CHAP. I. 
ARABS. 
45 
the date season commences, many families come and pitch their 
tents in the Meshea of TripoH, in order to purchase dates for their 
future subsistence ; these they deprive of the stones, and when 
kneaded together, keep them in skins, so as to preserve them from 
insects or wet : these form their chief support, assisted by the 
milk of their sheep and camels. That of the camel, as I have 
before noticed, is thin, of a bluish colour (resembling cow's milk 
mixed with water), and rather salt to the taste ; it throws up no cream, 
but soon coagulates hke new curds. The ewe milk is excellent, 
but is never drank fresh, the Arabs preferring it sour, or, more pro- 
perly, as butter-milk. The flocks are milked morning and night into 
large bowls, and when a sufficient quantity is thus collected, it is 
poured into skins, without much attention being paid to its clean- 
liness, when by shaking and rolling it about, butter is procured, 
and generally attaches itself to the side of the skin ; the milk being 
then strained from it into other vessels, is allowed to grow sour, 
and a quantity of butter being produced, it is boiled with a little 
salt until it becomes hke oil, and is then poured into goat-skins, 
and is fit for use or market. 
Cheese is procured by turning the milk with a certain herb 
(the name of which I have forgotten), and the curds, being salted, 
are spread out to dry in the sun, when they resemble little crums, 
and are very pleasant to the taste. I did not see any other kind 
of cheese than the one I have mentioned, and this is rather scarce, 
and used as a luxury in many of their little messes. Sometimes it is 
toasted, and has a very agreeable flavour. It is called Jibn, ^j^. 
A great article of commerce is the fat which the shepherds 
procure from the sheep they kill. They cut it from every part of 
the body, salt it, and lay it by until a large quantity is collected, when, 
whether putrid or not, they boil it, until it bear some resemblance 
to the grease used by tallow-chandlers; it is then poured into 
