MANNA. 419 



stead of being taken off annually, are suffered to remain, 

 and hang down to the ground, forming an almost impene- 

 trable barrier round the tree, the top of which only is 

 crowned with green leaves. 



Manna. The true nature and origin of this substance, 

 celebrated as the miraculous food of the Israelites, have 

 not yet been very satisfactorily ascertained. The obser- 

 vations made by travellers and naturalists do not accord 

 with the Scripture narrative, nor do they afford any ex- 

 planation of the phenomena as recorded by Moses (Exod. 

 xvi., Numb, xi.) That it is a vegetable production is 

 generally admitted. Rauwolf has described a thorny plant 

 called algul which yields a species of manna; and Michaelis 

 mentions another under the name of alhage. Niebuhr 

 neglected to inquire after this substance, and what he 

 heard from a monk near Suez was an idle legend not 

 worth repetition. He was told that in Mesopotamia m anna 

 is produced by several trees of the oak genus; that it 

 covers the leaves like flour, and is obtained by shaking the 

 branches. July or August are the months in which it is 

 gathered, and it is found in greater abundance in moist 

 than in dry seasons. When fresh it is white and saccha- 

 rine, but it melts in the sun. At Bussora this traveller 

 was shown another species called taranjubil, which is 

 gathered from a prickly shrub near Ispahan : the grains 

 were round and yellowish. Both of these sorts were 

 used by the inhabitants as sugar in preparing several 

 dishes, especially pastry. Burckhardt is clearly of opinion 

 that the manna of Scripture is that which distils from the 

 tarfa or tamarisk-tree, a shrub abounding in the peninsula 

 of Sinai. This remarkable fact, he observes, remained 

 unknown in Europe until it was first mentioned by Seet- 

 zen. It is called mann by the Bedouins, and accurately 

 resembles that described by the Jewish historian.* In the 

 month of June it drops from the prickles of the tamarisk 

 upon the fallen leaves and twigs, which always cover the 

 ground beneath the branches, in its natural state. The 



* Josephus derives the name from the Hebrew particle man, 

 which, he says, means What is it ? this being the exclamation of 

 the Jews when they first beheld that divine and wonderful food. 

 (Antiq. b. iii. c. 1.) Whiston, in a note on the text, rather thinks 

 it comes from the verb niannah, to divide ; and mentions that in an 

 old heathen writer, Artapanus, it is compared " to oatmeal, and like 

 snow in colour." 



