330 Note on the Mijjertheijn Somalees [No. 149. 



the blown horse with a shock that half breaks his jaw, and fills his 

 mouth with blood. 



The affection of the true Arab for his horse is proverbial ; the cruelty 

 of the Somali to his, may, I think, be considered equally so. 



During the hot season, the men and boys are daily employed in 

 collecting gums, which process is carried on as follows : — 



About the end of February, or the beginning of March, the Bedouins 

 visit all the trees in succession and make a deep incision in each, 

 peeling off a narrow strip of bark for about five inches below the wound. 

 This is left for a month, when a fresh incision is made in the same 

 place, but deeper. A third month elapses, and the operation is again 

 repeated, after which the gum is supposed to have attained a proper 

 degree of consistency. 



The mountain sides are immediately covered with parties of men and 

 boys, who scrape off the large clear globules into one basket, whilst the 

 inferior quality, that has ran down the tree, is packed separately. 



The gum when first taken from the tree is very soft, but hardens 

 quickly. The flame is clear and brilliant, and the traveller is frequent- 

 ly amused by seeing a miserable Bedouin family cowering under a 

 wretched hovel, or hole in the rocks, eating their scanty meal by the 

 light of half a dozen frankincense torches. Every fortnight the 

 mountains are visited in this manner, the trees producing large quanti- 

 ties as the season advances, until the middle of September, when the 

 first shower of rain puts a close to the gathering that year. 



On my first arrival here, I made many inquiries regarding the quan- 

 tity of gums annually shipped from this coast for the Red Sea and 

 Indian markets, but the accounts I received were so surprising, that I 

 placed no confidence in them. As I became more acquainted with the 

 merchants here, I was able to make more minute inquiries. I first as- 

 certained the number of boats belonging to the tribe, and their owners, 

 I then, by visiting the different ports, found out how many boats had 

 taken cargoes of gums at the opening of the fair season, and by com- 

 paring their statement with different accounts that I got afterwards 

 from the shippers, I was enabled to form a tolerably just estimate, 

 in round numbers, of the large quantity annually exported from this 

 coast, and which export trade is almost entirely in the hands of those 

 never-failing speculators, the banians of Porebunder and Bombay. 



