Ethiopian, the other Indian. Fuller and others maintain that the plural form is employed because the ebony was in pieces : refert ad ebeni palangas, quw ex India et .tEthiopia magno numero afferebantur. 40cao-y-yat vocant Herodotus et Arrianus in Periplo. Plinius pa/angas, aut pha/angas, variante scriptura, id est, fustes teretes, et qui navibus supponuntur, aut quibus idem onus plures bajulant' (Bochart, c.) But the names of other valued foreign woods, as SHirrint and ALmuccim, are also used in the plural form. Besides abnoos, Arab authors, as stated by Bochart (Z c.), mention other woods as similar to and sub stituted for ebony : one of these is called sheez, sheezee ; also sasem and semsem, in the plural form so/Jaunt ; described as nigrum lignum aa' patinas conficiendas. Hence in the Koran, de iis, qui in
gehenna torquentur,' it is said, 'Exibunt ex igne post aliquam in eo moram ; exibunt, inquam, tan quam ligna semasim ;' that is, black, from being burnt in the fire. That such a wood was known we have the testimony of Dioscorides—"Evtot Tel crnaci,uwa clKcivelwa Eaa, 44E14 6vra, avrt etgePOU rteXotiat ; Nonnulli sesamina aut acanthina ligna, quod consimilia sunt, pro ebeno vendunt.' Some critics, and even Sprengel, in his late edition of Dioscorides, read atocci,utva, instead of ancrcipAva, for no reason apparently but because aviccibww de notes a tree with which European scholars are ac quainted, while sesamina is only known to those who consult Oriental writers, or who are acquainted with the products of the East. Bochart rightly observes, Cave igitur ne quidquam mutes. Aliud enim hic sesamina quam vulgo. Nempe ligna illius arboris gum Arabice sasim et semsem appellatur, et ita plurali semasim. Itaque Dioscoridis Arabs in terpres hic recte habet, etc. L,L,„, sesama ; and so also Arrianus in PenWo meminit q,aXci-y-ycov onaaktipcop Kai Igepipcop, palangarum sesaminarurn et ebeninarum, gum ex Indix urbe Barygasis in Persidem afferuntu? (Bochart, /. c.) The above word is by Dr. Vincent translated sesanzum : but this is an herbaceous oil plant.—J. F. R.