THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 165 



1850, in the most civilised part of Europe, viz., in the city 

 of Weimar, in Germany, there was a work pubHshed which 

 surpasses in its absurdities all the oriental manuscripts 

 with which we are acquainted. The book in question was 

 probably written for the mere purpose of making money, and 

 bears as its title, "Tne Wonders of Sympathy and Magne- 

 tism, &c,, by Gerstenbergk." 



In India, where the palm, cocos nud/era, grows, the 

 bakers use the juice of it, which is called toddy, to leaven 

 the dough. At Lahore, where toddy catmot be procured, 

 they employ in place of it a mixture of different spices \ 

 and, as the ladies at Lahore would probably like to know 

 what spices they are daily eating in their bread and pas- 

 try, I therefore take the liberty of giving them the recipe 

 of my Hindostanee baker. It is true the mixture is com- 

 posed only of innocent drugs, which are taken in such 

 minute quantities that they can never injure health, and 

 that most of them evaporate during baking. The recipe 

 runs thus:— Musk, nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, saf- 

 fron, cardamum seeds ( lesser ), ginger, fennel seeds, root of 

 the betel plant, bind-weed ( convolvulus argent.\ mild in- 

 derjuo seeds, shell of the cuttlefish, sugar of bamboo, gum- 

 tragacanth, mastic, and liquorice-root ; of each, one scruple. 

 Some people take also the kernel of the cotton-seed, or the 

 flowers of euryale ferox ( a water plant). These different 

 materials are pounded and mixed together, and kept in a 

 small box. When required for use, a small portion is 

 mixed with pollard, or wheaten flour, and made into a paste 

 with sour milk, in the proportion of one scruple of spices 

 to three ounces of the meal. The paste is then enclosed in 

 a cloth, and in summer the leaven is ready for use on the 

 next day, but in winter not till the third day. To this they 

 add three pounds of flour, and, with water, in which a 

 little salt is dissolved, make it into a hard dough, which 

 they knead on a board for half an hour, and then put 

 some sugar into it. Instead of the latter, I used some' sweet 

 potatoes ( convolvulus batatas ), when they were in season, 

 boiling, peeling, crushing, and mixing them with the dough. 



