27° TRAVELS IN UPPER 



countries, has likewise then its despotism ! But it 

 has nothing in it harsh nor maleficent : its ca- 

 prices are amiable ; it bears only on flowers. 



A remarkable singularity is, that the perfume 

 which the flowers of the henna exhale, ceases to 

 be agreeable when you smell to it very close : it 

 is then almost entirely absorbed by a very decided 

 <p:rmatic odour. On crushing some of those 

 flowers between the fingers, this last odour pre- 

 dominates : it is then indeed the only one percep- 

 tible. This particularity is a source of insipid 

 pleasantries to the ivils of the country, and the 

 property ascribed to the hernia of procuring abor- 

 tion, renders them inexhaustible. They extract from 

 those same flowers a perfumed water, which sup- 

 plies their place during the short space which they 

 themselves disappear. As to the numerous medi- 

 cinal virtues which the different parts of the plant 

 are said to possess, nothing certain has hitherto 

 been established by experiment. Several authors 

 have made the enumeration, and I satisfy mvself 

 with referring to them *. 



But the useful and admitted properties of the 

 henna are not limited to objects of pleasure or 



* Vide Prosp. Alpin. de Plantis Egyp. cap. 13. — Ejnsdem 

 deMedicam. Egyp. lib. 4. cap. 1. — Boutii Notas in Garciam ab 

 Hoi to, in cap. 3. lib. 2. &c.&c. 



of 



