MASTICHE 209 



October and the winter months being the season 

 selected. 



Steamers touching at Ohio are boarded by men with 

 baskets of peculiarly shaped little earthen vases filled 

 with fine chewing mastic, which they sell for 2^ 

 piastres each. These have been celebrated from time 

 immemorial, and are today in form and size as they 

 were hi times gone by. 



Mastic is gathered from June to September, the 

 process being disturbed if there be excessive rains. No 

 adulterations of the drug are consummated in Turkey, 

 but since mastic is offered elsewhere cheaper than it is 

 supplied in Smyrna, where the product of Chio nat- 

 urally gravitates, we may infer that manipulative 

 processes are elsewhere possible. 



COMMERCIAL FEATURES. As before stated, mastic 

 was once one of the important Oriental products, being 

 prized from times gone by by the ladies in the rich 

 Turkish harems as a breath perfumer, in which direction 

 it is yet employed by the Turkish people. That this 

 use is not illogical from a sanitary stand is shown from 

 the fact that mastic carries a decided volatile aromatic 

 that is powerfully antiseptic, which can not be said of 

 all "chewing gums." Possibly the nearest American 

 chewing gum that in this sense approaches mastic, is 

 the natural spruce gum of the north, or the "sweet 

 gum" of the middle west and the south, both of which 

 carry breath-sweetening, antiseptic aromatics. Mastic 

 is to be found in the Turkish bazaars generally, where 

 it is displayed hi the shops in separate piles, of different 

 qualities. Choice tears are often sold in boxes holding 

 about an ounce. The price was formerly as high as 

 forty-five dollars per kilogram, but it is now about two 



