76 TEE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



down and replaced by another. It is full of a pale 

 gray liquid, resembling weak barley-water. This is 

 fresh laqby, a juice almost sickening from its exces- 

 sive sweetness, but useful as a pleasant, weak laxative 

 to be taken in the morning. A few hours later fer- 

 mentation begins in the vessel, the liquid clears up 

 and seems to boil ; innumerable bubbles of air rise to 

 the surface, forming a light foam, and if you taste the 

 sparkling beverage now, you will not sigh for the vint- 

 age of champagne. Laqby, drunk in this condition, 

 is harmless, cheering, without intoxication, and pro- 

 ducing no evil effects ; the fermentation renders it re- 

 freshing and takes away its laxative properties. But 

 let it stand another half day and this liquor will be- 

 come white and thick like milk, with a penetrating 

 odor, and a slightly acrid taste, and in this state it in- 

 toxicates like brandy. The champagne has become a 

 white beer of astonishing alcoholic strength. It is 

 then that amateurs love it best. Many a good Mussul- 

 man and his scrupulous wife (who veils her face before 

 a glass of wine), will drink in public, and without hes- 

 itation, a cup of laqby, which is only the " water of 

 the palm." 



When it has reached this stage the vessel must be 

 emptied, for on the morrow the beverage would be 

 found spoiled and full of small reddish insects. In fact 

 it is the most perishable of all drinks, and has to be con- 

 sumed under the very tree from which it is drawn. 

 All attempts to regulate or arrest the fermentation 

 have been fruitless. It preaches, like no other preach- 

 er, the poets' doctrine, carpe diem. In Tripoli 



