Note 26 — Chapter VI

In all descriptions of sorghum, as given by travellers, there seems to be a considerable confusion with respect to the distinctive names of this ordinary cereal. It is called promiscuously “Kaffir-corn,” “negro-cane,” “bushel-maize,” “Moorish-mille,” or sometimes “durra.” Durra is an Arabic definition, which can be traced in literature as far as the tenth century. The etymology of the Italian word sorgho is altogether uncertain. Peter de Crescentiis, about the year 1300, is the first author who definitely alludes to corn under this name; whether Pliny meant to refer to it is very doubtful. The Germans in the South Tyrol, who are very limited in their acquaintance with cultivated cereals, call it, in their Germanised way, “Sirch,” whilst the Sclavonians corrupt it further into “Sirek.” In Egypt this sorghum is called Durra belladi, “durra of the country,” to distinguish it from maize, which is known as Durra Shahmi, or “Syrian durra.” In Syria itself, where the sorghum is little known, because rarely cultivated, it is simply called “durra.” Throughout the Soudan it has exclusively the appellation of Aish, i.e. “bread.”