2 QO GUM ARABIC. 



profusion in the neighbourhood of the Stettite says 

 that in December 1862 



" there was a perfect exhibition of gum Arabic bearing trees. 

 At this season " (he says) " the gum was in perfection and 

 of the finest quality, in beautiful amber-coloured masses upon 

 the stems and branches, varying from the size of a nutmeg 

 to that of an orange hard as ice on the exterior, but limpid 

 in the centre, resembling melted amber, and as clear as 

 though refined by some artificial process. The trees were 

 perfectly denuded of leaves from the extreme drought, and 

 the beautiful balls of frosted gum recalled the idea of pre- 

 cious jewels upon the trees in the gardens of the Arabian 

 Nights." * 



This gum was also exceedingly sweet and pleasant 

 to the taste. 



It is quite conceivable that some of these stories of 

 enchanted gardens related by writers of Oriental ro- 

 mance, may have had their origin out of ideas created 

 by scenes of this kind. The vast extent and desola- 

 tion of these boundless wildernesses, the curious freaks 

 of the mirage, and the extreme sameness of the land- 

 scape during the dry season, is, as the great Dr. Liv- 

 ingstone has more than once observed "peculiarly 

 conducive to meditation, and one is glad of any subject 

 to occupy the mind, and relieve the monotony of the 

 weary treadmill-like trudge-trudging. " f 



The romantic fancies with which the minds of 

 nomadic peoples of the Arabic race are filled, are thus 

 easily accounted for; while their belief in Genii, and 

 other spirits of the waste, naturally causes their tales 

 to be mostly coloured by visions of the supernatural. 



* The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, by Sir Samuel W. Baker, 

 1867, pp. 336 7. 



) Expedition to the Zambesi, by David Livingstone, 1865, p. 506. 



