424 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



it becomes a concrete substance. The former kind 

 is most esteemed ; it is detached from the bark with 

 a sharp iron instrument : those persons who are 

 careful in collecting it spread cloths on the ground 

 under the trees, that the juice which falls may not 

 be injured by coming in contact with the earth. The 

 first gathering lasts during eight successive days, 

 after which fresh incisions are made in the tree, and 

 they are untouched until the 25th of September. 

 Then the second gathering begins, and it is riot 

 allowed to cut the trees any more that season, but 

 the mastic which continues to run is gathered until 

 the 19th of November, on the Monday and Tuesday 

 of every week ; after which time it is forbidden to 

 gather this production. 



The culture of the lentisk is simple, and attended 

 with little trouble ; it consists much more in 

 cleansing than in turning the soil. The cultivators 

 do not prune this tree, but, on the contrary, endea- 

 vour to prevent the stem from growing in a hand- 

 some form, as it has been found from experience 

 that the lentisks which trail yield much more mastic 

 than those the stems of which are straight and 

 shooting. 



It may readily be imagined that all the Greeks in 

 the island would gladly have become cultivators of 

 the lentisk, by which they would gain exemption 

 from the petty and harassing tyranny to which others 

 were constantly subjected ; but while it was prohi- 

 bited under the severest penalties to offer the mastic 

 for sale to any but the aga who farmed it, the culti- 

 vation of the lentisk was forbidden out of the limits 

 traced by the government. 



A Turk had recourse to an ingenious stratagem 

 by which he evaded the law, and hoped to obtain 

 some of the advantages acquired by the cultivation 

 of mastic. He grafted the lentisk on young turpen- 



