Sandalwood

“ Its timber is extraordinarily hard and tough and difficult to split. It is of great value as bridge supports, dock gates, stern posts, engine supports, &c., and it is also extensively used in the making of railway wagons and wheelwright's work generally.
Sandalwood, which is more of a bush than a tree, runs small as a rule. It is fairly distributed over the Colony. Formerly there was a greater trade in sandalwood than now; but the overstocked Chinese markets being sold out, the West Australia trade is rapidly reviving. ”

“ Here likewise grows sandalwood, and many more sorts of trees fit for any uses. The tallest among them resemble our pines; they are straight and clear-bodied, but not very thick; the inside is reddish near the heart and hard and ponderous. ”

“ Men are frequently stung by these wretches, whilst wading through the water.
There are several valuable kinds of wood in this colony, which do not exist in South Australia or New South Wales. We may mention the sandalwood, which now finds a market in Ceylon, where it fetches about 22 pounds per ton; but if it were sent direct to China, (its ultimate destination,) it would obtain probably 35 pounds per ton. Sandal-wood is burnt in large quantities in China, as a kind of incense. ”

“ If even but one or two bad harvests happened to come together his ruin became almost certain, because he had nothing to fall back upon, no sheep, no cattle, nothing but his few fields and his team of horses and cart. This has been one of the evils of the sandalwood trade. It has tempted men to look upon the possession of a wagon and three or four horses as a certain means of making money quickly; the land has been cared for only for the sake of providing food for the team, it has therefore been only half attended to and half cultivated ”

“ The art of sandalwood carving is confined to a few families in the Sorab and Sāgar tāluks of the Shimoga district, in the north-west corner of the province. There are two or three families in Sāgar, and about six in Sorab, which contribute in all about thirty-five artisans employed in the craft. ”

“ They pour water at its roots, smear the trunk with red lead and ground sandalwood, and walk round it one hundred and eight times in the course of the sun, putting at each circuit a copper coin, a sweetmeat, or a Brâhmanical cord at the root, all of which are the perquisite of beggars. ”

“ By 1816 the ill-considered deforesting of sandalwood had become an important industry of the Hawaiians, chief and commoner, with foreigners.
The wood was originally exported to India, though said to be rather inferior. Then the Canton market claimed the bulk of the aromatic timber, where it was used for carved furniture, as well as for incense. Even the roots were grubbed by the avaricious native woodsmen, and trade flourished until about 1835, when the government awoke to the imminent extermination of the valuable tree, and put a ban upon the cutting of the younger growth. ”

“ In the price-currents of commercial houses in China three sorts of sandal-wood are enumerated, namely, South Sea Island, Timor, and Malabar; the last fetches three or four times as high a price as either of the others. Even the Indian sandal-wood may vary in an important manner. Beddome, [2264] conservator of forests in Madras, and an excellent observer, remarks that the finest sandal-wood is that which has grown slowly on rocky, dry and poor land; and that the trees found in a rich alluvial soil, though of very fine growth, produce no heartwood and are consequently valueless. ”

“ The Chinese Buddhists give the Sandal a place in the celebrated groves of their Paradise, and they say that the chariot of the Sun is made of gold and Sandal-wood. In an Indian religious fête called Mariatta Codam, the devotees anoint themselves with Saffron ointment, and go about collecting alms, in return for which they distribute scented sticks, partly composed of Sandal-wood, which are received with great veneration. ”

“ SANDAL WOOD, or YELLOW SAUNDERS, is a yellowish, odoriferous wood, which is imported from the East Indies in logs or short pieces, chiefly as a perfume, or for the manufacture of ornamental articles. The tree that produces it (Santalum album) grows principally on the coast of Malabar, and in the island of Timor. It has somewhat the appearance of a large myrtle, with stiff branches, and smooth, shining, spear-shaped leaves, each about two inches long. The flowers grow in clusters, small and red, and are succeeded by berries about the size of peas. ”

