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INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
scholar to give accurate descriptions of the 'lily of the valley' to enable the botanist to identify and classify the lovely flower which delighted the heart of kirg Solomon. It is exactly the want of an accurate knowledge of the nature of the Soma-plant which prevents the Vedic scholar from being able to understand some of the few material allusions to it. Thus the term am su, commonly applied to the Soma-plant, used to be taken to mean simply plant' or 'sprig, shoot;' but Professor Roth seems now inclined, perhaps rightly, to take it as referring to the internode, or cylindrical piece between two joints of the stem. The substitutes approved of by the Satapatha-brâhmana, in case no genuine Soma-plants can be obtained, will be found enumerated at pp. 421-422 of the present volume. A de. scription of these plants, so far as they have been identified, is given in Professor Roth's paper.
I cannot conclude these remarks without expressing my hearty thanks to those scholars who have done me the honour of reviewing the first volume of this work. To Professor Whitney I feel especially indebted for his most careful examination of my translation, and the searching, yet appreciative, criticism he has been good enough to apply to it. I shall feel content, if the present volume finds at least one reader as conscientious and painstaking. While I agree with most of Prof. Whitney's suggestions 1, there are one or two points raised by him, and these perhaps of the more important, on which I have been unable to take his view; and as some of these points involve renderings adhered to in the present volume, I take the opportunity here briefly to advert to them.
The most important of these points probably is my rendering of the term kapala by 'potsherd,' instead of cup, dish,' as proposed by Prof. Whitney. Instead of speaking of a sacrificial cake on eleven or twelve potsherds, we are to call it a cake on so many cups or dishes. The term
"American Journal of Philology, vol. iii, pp. 391-410; Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, October 1882, p. xiv seq.
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