which Watt describes (op. cit., pp. 484–5) as one of the best hardwoods of the Panjab and Western India. It is very durable, does not warp or split, and is highly esteemed for all purposes where strength and elasticity are required—agricultural implements, carriage-frames and wheels, boat-building, etc.—as well as furniture and wood-carving. In Upper India the sisam takes the place of rosewood, to which it is closely related.
Watt distinguishes the true sisam or blackwood, Dalbergia sissoo, order Leguminosae. The Indian rosewood, native somewhat farther south, is Dalbergia latifolia. D. sissoo is described as sub-Himalayan, gregarious on the banks of sandy, stony, torrential rivers, such as the Indus and Narbada, from which the Periplus says it was exported.
36. Ebony.—Diospyros, Linn., order Ebenaceae. Diospyros ebenum and D. melanoxylon are the leading varieties producing ebony wood; India has also D. embryopteris and D. tomentosa.
This fine black heart-wood (from the date plum tree) has been in favor since the dawn of civilization. An Egyptian inscription of King Mernere, VIth dynasty (B. C. about 2500), mentions ebony as a product brought down from the "negro-land" on the Upper Nile; and the expedition of Queen Hatshepsut (XVIIIth dynasty, B. C. about 1500) brought it from the "Land of Punt," in this case probably from the Abyssinian highlands, although it might have come from India.
The earliest definite Old Testament reference is in Ezekiel XXVII, where it appears as a commodity in the trade of Tyre: "the men of Dedan were they merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand; they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony." If the Oxford editor's identification of Dedan with the south shore of the Persian Gulf be correct, this passage indicates a steady trade in ebony from India prior to the 7th century B. C., and exactly confirms the statement of the Periplus that it was shipped from Barygaza to Ommana and Apologus.
Pliny (XII, 8, 9) says that ebony came to Rome from both India and Egypt, and that the trade began after the victories of Pompey the Great in Asia. He notes two kinds, one precious, the other ordinary. Virgil (Georgics II, 116–117) speaks in glowing terms of the ebony tree, as peculiar to India. Herodotus, however, has preferred to ascribe it (III, 97) to Aethiopia, and states that the people of that country were in the habit of paying to the King of Persia, every third year, by way of tribute, 100 billets of ebony-wood, together with a certain quantity of gold and ivory.
