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NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



caravan crossing the African desert to Cairo in 1750. 

 Finding their provisions consumed while they had yet 

 sixty days to travel, they had recourse to gum-arabic, of 

 which they carried a considerable quantity with them; 

 and upon this alone 1000 persons subsisted for two months. 

 Burckhardt, however, in another place says, that in Wady 

 Nebk he found the acacia-trees thickly covered with this 

 gum, which the Towara tribe sell at Cairo, though its 

 quality is inferior to that from Sennaar or Soudan. The 

 Bedouins use it as a substitute for water. Some have 

 supposed the gum-arabic-tree to be the Acacia vera (the 

 Mimosa Nilotica, Linn.), which Hasselquist says the 

 Egyptian Arabs call charrad (perhaps the gharrab of 

 Burckhardt), and which he represents as also producing 

 the thus or frankincense, and the Succus acacice. The 

 thus he describes as pellucid and white, or rather co- 

 lourless ; while the gum is of a brownish or dirty yel- 

 low. This exactly agrees with the accounts given of the 

 manna ; hence it is probable these substances are nearly, 

 if not altogether, identical. In collecting the leaves of the 

 acacia for the use of their camels, the Bedouins spread a 

 straw mat under the tree, and beat the boughs with long 

 sticks, when the youngest and freshest buds are brought 

 down ; and these are sold in the markets as fodder. 



Honey is an article much used in Arabian cookery, and 

 found in various districts of the country. The mountains 

 near Safra swarm with bees, of which the Bedouins take 

 possession by placing wooden hives upon the ground. 

 This honey is of the finest quality, white, and clear as 

 water. One of the most interesting productions of Wady 

 Ghor is the beyrouk honey (the Assal beyrouk of the 

 Arabs), which Burckhardt supposed to be manna. It was 

 described to him as a juice dropping from the leaves and 

 twigs of the gharrab-tree, about the height of an olive, 

 with leaves like those of the poplar, only somewhat broad- 

 er. The honey is sweet when fresh, but turns sour when 

 kept for two days. It is gathered in May and June, 

 either from the leaves, on which it collects like dew, or 

 from the ground under the tree. The colour is brown- 

 ish, or rather of a grayish hue. 



Shrubs. The deserts and mountains of Arabia produce 

 a variety of shrubs, with the uses and qualities of which 

 we are but imperfectly acquainted, and many of their 

 names might have remained utterly unknown had they 



