MANNA 349 



There is, further, an oak-manna collected from Quercus vallonea 

 Kotschy and Q. persica. These trees are visited in the month of August 

 by immense numbers of a small white Coccus, from the puncture of 

 which a saccharine fluid exudes, and solidifies in little grains. The people 

 go out before sunrise, and shake the grains of manna from the branches 

 on to linen cloths spread out beneath the trees. The exudation is also 

 collected by dipping into vessels of hot water the small branches on 

 which it is formed, and evaporating the saccharine solution to a syrupy 

 consistence, which in this state is used for sweetening food, or is mixed 

 with flour to form a sort of cake. 1 



Aside from the afore-mentioned mannas, ScniiMMER 2 describes two 

 other varieties which I have not found in any other author. One he 

 calls in Persian &ker eighal (" sugar eighal"), saying that it is produced 

 by the puncture of a worm in the plant. This worm he has himself 

 found in fresh specimens. This manna is brought to Teheran by the 

 farmers of the Elburs, Lawistan, and Dimawend, but the plant occurs 

 also in the environment of Teheran and other places. Although this 

 manna almost lacks sweetness, it is a remarkable pectoral and alleviates 

 obstinate coughs. The other is the manna of Apocynum syriacum, 

 known in Persia as Siker al-o$r and imported from Yemen and Hedjaz. 

 According to the Persian pharmacologists, it is the product of a 

 nocturnal exudation solidified during the day, similar to small 

 pieces of salt, either white, or gray, and even black. It is likewise 

 employed medicinally. 



Manna belonged to the food-products of the ancient Iranians, and 

 has figured in their kitchen from olden times. When the great king so- 

 journed in Media, he received daily for his table a hundred baskets full 

 of manna, each weighing ten mines. It was utilized like honey for 

 the sweetening of beverages. 3 I am inclined to think that the Iranians 

 diffused this practice over Central Asia. 



The Yu yah tsa tsu has a reference to manna of India, as follows: 

 "In northern India there is a honey-plant growing in the form of a 

 creeper with large leaves, without withering yi the autumn and winter. 

 While it receives hoar-frost and dew, it forms the honey." According 

 to G. WATT, 4 some thirteen or fourteen plants in India are known to 



and HANBURY, Pharmacographia, p. 416; HANBURY, Science 

 Papers, p. 287; SCHLIMMER (Terminologie, p. 358) attributes the oak-manna to the 

 mountains of Kurdistan in Persia. 



2 Terminologie, p. 359. 



3 C. JORET, Plantes dans I'antiquit6, Vol. II, p. 93. Regarding manna in Persia, 

 see also E. SEIDEL, Mechithar, p. 163. 



4 Commercial Products of India, p. 929. 



