EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 343 
As often as the camels, horfes, afles, flieep, &c. drink, a large 
piece of it is put into the trough of water. The natives conceive 
that it renders them more eager of their food, and thus tends 
to fatten them. Some camels refufe it, but in general they 
acquire a preference for that water which is moft ftrongly im- 
pregnated. When they refufe it, the natron is pulverized, 
formed into balls, with the flour of maize, and forced down their 
throats before they drink. 
For the human race natron is ufed to remove the head-achs, 
intermittent and remittent fevers, &c. which prevail during the 
rainy feafon. Two or three ounces of crude natron are dif- 
folved in water, and taken fafting. It operates as a draftic 
purge, and with fome as an emetic. With robuft and plethoric 
habits, there feems to be no inconvenience from the ufe of it, 
but I experienced from it an unfavourable rather than beneficial 
floj sfl2 z'Jhio \h nr oi -itth . ' ' 
'Tamarinds. 
The tamarind, Thummara Hindi * on? of the mofl; ufeful as 
well as valuable of the productions of the country, fupplies the 
want of many others. In defeat of lemons and other acidS) this 
fruit, mixed with water, conftitutes an agreeable and refrefhing 
drink. When dried by beating in a mortar, it is formed into 
cakes, each of 2 or 300 drams in weight. The decodion of it 
* Thummara Hindi means fimply Fruit of India, not datcy as infinuated by the 
learned author of the Botanical Ohfervaiions, in Afiatic Refearches^^oX. iv. p. 250. 
