BALSAM OF MECCA. 425 



rind ; from these the juice immediately issues, which is 

 then taken off with the thumb-nail and put into a vessel. 

 The gum appears to he of two kinds ; one of a white 

 colour, which is most esteemed, the other of a yellowish- 

 white. The latter, which the Bedouins bring to market 

 in small sheepskin bottles, has a bitter taste and a strong 

 turpentine smell. The people of Safra generally adulterate 

 it with sesamum-oil and tar. When they try its purity, 

 they dip their finger into it and apply it to the fire ; if it 

 burn without giving pain or leaving a mark, they judge 

 it to be of good quality ; if otherwise, they consider it 

 bad. The test mentioned by Bruce of letting a drop fall 

 into a cup of water, when the good falls coagulated to 

 the bottom and the bad swims on the surface, is unknown 

 to the Hejazees. The Bedouins who sell it to the Safra 

 Arabs demand two or three dollars a-pound for it when 

 quite genuine ; while the latter dispose of it to the hajjis, 

 chiefly the Persians, in an adulterated state, at five or six 

 times the prime cost. The richer classes put a drop into 

 the first cup of coffee which they drink in the morning, 

 from a notion that it acts as a tonic. That which is sold 

 at Mecca and Jidda, for the Cairo market, always under- 

 goes several adulterations. The seeds are employed to 

 procure abortion, but the balm itself is used medi- 

 cinally, and highly valued in the harems on account of 

 its cosmetic qualities. Forskal, who gives a botanical 

 description of this tree as a new species of Amyris, 

 found one of them in the open fields. Its appearance 

 was not beautiful ; but what seems very remarkable is, 

 that the inhabitants of Yemen, according to his account, 

 were ignorant of its qualities. They only burn the wood 

 as a perfume in the same manner as they do the kafal, 

 another sort of Amyris, which is exported to Egypt, and 

 there used as fuel, to communicate an agreeable odour to 

 the vessels and the liquors which are boiled in them. 



Gharkad (the Peganum retusum of Forskal), a thorny 

 shrub, bearing a small red berry about the size of a pome- 

 granate-seed, is common in the peninsula of Sinai, espe- 

 cially in Wady Gharendel. It comes to maturity in the 

 height of summer, and surprises the traveller by the de- 

 licious refreshment which it affords in the parched and 

 solitary wilderness. The fruit is juicy and pleasant, 

 much resembling a ripe gooseberry in taste, but not so 

 sweet ; and when the crop is abundant the Arabs make 



