Part I. Travels into the h bv ant. 05 
CHAP. LXII. 
Vf the MafiicI^Treef. The Monajlery of Niamoni, 
and the School of Homer. 
BEing curious to fee the Trees that yield Maftick, which is gathered no Maftkk-Tree 
where but in this Ifland, I got a Jamz^ary from the Mafler of the Cuftome- 
houfe, and went with the Vice-Conful to CaUmacha^ which is one of the chXtî Cai'meicha. 
Villages of the Ifland. There are two Gates to enter it, of which one that was 
built four hundred years ago, is ftill in good repair ; itisofnoufeatprefent, 
and is always open. There are fix 6m^ Churches in this Village, and about 
thirty round it, with a Convent of Nuns. This place is very well peopled, 
and when I went there, there were in it (as I was told) three hundred and 
forty eight Men, who paid the Karad_^e, all married ^ for thofe who are 
unmarried, pay no Karad^e'm that place. Near to this Town, there are three- 
fcore Maftick-Trees, which I went to fee; they are Lemisks, crooked like 
Vines, and creeping upon the ground. Diofcorides affirms, that they yield Ma- 
flick in feveral other places, but Hill acknowledges, that the Maltick that 
grows elfewhere, is rarer, and not fo good as that of Chio ; for having it, they 
prick thefe Trees in the Months ofAt^ufi and September^' and the Maflick, which MafticL 
is their Gumm, fweating cut by the holes they have made in the Bark, runs 
down the Tree and falls upon the ground, where it congeals into flat pieces, 
which fome time after they gather, then dry them in the Sun, and afterwards 
range and fhake them in a Ranging-five, to feparate the duft from them, 
which fo flicks to the faces of thofe that handle the Sive, that they cannot get 
it off, but by rubbing their faces with OyJ. There are two and twenty Villac^es 
that have Maftick-Trees, and among them all, they have an hundred thoufa^d 
of them) for whichthey yearly pay to the 6'?'W5z^«/or three hundred Chelts 
of Maftick, which make feven and twenty thoufand O^^ues^ at fourfcore and ten 
0<5|«« the Cheft, andevery Oij-^i? contains four hundred Draçhras. Inraifingall 
this Maftick, every one of the Villages where it grows, is affelfed at fo many 
Oqfies, according as they have more or fewer Trees, for they know within a 
little, how much every Tree can yield y and feeing all years are not alike good 
or bad for all the quarters where they grow, they who gather more than they 
are to pay, fell to thofe who have not gathered fo much as their Tax comes to, 
at the rate of threefcore Afpres the O^jne, for they affift one another as much as 
they can, elfe they would be obliged to buy of the Mailer of the Cuftome-houfe, 
at the rate of two Piailres the Ocjue. Afterwards they fell what they have over 
totheCuftomer, at the price of threefcore Afpres the 0^«e, v;hich turns to A grest nvi' 
good acount to him ; for they are not fuifered to fell to any but the Mafter of 
the Cuftoms,who fells it afterwards for an hundred and fourfcore Afpres,or two 
Piailres the Ocpse, there being none but he in Chio that can fell any, becaufe it 
is a Commodity that belongs to the Grand Si£nior, as the Terra Si^tlUta qy TerrasigillaM, 
Terra Lemnia is ^ and for that reafon they have Waiters upon all the Avenues '^^''^'^ -t''™''?- 
of the places where the Trees grow,who live in little houfes purpofely builc for 
them;and fearch all that come or go that way,tofee if they have anyMafl ick about 
them, apd that fo ftrdly, that my Jcm^^ary told me that once they had found a 
good piece about a Wcm2n,which Ihe had hid in her mofi: privy parts. Whofoe- 
ver are taken Healing of Maflick,are without remiffion fent to the Galleys. This 
Mailick is a whitifh Gumm, ofa very good fcent, made ufe of in the compofition The ufe of 
of many Oyntraents \ but the Greeks fpend a great deal of in chewing, and the ^î'^^^^j^k- 
Women and Girls more, who ufeitfo frequently, that they are never without 
a piece of Maflick in their mouth. That makes them fpit much, and (they fay) 
it whitens their teeth , and renders their breath fweet. They put it alio 
into their bread, to make it more delicate j and when upon my departure 
from 
