Idle Days. 129 
the under side of the lower branches, and is, when 
fresh, semi-transparent and sticky as bird-lime. 
To fit it for use the natives make it into pellets, 
and hold it on the point of a stick over a basin of 
cold water ; a coal of fire is then approached to it, 
causing it to melt and trickle down by drops into 
the basin. The drops, hardened by the process, 
are then kneaded with the fingers, cold water being 
added occasionally, till the gum becomes thick and 
opaque like putty. To chew it properly requires 
a great deal of practice, and when this indigenous 
art has been acquired a small ball of maken may 
be kept in the mouth two or three hours every day, 
and used for a week or longer without losing its 
agreeable resinous flavour or diminishing in bulk, 
so firmly doesit hold together. The maken-chewer, 
on taking the ball or quid from his mouth, washes 
it and puts it by for future use, just as one does 
with a tooth-brush. Chéwing gum is not merely 
an idle habit, and the least that can be said in its 
favour is that it allays the desire for excessive 
smoking—no small advantage to the idle dwellers, 
white or red, in this desert land; it also preserves 
the teeth by keeping them free from extraneous 
matter, and gives them such a pearly lustre as I 
have never seen outside of this region. 
My own attempts at chewing maken have, so far, 
proved signal failures. Somehow the gum invari- 
ably spreads itself in a thin coat over the interior of 
my mouth, covering the palate like a sticking- 
plaster and enclosing the teeth in a stubborn rubber 
K 
