322 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



done before sunrise. In order to free it from all ex- 

 traneous matter, it is again liquified by the sun's heat, 

 and passed through a strainer; it is then fit for use. 

 The quantity produced is very small, a large tree yield- 

 ing little better than a pound or eighteen ounces. In 

 the eastern part of the islands, the trees afford some- 

 what more, but still so little as to render it very costly, 

 and on this account it is generally adulterated. 



Tournefort says, the peasants of Chios gather it from 

 the flat stones placed under the trees to receive it, by 

 means of little sticks, from which they drop it into bot- 

 tles ; and that they sell at thirty or thirty-five parats the 

 oque*. 



" The island," he says, " furnishes but three hun- 

 dred oques f ." 



The best Chio turpentine is about the consistence of 

 thick honey; very tenacious, clear, and almost trans- 

 parent. It is of a yellowish white; the smell is fra- 

 grant, it is moderately warm to the taste, and entirely 

 free from acrimony and bitterness. 



According to Dr. Geddes and other learned writers, 

 the turpentine tree is frequently mentioned in the Old 

 Testament, where the translators have rendered it in- 

 correctly : in some cases it has been made to signify an 

 oak J, sometimes a plane , &c. Dr. Geddes expresses 

 a doubt whether the original word ever signifies a plane, 

 " whereas," continues he, " it certainly signifies a tree 

 of some sort or other ; and it is my fixed opinion, that it 



* An oque weighs three pounds and nine ounces, 

 t Tournefort's Levant, vol. ii. p. 70. 

 J See Genesis, chap. xxxv. 4 ; Joshua, chap. xxiv. 26. 

 Genesis, chap. xii. 6. 



