5. Tamarisk Manna. 
By Davin Hooper. 
The sweet exudation of the Tamarisk shrub has been known 
from very early times. Herodotus, writing! of the travels of 
Xerxes, speaks of the city of Callatebos wherein dwell ‘‘ confec- 
tioners who compose sweetmeats of tamarisk honey and wheat.” 
Commentators on Herodotus have differed in their opinion 
about the honey mentioned inthe Greek text, some referring 
it to a natural sugar collected from the bushes, while others 
regarded it as an artificial preparation. Sir W. Ouseley,? 
and Armenia. He described the sweetmeat gezanjabin used 
throughout Persia as flat round cakes composed of the white 
gummy gez mixed with rosewater, flour and pistachio nuts. 
It had the appearance and feel of dough though it was adhesive, 
hard and brittle. Captain Frederick observed the collection 
of the manna near Khonsar. i 
was found was called gavan: it grew from a small root to 
l Herod., lib. vii, cap. 31. 
2 Travels (1811), i, 381. 
3 Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, September 28, 1813. 
