Rawlinson, H. G. Intercourse between India and the western world from the earliest times to the fall of Rome

(Cambridge :  University Press,  1916.)

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124     India and the Roman Em^pire

in India." Here we have a description of the
" silent barter " carried on by many shy, wild
tribes all over the world, and still practised
by the Veddas of Ceylon. The goods to be
bought are left in a clearing, and the purchaser
takes them, replacing them by their equivalent
in value. Pliny says Sinhalese merchants went
to this mart^, and Kosmas Indikopleustes saw
a similar system employed in Ethiopia.

APPENDIX

SOME  NOTES  ON   INDIAN  DRUGS AND PERFUMES

Indian drugs and perfumes were known indirectly in
Europe at a very early date. The first extensive account of
them is given in Theophrastus' History of Plants. But
Pliny's account is much fuller, and there are many valuable
remarks on this important trade in the Periplus. The
following notes deal with some of the principal plants.

Costus. Skt. kushtha, modern kut-ldkdl, called also uplet
in Karachi, and puchuk in the Far East. It is the root of
the Saussurea lappa (hence the Roman name Radix), and
grows in the Himalayas. It was exported from Barygaza
and Barbarikon, and fetched five denarii a pound in Rome,
where it was used for making perfumes and for cooking. It is
still exported from Kashmir (where it is a state monopoly),
via Karachi and Bombay, to China and Japan, where it is
apparently used as incense. About 2000 cwt., valued at
about Rs 40,000, are exported annually.     Hamilton {New

1 N.H. VI. 22, 24. Kennedy denies this and reads Cheras
for Seres, J.R.A.S. 1904, p. 359. Other references to the
silent trade are Herod, iv. 196 (Libya); Ammianus Mar-
cellinus, xxiii. 6. 68 (Seres); Pomponius Mela, in. 8. 60
(Himalayan tribes).
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