Spikenard (T^3, nerd; vapSog), a far-famed per- fume of the East that has often engaged the attention of critics, but the plant which yields it has onh- been ascertained in very recent times. That the naj-d of Scripture was a perfume is evident from the passages in which it occurs. Cant, i, 12, "While the king sitteth at his table, mj- spikenard (nard) sendeth forth the smell thereof." So in iv, 14, "Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices." Here we find it mentioned along with many of the most valued aromatics which were known to the ancients, and all of which, with the exception perhaps of saffron, must have been obtained by foreign commerce from distant coun- tries, as Persia, the east coast of Africa, Ceylon, the north-west and the south-east of India, and in the pres- ent instance even from the remote Himalayan Moun- tains. Such substances must necessarily have been costly when the means of communication were defec- tive and the gains of the successful merchant propor- tionally great. That the nard, or nardus, was of great value we learn from the New Test. ( Mark xiv, 3 ). When our Saviour sat at meat in Bethany, " there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard (vapi^ov), very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head." So in John xii, 3, " Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard (/a'lpoi' vf'ipSov), very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odctr of the "ointment." On this Ju- das, who afterwards betrayed our Saviour, said (ver. 5), "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"
Before proceeding to identify the plant yielding nard, we may refer to the knowledge which the ancients had of this ointment. Horace, at a period nearly contem- porary, "promises to Virgil awholecadus (about thirty- six quarts) of wine for a small onyx-box full of spike- nard" (Kosenmiiller, p. 168),
"Nardo vina merehere. Naidi parvus onyx eliciet cadum."
The composition of this ointment is given by Diosco- rides in i, 77, Wtf/i I'npCii'ov i^ivpov, where it is de- scribed as being made with nut-oil, and having as in- gredients malabalhrum, schoenus, costus, amomum, nar-
SPIKENARD
932
SPIKENARD
dus, m^•rr^ln. and l>alsanium — that is, almost all the most valuiil |)trfiimes of antiquity. It was also a valualilt' artiili- in aiuiuiit idiarmacy (see Stralx>, xv, r.;»5; I'linv, xii. "Jo; xiv, 10. o : xvi, iV.t; Arrian, A>;>e</. Alfx.v\,i.i.*<; llirtiiis, AV//. //j.<y). xxxiii.o; Athcn.xv, 689; KninijtL Jn/itnt. Arab. ch. v ; The.iiili. i'lnnt. ix, 7; Galon, SimjA. J/t-</. viii, 13; Celsii Uiriobvt. ii,
1 sq.).
The nanl {vap^oc') was known in very early times, and is noticed by Tluiiphraslus and by Ilipiiocrates. Dioscorides, indeed, describes three kinds of nard. Of the iirst, called lu'iphn: (minhts) sim])ly, there were two varieties — the one Syrian, the other Indian. The former is so called, not iK'caiise it is produced in Syria, but be- cause the mountains in which it is produced extend on one side towards Syria and on the other towards India. This mav refer to the Hindu Khilsh and to the exten- sive sifjuilicaiion of the name Syria in ancient times, or to so many Indian products lindini; their way in those aijes into ICurope across Syria. These were brout;ht there either by the caravan route from north-west In- dia or up the Persian (iulf and Euphrates. It is evi- dent, from the passa{j;cs ipioted, that nard could not have been a prtMluce of .Syria, or its value would not have been so great either among the Romans or the .Jews. The other variety is called f/diif/ilis. from the tiangcs, being found on a mountain round which it flows. It is described as having many s|)ikes from one root. Hence it, no doubt, came to be called vapcoara- XVQ, and. from the word stuchys being rendered by the word fiiikr. it has l)een translated spikenard. The sec- ond kind is by Dioscorides called Celtic nard {vapSoq KtXriic/;), and the third kind moimtain nard {vaploc opiivi)). If we consult the authors subsequent to Di- oscorides, as (Jalen, Tliny, Oriljasius, Aetius, and Paulus -Egineta, we shall easily be able to trace these different kinds to the time of the .\rabs. On consulting Avicen- na. we are referred from narden to suithnl (pronounced giiiii/iiil), and in the Latin translation from nurdiim to .i/MCif, under which the Roman, the mountain, the In- dian, and Syrian kinds are mentioned. So in Persian Works on materia medica, chietiy translations from the Arabic, we have tlie diflFerent kinds ufstinbul mentioned, as (I) Suiihal hiiuU ; (2) Sunbul rami, called also Sntdml nklfti and Xardeii ukleti, evidently the above Celtic naril, said also to be called Sitnbnt itiilitiii, that is, the nard which grows in Italy; (3) Siiubnljibnlli, or moun- tain nard. The Iirst, however, is the only one with which we are at present concerned. The synonyms given to it in these Persian works are — .\rabic, Siinbul iil-tib, or fragrant nard; (Jreck, luirden; Latin, nur- diiiii; and \\\\v\(!C, balchiir anA jiUnmansi.
.Sir William .Jones {Anat. Reg. ii, 416, 8vo) was the tirsi to ascertain that the above tlindee ami Sanscrit synonyms referred to the true spikenard, and that the .\ral)s descrilied it as being like the tail of an ermine. The next step was. of rourse, to attempt to get the plant which prodiiceil the drug. This he was not successful ill iloing, because he had not access to the Himalavan Moimtains, and a wrong plant was sent him, which is that ligured and described by Dr. Roxliurgh {Axitit. Res. iv, 97. 438). Dr. Royle, when in charge of the Kast In- dia Company's boianii; garden at Seli.iruiipore, in 30^ N. lat., alHiut lliirty miles from the f(«p| <if ilie Hima- layan .Mountains, being favoralily situated for the juir- |M>se, maile inquiries on the subject. He there learned lUntjiil'imiiiiAi, l)etter known in India by the name bul- i-liiir,v,an yearly brought down in considerable quanti- ti<'s OS an article of commerce to the |)lains of India from such moimtains as Shalina. Keclar Kanta, and oth- ers, nt till- foot of which How the (iaiiges and .Jumna rivers. Having obiaiiu'd some of the fresh-brought- down riKits, he planted them bmh in the botanic gar- ilen nl Sclmrunpore ami in a inirsery at Miissrtri, in the Himalayas, att.iched to the garden. The plant pro- duced is ligured in his /llim/. Ilimnl. Hnl,iii;i. t. hA, and was found to belong to the natural familv of Wdt-