124 a?pend:s 



object of our search was not easily visible at any distance ; too much 

 confidence, however, in the knowledge of our servants and guide who, 

 with true Persian effrontery, asserted they were familiar with the 

 appearance of the gez. in its natural state, nearly occasioned us a 

 complete disappointment. We had relinquished the pursuit in very 

 ill -humour, to resume our journey^ when we met, as chance would 

 have it, two peasants proceeding to the spot we had just quitted : as 

 usual, we accosted them, and were not alittle pleased at hearing they 

 were the people whose occupation it was to gather the gez. These 

 men were furnished with a stick three-fourths of an inch in diamet-er 

 and curved at the further extremity, which was covered with leather, 

 and a kind of oval leathern bowl, near three feet long and two broad, 

 with a handle to it, resembling an egg-shell cut in two longitudinally. 

 Besides these, they had a sieve suspended from the right side, to free 

 the "^^2 from the insects and small pieces of leaf that generally fall 

 with it when first beat from the bush : the bottom of the sieve was 

 of coarse woollen cloth. 



The countrymen were easily persuaded by a trifling present to fall 

 immediately to work and show us a specimen of their employment. 

 They turned off the road a few yards amongst "the bushes we had 

 just quitted, and placing the leathern receptacle underneath, they 

 beat the bushes on the top with the crooked stick ; in a few minutes 

 they had obtained a handful of a white kind of sticky substance not 

 unlike hoar frost, of a very rich sweet taste : this, after being 

 purified by boiling, is mixed up into the sweetmeat before mentioned 



w 



under the name of gezangabeen^ 



Though the gez^ when fresh gathered from the gavan bush, admits 

 of being sifted, stiU in this original state it is brittle and adhesive 

 at the same time, qualities for which it is so remarkable after its 

 preparation as a sweetmeat. If pressed, it sticks to the fingers ; but 

 on being smartly struck with a bit of wood separates easily into 

 small grains like lump-sugar. It is in this state in cool weather, or 

 when the thermometer does not exceed 68^ F. ; but liquefies on being 

 exposed to a higher temperature, resembling white honey both in 

 colour and taste. 



The shrub on which the gez was found is called the gavan; it 

 growls from a small root to the height of about two feet and a half, 

 spreading into a circular form at the ton from three to four feet and' 



