On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett.

  • Charles Hatchett
Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Arabians obtained from them any addition to their knowledge of Chemistry. But when we turn to Hindostan, there is great apparent reason to believe, that the people of India contributed much to enlarge the knowledge of the Arabians, and that these latter borrowed freely from them, but, in imitation of their otherwise estimable Sovereign Al-Mamon, they studiously concealed how much they were indebted to them; we can judge by the perfection of many arts practised at this time by the natives of India, arts which have been transmitted to them by their ancestors, we may judge I say, that in remote times coeval at least if not prior to the dawning of science and of the arts in Egypt, much was known by them, and that in certain classes or castes the human mind was highly cultivated. In works of fiction composed by the Arabians such as the Arabian nights, many of the stories are known by Oriental Scholars to have been borrowed from Hindoo Tales, Comedies, and Fables, especially those of Bidpai erroneously called Pilpay. The stories of Alnas- char and of Bedreddin have been quoted as instances of this ; but with all the concealment adopted by the Arabians, they have involuntarily given proof of their deep sense of obligation to the Indians, for whenever they have had occasion to mention them, they always have spoken of them and have described them as superior persons, and with the respect and reverence which would be adopted by pupils towards their masters. In the story of the Enchanted Horse it is an Indian Enchanter who brings and exhibits him to the King of Persia; and whenever an Indian of high caste, as a Brachman, is introduced, he is des- cribed almost as a supernatural being who commands the elements, and before whom, the spirits of the air, of earth, and of hell tremble, and implicitly obey his commands, as may be seen in that very amusing Persian tale of the two brother Genii Adis and Dahy.
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