Chap. 19.] 
THE EGTPTIAI^ THOEN". 
183 
CHAP. 18.^ — THE CUCUS. 
On the other hand, the wood of the cucus^^ is held in very 
high esteem. It is similar in nature to the palm, as its leaves 
are similarly used for the purposes of texture : it differs from 
it, however, in spreading out its arms in large branches. The 
fruit, which is of a size large enough to fill the hand, is of a 
' tawny colour, and recommends itself by its juice, which is a 
mixture of sweet and rough. The seed in the inside is large 
and of remarkable hardness, and turners use it for making 
curtain rings.^^ The kernel is sweet, while fresh ; but when 
dried it becomes hard to a most remarkable degree, so much 
so, that it can only be eaten after being soaked in water for 
several days. The wood is beautifully mottled with circling 
veins, for which reason it is particularly esteemed among the 
Persians. 
CHAP. 19. THE EGYPTIAN THOEI?'. 
'No less esteemed, too, in the same country, is a certain kind 
of thorn,^* though only the black variety, its wood being im- 
perishable, in water even, a q[uality which renders it particu- 
larly valuable for making the sides of ships : on the other hand, 
the white kinds will rot very rapidly. It has sharp, prickly 
thorns on the leaves even, and bears its seeds in pods ; they 
are employed for the same purposes as galls in the preparation 
of leather. The flower, too, has a pretty effect when made 
into garlands, and is extremely useful in medicinal preparations. 
A gum, also, distils from this tree ; but the principal merit 
that it possesses is, that when it is cut down, it will grow 
again within three years. It grows in the vicinity of Thebes, 
where we also find the quercus, the Persian tree, and the olive : 
the spot that produces it is a piece of woodland, distant three 
^1 Many have taken this to be the cocoa-nut tree ; but, as-- Fee remarks, 
that is a tree of India, and this of Egypt, There is little doubt that it is 
the doum of the Arabs, the Cucifera Thebaica of Delille. The timber of 
the trunk is much used in Egypt, and of the leaves carpets, bags, and 
panniers are made. In fact, the description of it and its fruit is almost 
identical with that here given by Pliny. 
^- The seed or stone of the doum is still used in Egypt for making the 
beads of chaplets : it admits of a very high polish. 
Materies crispioris/elegantise. 
See B. xxiv. c. 67. This is, no doubt, the Acacia Nilotica of LinnsBus, 
which produces the gum Arabic of modern commerce. 