“ Indigenous to the Sandwich Islands is a species of Myóporum, (M. tenuifòlium,) the heart of which is fragrant; and, from having been mistaken for sandal-wood, has received the name of spurious sandal-wood from Europeans, and is called Naiho, or Naihio, by the natives. The heart contains a quantity of essential oil; but the fragrance is not so agreeable as that derived from the sandal-wood, and for that reason it is not esteemed in the Chinese market; the heart is also surrounded by a lighter wood, termed the sap, as in the sandal-wood tree. ”

“ Stanwood proceeded to perform a solemn rite in the light of the stars. He took his demijohn of old rye, and, followed by the six collies, he carried it out a few rods back of the cabin, where he gravely emptied its contents upon the sandy soil. At the first remonstrating gulp of the demijohn, which seemed to be doing its best to arrest the flow, a strong penetrating aroma assailed his nostrils, but he never flinched. Great as his confidence was in his own supremacy in his peculiarly intimate relations with old rye, he did not wish to "take any chances" with himself. ”

“ When he was in a good mood Stanwood would sit in his doorway of a summer evening, with the collies at his feet, and commune with nature as amicably as if she had been his best friend. Between his cabin door and "the range" stretched twenty miles of arid prairie; but when the sun was in the west, the wide expanse took on all the mystic hues that the Orientals love and seek to imitate, and he gazed across it to the towering peaks with a sense of ownership which no paternal acres, no velvet lawns, nor stately trees, could have awakened in him. ”

“ Indeed, the young man was so interesting, that Sandal went with him to the hall-door, and stood there with him, listening to his graphic descriptions of the wool-rooms at the top of the great Yorkshire mills. "I'd like well to take you through one, squire. Fleeces? You would be wonder-struck. There are long staple and short staple; silky wool and woolly wool; black fleeces from the Punjaub, and curly white ones from Bombay; long warps from Russia, short ones from Buenos Ayres; little Spanish fleeces, and our own Westmoreland and Cumberland skins, that beat every thing in the world for size. ”

“ Their cottage and garden stood too near its running lip. When the winds were strong and lifted its shadowy skirts of black and purple ... He loved this feeling of the Forest Personality; he had always loved it.
'Queer,' he reflected, 'awfully queer, that trees should bring me such a sense of dim, vast living! I used to feel it particularly, I remember, in India; in Canadian woods as well; but never in little English woods till here. And Sanderson's the only man I ever knew who felt it too. ”

“ By astrologers Samphire is placed under the influence of Jupiter.
SAMOLUS.—The Samolus was a plant held in high esteem by the Druids. It grew in damp places, and was only to be gathered by a person fasting—without looking behind him—and with his left hand. It was laid in troughs and cisterns where cattle drank, and when bruised was a cure for various distempers.
SANDAL.—The Sandal-wood of India (Santalum album) is a small tree celebrated by the poets on account of its beauty and the perfume of its wood, which is used as incense in temples and also for medicinal purposes. ”

“ There is that light in an autumnal sky,—that shade in autumnal woods,—that dim and hallowed glory in the evening of the year, which is indefinably combined with recollections. Sandal, as they met, had spoken to her in the same voice of melody, and with the same heart-thrilling tenderness of manner, that had never ceased to visit her ear since their first meeting, like music in dreams. ”

“ The sandal-wood tree, which is indigenous to the regions just mentioned, used to be reproduced by seeds sown spontaneously or by birds; but it is now being raised in regular plantations, the seeds being sown two or three in a hole with a chili (Capsicum) seed, the latter producing a quick-growing seedling which shades the sandal while young. [2259] It is probable that the nurse-plant affords sustenance, for it has been shown [2260] that Santalum is parasitic, its roots attaching themselves by tuber-like processes to those of many other plants ”

“ There was just the rippling sea of wild Hyacinths, the pale gold of the Primroses, the innocent white of the wood Anemones—like fairies’ washing—and the purple haze of bursting buds.
Once the Stone Dog had looked along an avenue and had seen a vista of Tanglewood Court, and smooth terraces, and bright beds of flowers, with Lords and Ladies walking up and down, taking the air, discussing fruit trees, and Dutch gardening, and glass hives for bees. Now, he saw nothing but the woods all brimming with Spring flowers: a garden made by Nature. ”

