Byron, The Giaour.
1832.—"Il me rendit tous les salams que je fis autrefois au Grand Mogol."—Jacquemont, Corresp. ii. 137.
1844.—"All chiefs who have made their salam are entitled to carry arms personally."—G. O. of Sir C. Napier, 2.
SALAK, s. A singular-looking fruit, sold and eaten in the Malay regions, described in the quotation. It is the fruit of a species of ratan (Salacca edulis), of which the Malay name is rotan-salak.
1768-71.—"The salac (Calamus rotang zalacca) which is the fruit of a prickly bush, and has a singular appearance, being covered with scales, like those of a lizard; it is nutritious and well tasted, in flavour somewhat resembling a raspberry."—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 241.
SALEB, SALEP, s. This name is applied to the tubers of various species of orchis found in Europe and Asia, which from ancient times have had a great reputation as being restorative and highly nutritious. This reputation seems originally to have rested on the 'doctrine of signatures,' but was due partly no doubt to the fact that the mucilage of saleb has the property of forming, even with the addition of 40 parts of water, a thick jelly. Good modern authorities quite disbelieve in the virtues ascribed to saleb, though a decoction of it, spiced and sweetened, makes an agreeable drink for invalids. Saleb is identified correctly by Ibn Baithar with the Satyrium of Dioscorides and Galen. The full name in Ar. (analogous to the Greek orchis) is Khuṣī-al-tha'lab, i.e. 'testiculus vulpis'; but it is commonly known in India as s̤a'lab miṣrī, i.e. Salep of Egypt, or popularly salep-misry. In Upper India s̤aleb is derived from various species of Eulophia, found in Kashmīr and the Lower Himālaya. Saloop, which is, or used to be, supplied hot in winter mornings by itinerant vendors in the streets of London, is, we believe, a representative of Saleb; but we do not know from what it is prepared. [In 1889 a correspondent to Notes & Queries (7 ser. vii. 35) stated that "within the last twenty years saloop vendors might have been seen plying their trade in the streets of London. The term saloop was also applied to an infusion of the sassafras bark or wood. In Pereira's Materia Medica, published in 1850, it is stated that 'sassafras tea, flavoured with milk and sugar, is sold at daybreak in the streets of London under the name of saloop.' Saloop in balls is still sold in London, and comes mostly from Smyrna.">[
In the first quotation it is doubtful what is meant by salīf; but it seems possible that the traveller may not have recognised the tha'lab, s̤a'lab in its Indian pronunciation.
c. 1340.—"After that, they fixed the amount of provision to be given by the Sultan, viz. 1000 Indian riṭls of flour ... 1000 of meat, a large number of riṭls (how many I don't now remember) of sugar, of ghee, of salīf, of areca, and 1000 leaves of betel."—Ibn Batuta, iii. 382.
1727.—"They have a fruit called Salob, about the size of a Peach, but without a stone. They dry it hard ... and being beaten to Powder, they dress it as Tea and Coffee are.... They are of opinion that it is a great restorative."—A. Hamilton, i. 125; [ed. 1744, i. 126].
[1754.—In his list of Indian drugs Ives (p. 44) gives "Rad. Salop, Persia Rs. 35 per maund.">[