26 Brigade-Surgeon J. E. T. Aitchison's Notes on Frodticts 



is obtained an extract called ihrdn ; this is a yellow dye, 

 which is also employed in medicine as a local application to 

 inflamed eyes. 



Berry — chdm, ddna, hah. 



Beta vulgaris, Linn. Chenopodiace^. 



Beet. The plant, and Beet-root, cliuk-a7ular, laUahu. The 

 leaves are employed whilst still young as a pot herb, but the 

 plant is grown for its root, of which there are the two 

 varieties, red and white. The ordinary beetrroot of Afghan- 

 istan and Persia is larger and finer in quality than that 

 usually met with in markets in England. The Afghans 

 especially are very fond of this vegetable. 



Beverages — 



The usual beverage of the Persians is tea, a commodity 

 procurable in the smallest shop, and obtainable in a prepared 

 state by the traveller at almost any house ; by the Afghans 

 it is said not to be nearly so much used as it is by the 

 Persians. Milk made sour by the addition of oxygal is the 

 usual offering of a household, especially amongst the nomads, 

 where that article is plentiful, on the arrival of a friend or 

 stranger at the house, accompanied with some bread. At 

 certain seasons, or when milk cannot be procured, an infusion 

 of mulberries, or vinegar to which has been added water and 

 sugar, is offered to the guest in lieu of milk. "Wine and 

 spirits, except in the houses of the wealthy, are drunk in 

 private, and not ordinarily as a beverage. 



Bhang — t^%j — Indian -hemp, Cannabis sativa. 

 Bhi — ^ — bhi — ^^j — the Quince, Pyrus Cydonia. 

 Bhi-ddna — *Jl:> ^^j — Quince seeds, the seeds of Pyrus 



Cydonia. 

 Bhusa — U_j.^j — the Indian term for the crushed 



straw of various crops, usually applied to that 



of wheat and barley ; its Persian equivalent is 



ka, kd. 

 Bl, he — ^yi — without. 