“ A curious wistful expression danced a moment through his eyes. 'Yes, Sanderson has seen it as it is,' he murmured, 'solemnly dreaming there its dim hidden life against the Forest edge, and as different from that other tree in Kent as I am from—from the vicar, say. It's quite a stranger, too. I don't know anything about it really. That other cedar I loved; this old fellow I respect. Friendly though—yes, on the whole quite friendly. He's painted the friendliness right enough. He saw that. I'd like to know that man better,' he added. ”

“ It is also found in the South Sea islands and in Malabar. The Malays and Javanese call it “chandana” (a Sanskrit word, written “sandana” by the Filipinos, but used there for another tree) , and it was probably first made known to the natives of the [166] archipelago by the Hindu traders. Both Varthema and Barbosa mention it as an article of commerce, and the latter gives prices. The greatest users of sandal-wood as a perfume, incense, or fancy wood are the Hindus and Chinese, especially the latter. Crawfurd’s Dictionary, p. ”

“ Elizabeth learned to milk the cows and make butter, to saddle her bronco and mount him from the ground. They taught the pups tricks, they tamed a family of prairie-dogs, they had a plan for painting the windmill. By the end of a week Stanwood was in such good humor, that he made a marked concession.
One of the glowing, glimmering sunsets they both delighted in was going on, beautifying the prairie as warmly as the sky. Stanwood came from the shed where he had been feeding the horses, and found his visitor seated in the doorway. ”

“ Compared with the Bath views this drawing by Sandby is like a window opened on nature; it is flooded with light, the warm sunshine plays on and through the trees, lighting up the road, the figures and the whole scene. Yet Sandby’s care for detail is as great as Malton’s. Each house, each garden, each tree has its individual character fully recorded with unflagging industry and spirit. The spectator’s interest is awakened by the variety of shapes, colours and incidents, and sustained by the artist’s evident alertness and thorough enjoyment of the spectacle. ”

“ Harry Sandal was really at the root of every bitter moment. For Harry had not taken the five hundred pounds with the creditable contrite humiliation of the repenting prodigal. It was even yet doubtful whether he would respond to his parents' urgent request to spend Christmas at Seat-Sandal. And when there is one rankling wrong, which we do not like to speak of, it is so natural to relieve the heart by talking a great deal about those wrongs which we are less inclined to disguise and deny.
In the great hall a sudden thought struck the squire; and he stood still, and looked in Charlotte's face. ”

“ The fourth and last is called the Mountain, in which place were made the first plantations upon this island.
As to the wood that grows here, we have already said that the trees are exceeding tall, and pleasing to the sight; whence no man will doubt, but they may be applied to several uses. Such is the yellow saunder, which by the inhabitants is called bois de chandel, or, in English, candle-wood, because it burns like a candle, and serves them with light while they fish by night. ”

“ It approached the uncanny.
'Yes, Sanderson knows what he's doing when he paints a tree!' thought old David Bittacy, C.B., late of the Woods and Forests. 'Why, you can almost hear it rustle. You can smell the thing. You can hear the rain drip through its leaves. You can almost see the branches move. It grows.' For in this way somewhat he expressed his satisfaction, half to persuade himself that the twenty guineas were well spent (since his wife thought otherwise) , and half to explain this uncanny reality of life that lay in the fine old cedar framed above his study table. ”

“ The wood is hard, heavy, close-grained, and of a fine red colour. It is different from the white fragrant sandal-wood, which is the produce of Santalum album, a tree belonging to a distinct natural order. ”

“ Cedars grow in forests all together.
The poor thing has drifted, that is all."
They were getting rather deep. Sanderson, talking against time, spoke so fast. It was too condensed. Bittacy hardly followed that last bit. His mind floundered among his own less definite, less sorted thoughts, till presently another sentence from the artist startled him into attention again.
"That cedar will protect you here, though, because you both have humanized it by your thinking so lovingly of its presence. The others can't get past it, as it were."
"Protect me!" he exclaimed. "Protect me from their love?" ”