1684.—"... sampsoe, or Chinese Beer."—Valentijn, iv. (China) 129.
[1687.—"Samshu." See under [ARRACK].]
1727.—"... Samshew or Rice Arrack."—A. Hamilton, ii. 222; [ed. 1744, ii. 224].
c. 1752.—"... the people who make the Chinese brandy called Samsu, live likewise in the suburbs."—Osbeck's Voyage, i. 235.
[1852.—"... samshoe, a Chinese invention, and which is distilled from rice, after the rice has been permitted to foment (?) in ... vinegar and water."—Neale, Residence in Siam, 75.
SANDAL, SANDLE, SANDERS, SANDAL-WOOD, s. From Low Latin santalum, in Greek σάνταλον, and in later Greek σάνδανον; coming from the Arab. ṣandal, and that from Skt. chandana. The name properly belongs to the fragrant wood of the Santalum album, L. Three woods bearing the name santalum, white, yellow, and red, were in officinal use in the Middle Ages. But the name Red Sandalwood, or Red Sanders, has been long applied, both in English and in the Indian vernaculars, to the wood of Pterocarpus santalina, L., a tree of S. India, the wood of which is inodorous, but which is valued for various purposes in India (pillars, turning, &c.), and is exported as a dye-wood. According to Hanbury and Flückiger this last was the sanders so much used in the cookery of the Middle Ages for colouring sauces, &c. In the opinion of those authorities it is doubtful whether the red sandal of the medieval pharmacologists was a kind of the real odorous sandal-wood, or was the wood of Pteroc. santal. It is possible that sometimes the one and sometimes the other was meant. For on the one hand, even in modern times, we find Milburn (see below) speaking of the three colours of the real sandal-wood; and on the other hand we find Matthioli in the 16th century speaking of the red sandal as inodorous.
It has been a question how the Pterocarpus santalina came to be called sandal-wood at all. We may suggest, as a possible origin of this, the fact that its powder "mixed with oil is used for bathing and purifying the skin" (Drury, s.v.), much as the true sandal-wood powder also is used in the East.
c. 545.—"And from the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places of export, the imports to Taprobane are silk, aloeswood, cloves, Sandalwood (τζάνδανη), and so forth...."—Cosmas, in Cathay, &c., clxxvii.
1298.—"Encore sachiez que en ceste ysle a arbres de sandal vermoille ausi grant come sunt les arbres des nostre contrée ... et il en ont bois come nos avuns d'autres arbres sauvajes."—Marco Polo, Geog. Text, ch. cxci.
c. 1390.—"Take powdered rice and boil it in almond milk ... and colour it with Saunders."—Recipe quoted by Wright, Domestic Manners, &c., 350.