GUMMI ACACIA 



235 



occurs in Diodorus Siculus (2, 49) in the first century of our era, 

 also in the list of goods of Alexandria mentioned in our article on 

 Galbanum. 



Gum was employed'by the Arabian physicians and by those of the 

 school of Salerno, yet its utility in medicine and the arts was but little 

 appreciated in Europe until a much later period. For the latter purpose 

 at least the gummy exudations of indigenous trees were occasionally 

 resorted to, as distinctly pointed out about the beginning of the 12th 



century, by Theophilus 

 ceraso vel pruno. 



or E-ogker : 



(( 



gummi quot exit de arborc 



During the middle ages, the small supplies that reached Europe were 

 procured through the Italian traders from Egypt and Turkey. Thus 

 Pegolotti,* who wrote a work on commerce about A.d. 1340, speaks of 

 gum arable as one of the drugs sold at Constantinople by the poiind 

 not by the quintal. Again, in a list of drugs liable to dut}^ at Pisa in 

 1305,* and in a similar list relating to Paris in 1349,'' we find mention 

 of gum arable. It is likewise named by Pasi,^ in 1521, as an export 

 from Venice to London. 



Gum also reached Europe from Western Africa, with which region 

 the Portuguese had a direct trade as early as 1449. 



Production — Kespecting the origin of gum in the tribe Acacioi, no 



observations have been made similar to those of H. von Mold on tri 

 canth.e 



. It appears that gum generally exudes from the trees spontaneously, 

 m sufficient abundance to render wounding the bark superfluous. The 

 Somali tribes of East Africa, however, are in the habit of promoting the 

 outflow by making long incisions in the stem and branches of the tree.' 

 In Ivordofan the lumps of gum are broken off" with an axe, and collected 

 lu baskets. 



D 



Ihe most valued product, called HctshaU gum, from the provmce of 

 ejara in Kordofan, is sent northward from Bara and EI Obeid to 

 l^abbeh on the Nile, and thence down the river to Egypt; or it reaches 

 the White Nile at Mandjara. 



A less valuable gum, known as Hashabi el Jesire, comes from Sennaar 

 oa the Blue Nile; and a still worse from the barren table-land of 

 ^akka, lying between the eastern tributaries of the Blue Nile and the 

 Atbara and Mareb ; and from the highlands of the Bisharrin Arabs 

 between Khartum and the Eed Sea. This gum is transported by way of 

 J^hartum or El Mekhcir (Berber), or by Suakin on the Red Sea. Hence, 

 th? worst kind of gum is known in Egypt as Samagh Savakumi {Suakin 



According to Munzinger," a better sort of gum is produced along the 

 ^amhara coast towards Berbera, and is shipped at Massowa. Some of 

 It reaches Egypt by way of Jidda, which towm being in the district of 



ill V^! n ^^}>"-sarum artlum, Il^'s edition 

 7f«r; 1/ ^'^^-'^ ^ Q^MemchriJUn fur Ktinst- 



»»7>n»L 7 P'^<^inut e di varle altre gratfczze 

 ^^l^-^tedul commune di Firenze, iii. (17GG) 



4- 



4 Ovdonnanccs des Hois de France.n. (1729) 



310. 

 * Tarlffa de pest e 7ni9ure, \enet. 1521. 



204. First etiitiou, 1503. 



6 See, ho"\vever, Moller, Academy of 

 Vienna, Sit'^untjshcrichte, June 1S75. 



^Vaxiglian {Drugs of Aden), Phanru 



Journ, xii. (1853) 226. 

 8 Private information to F.A.F. 



