574 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



many Greek authors. Herodotus, writing 400 years before the Christian era, describes 

 Arabia as the last inhabited country toward the south, and the only region which 

 produces frankincQnse, myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, and ledanum. He states that the 

 Arabians, however, were ignorant of the particular spot where cinnamon grew. It was 

 not till the time of Dioscorides, Galen, and the circumnavigation of the Erythraean 

 Sea (B. C. 200,) that we get any definite information. Galen says that cinnamon and 

 cassia are so much alike that it is not an easy matter to distinguish one from the other. 

 Cinnamon of the best quality is imported at the present day from Ceylon and the 

 Malabar coast. It comes in bales and chests, the bundles weighing about a pound 

 each. The pieces consist of slender compound quills about three feet long, each 

 enclosing several smaller quills. These are thin, smooth, and of a brownish color; of 

 a warm, sweetish, and agreeable taste, and fragrant odor; but several kinds are known 

 in modern markets, as they were in ancient times. The best kinds of cinnamon are 

 obtained from twigs and shoots; those of less than half an inch, or more than three 

 inches in diameter, are not peeled. When the bark is partially dry the smaller quills 

 are introduced into the larger ones, and in this way congeries of quills are formed, 

 often measuring forty inches in length. The quills cvre then thoroughly dried in the 

 sun, and made into bundles with pieces of split bamboo twigs. 



" An oil of cinnamon is prepared by macerating the coarser pieces of the bark, after 

 being reduced to a coarse powder, in sea-water for two days, and then distilling it. A 

 fatty substance is also obtained by bruising and boiling the ripened fruit, when an 

 oily substance floats on the surface, which on cooling concretes into a whitish, rather 

 hard, fatty matter. As the oil burns with a delightful fragrance, the kings of Kaudy 

 used to burn it in their audience chambers when receiving foreign ambassadors. The 

 wood also is pervaded with the same grateful perfume, and walking-sticks and small 

 articles of furniture made from it are highly prized. 



*' Cassia bark is with difficulty distinguished from Cinnamon, except by experts. 

 During the palmy Dutch days there were professional tasters who were able to dis- 

 criminate between half a score of different qualities of cinnamon ; and they were 

 required when on duty to live wholly on rice, bread, and fruits, so as not to impair 

 the keenness of their gustatory sensibilities. They, of course, were quite able to dis- 

 tinguish between cinnamon and cassia ; the more readily because the latter left a bitter 

 taste in the mouth. Chemistry distinguishes them still more readily ; for a decoction 

 of cassia, when treated with a tincture of iodine, gives a blue color, which cinnamon 

 does not. At the present day, cinnamon has to a great extent lost its favor as a con- 

 diment. The principal consumers of it are the chocolate-makers of France, Spain, 

 Italy and Mexico. The Germans, Turks and Russians prefer cassia, on account of its 

 stronger flavor. Not very long since a large quantity of cinnamon, worth a dollar a 

 pound, was sent by mistake to Constantinople, where it could not be sold even at the 

 price of cassia, worth only a seventh as much, which was in great demand." 



Nutmegs and Gloves, the costly productions of the remotest isles of the Indian 

 Ocean, were known in Europe for centuries before the countries where they grow had 

 ever been heard of. Arabian navigators brought them to Egypt, where they were 

 purchased by the Venetians and sold at an enormous profit to the nations of the west. 

 I3ut, as is well known, the commercial grandeur of the city of the Lagunes was 



