234 LEGUMINOS^. 



of which are strongly fibrous, small yellowish flowers densely arranged 

 in spikes 2 to 3 inches long, and exceeding the bipinnate leaves, and a 

 broad legume 3 to 4 inches in length containing 5 to 6 seeds. 



According to Schweinfurth,^ it is this tree exclusively that yields 

 the fine white gum of the countries bordering the Upper Nile, and 

 especially of Kordofan. He states that only brownish or reddish sorts 

 of gum are produced by the Talch, Talha or Kakul, Acacia stenocarpa 

 Hochstetter, by the Ssoflar, A. fistula Schweinf (A. Seyal Delile, var. 

 Fistula), as well as by the Ssant or Sont, A. nilotica Desfont (A. 

 arabica Willd.). These trees grow in north-eastern Africa ; the last- 

 named is, moreover, widely disti'ibuted all over tropical Africa as far as 

 Senegambia,^ Mozambique and Natal, and also extends to Sindh, 

 Gujarat^ and Central India. We find even the first sort, " Karami," 

 of gum exported from the Somali coast,^ to be inferior to good common 

 Arabic gum. Hildebrandt (1875) mentions that gum is there largely 

 collected from Acacia abyssinica Hochst. and A. glaucophylla Steudel. 



History — The history of this drug carries us back to a remote anti- 

 quity. The Egyptian fleets brought gum from the gulf of Aden as 

 early as the ITth century B.C. Thus in the treasury of king Rhampsinit 

 (Ramses III.) at Medinet Abu, there are representations of gum-trees, 

 together with heaps of gum. The symbol used to signify gum, is read 

 Kami-en-jyiint. i.e. gum from the country of Punt. This, in all proba- 

 bility, includes both the Somali coast as well as that of the opposite 

 parts of Arabia (see article Olibanum, p. 136). Thus, gum is of 

 frequent occurrence in Egyptian inscriptions; sometimes mention is 

 made of gum from Canaan. The word kami is the original of the 

 Greek Kofxjui, whence through the Latin our own word gum!" 



The Egyptians used gum largely in painting ; an inscription exists 

 whicli states that in one particular instance a solution of Kami (gum) 

 was used to render adherent the mineral pigment called chesteb,^ the 

 name applied to lapis lazuli or to a glass coloured blue by cobalt. 



Turning to the Greeks, we find that Theophrastus in the 3rd and 

 4th century B.C. mentioned Ko/xjui as a product of the Egyptian "'A/cai^Oa, 

 of which tree there was a forest in the Thebais of Upper Egypt. 

 Strabo also, in describing the district of Arsinoe, the modern Fayum, 

 says that gum is got from the forest of the Thebaic Akanthe. 



Celsus in the 1st century mentions Gummi acanthinurti ; Dios- 

 corides and Pliny also describe Egyptian gum, which the latter values 

 at 3 denarii [2s.] per lb. 



In those times gum no doubt used to be shipped from north-eastern 

 Africa to Arabia ; there is no evidence showing that Arabia itself had 

 ever furnished the chief bulk of the drug. The designation gum arable 



^ Atifmhlunr/ tind Beschreihung der Aca- * As presented to me by Capt. Hunter 



cien-ArtendesNih/ebiets. — Linncea, i. (1867) of Aden, .July 1877. — F.A.F. 

 308-376, with 21 plates. Schweinfurth's ^ We have to thank Professor Diimichen 



observations are strongly confirmed by an for most of the information relating to 



account of the commerce of Khai-tum in Egj^jt, which may be partly found in his 



the Zeitschrift fur Erdktinde, ii. (1867, own works, and partly in those of Brugsch, 



Berlin) 474. Ebers, and Lepsius. 



- The .4. ^dansonij Guill. ct Perr. is the 'Lepsius, Abhaiidl. der Akademie der 



same tree. Wisscnsch. zu Berlin for 1871, p. 77. 126. 



^The "Kikar" of the Punjaub, or Metalle in den Aegyptischen Inschriften. 

 " Babul " or " Babur " of Central India. 



i 



