I Remember To Have Read, In
Bruce's Travels, An Account Of The Mode Of Trying It, By Letting A Drop
Fall Into A Cup Filled With Water; The Good Balesan Falling Coagulated
To The Bottom, And The Bad Dissolving, And Swimming On The Surface.
I
tried this experiment, which was unknown to the people here, and found
the drop swim upon the water; I tried also their test by fire upon the
finger of a Bedouin, who had to regret his temerity:
I therefore
regarded the balsam sold here as adulterated; it was of less density
than honey. I wished to purchase some; but neither my own baggage, nor
any of the shops of Szafra, could furnish any thing like a bottle to
hold it: the whole skin was too dear. The Bedouins, who bring it here,
usually demand two or three dollars per pound for it, when quite pure;
and the Szafra Arabs re-sell it to the hadjys of the great caravan, at
between eight and twelve dollars per pound in an adulterated state. It
is bought up principally by Persians.
The Balesan for sale at Djidda and Mekka, from whence it comes to Cairo,
always undergoes several adulterations; and if a hadjy does not casually
meet with some Bedouins, from whom he may purchase it at first hand, no
hopes can be entertained of getting it in a pure state. The richer
classes of the hadjys put a drop of Balesan into the first cup of coffee
they drink in the morning, from a notion that it acts as a tonic. The
seeds of the tree from which it is obtained, are employed in the Hedjaz
to procure abortion.
I must notice here, as a peculiarity in the customs of the Beni Salem
tribe, that, in case of the Dye, or the fine for a man slain, (amounting
here to eight hundred dollars,) being accepted by the deceased's family,
the sum is made up by the murderer and his family, and by his relations;
the former paying one-third, and the kindred two-thirds; a practice
which, as far as my knowledge extends, does not prevail in any other
part of the Desert.
Our Bedouin guides had here a long quarrel with the Malays. The guides
had bargained in the market for two camels, to replace two that were
unfit to continue the journey; but not having money enough to
[p.311] pay for them, they required the assistance of the Malays, and
begged them to lend ten dollars, to be repaid at Medina. The Malays
refused, and being hardly pressed, endeavoured to engage my
interposition in their behalf; but the Bedouins forced the money from
them by the same means which I had employed on a former occasion: the
purse of a Malay, which had been concealed in a bag of rice, now came to
light; it probably contained three hundred dollars. The owner was so
much frightened by this discovery, and the apprehension that the Arabs
would murder him on the road for the sake of his money, that by way of
punishment for his avarice, they contrived to keep him in a constant
state of alarm till we arrived at Medina.
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