Accustomed many years to English speech."
E. B. Browning, Aurora Leigh.
HING, s. Asafoetida. Skt. hingu, Hind. hīng, Dakh. hīngu. A repulsively smelling gum-resin which forms a favourite Hindu condiment, and is used also by Europeans in Western and Southern India as an ingredient in certain cakes eaten with curry. (See [POPPER-CAKE]). This product affords a curious example of the uncertainty which sometimes besets the origin of drugs which are the objects even of a large traffic. Hanbury and Flückiger, whilst describing Falconer's Narthex Asafoetida (Ferula Narthex, Boiss.) and Scorodosma foetidum, Bunge; (F. asafoetida, Boiss.) two umbelliferous plants, both cited as the source of this drug, say that neither has been proved to furnish the asafoetida of commerce. Yet the plant producing it has been described and drawn by Kaempfer, who saw the gum-resin collected in the Persian Province of Lāristān (near the eastern shore of the P. Gulf); and in recent years (1857) Surgeon-Major Bellew has described the collection of the drug near Kandahar. Asafoetida has been identified with the σίλφιον or laserpitium of the ancients. The substance is probably yielded not only by the species mentioned above, but by other allied plants, e.g. Ferula Jaeschkiana, Vatke, of Kashmīr and Turkistan. The hing of the Bombay market is the produce of F. alliacea, Boiss. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 328 seqq.]
c. 645.—"This kingdom of Tsao-kiu-tcha (Tsāukūta?) has about 7000 li of compass,—the compass of the capital called Ho-sí-na (Ghazna) is 30 li.... The soil is favourable to the plant Yo-Kin (Curcuma, or turmeric) and to that called Hing-kiu."—Pèlerins Boudd., iii. 187.
1563.—"A Portuguese in Bisnagar had a horse of great value, but which exhibited a deal of flatulence, and on that account the King would not buy it. The Portuguese cured it by giving it this ymgu mixt with flour: the King then bought it, finding it thoroughly well, and asked him how he had cured it. When the man said it was with ymgu, the King replied: ''Tis nothing then to marvel at, for you have given it to eat the food of the gods' (or, as the poets say, nectar). Whereupon the Portuguese made answer sotto voce and in Portuguese: 'Better call it the food of the devils!'"—Garcia, f. 21b. The Germans do worse than this Portuguese, for they call the drug Teufels dreck, i.e. diaboli non cibus sed stercus!
1586.—"I went from Agra to Satagam (see [CHITTAGONG]) in Bengale in the companie of one hundred and four score Boates, laden with Salt, Opium, Hinge, Lead, Carpets, and divers other commodities down the River Jemena."—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 386.
1611.—"In the Kingdom of Gujarat and Cambaya, the natives put in all their food Ingu, which is Assafetida."—Teixeira, Relaciones, 29.
1631.—"... ut totas aedas foetore replerent, qui insuetis vix tolerandus esset. Quod Javani et Malaii et caeteri Indiarum incolae negabant se quicquam odoratius naribus unquam percepisse. Apud hos Hin his succus nominatur."—Jac. Bontii, lib. iv. p. 41.
1638.—"Le Hingh, que nos droguistes et apoticaires appellent Assa foetida, vient la plus part de Perse, mais celle que la Province d'Vtrad (?) produit dans les Indes est bien meilleur."—Mandelslo, 230.
1673.—"In this Country Assa Foetida is gathered at a place called Descoon; some deliver it to be the Juice of a Cane or Reed inspissated; others, of a Tree wounded: It differs much from the stinking Stuff called Hing, it being of the Province of Carmania; this latter is that the Indians perfume themselves with, mixing it in all their Pulse, and make it up in Wafers to correct the Windiness of their Food."—Fryer, 239.