It Abounds
In Sind And Afghanistan, Where, According To That Most Practical Of
Botanists, The Lamented Dr. Stocks, It Is Called “Ishwarg.”
[FN#15] Here Called Ashr.
According to Seetzen it bears the long-sought
apple of Sodom.
Yet, if truth be told, the soft green bag is as unlike
an apple as can be imagined; nor is the hard and brittle yellow rind of
the ripe fruit a whit more resembling. The Arabs use the thick and
acrid milk of the green bag with steel filings as a tonic, and speak
highly of its effects; they employ it also to intoxicate or narcotise
monkeys and other animals which they wish to catch. It is esteemed in
Hindu medicine. The Nubians and Indians use the filaments of the fruit
as tinder; they become white and shining as floss-silk. The Badawin
also have applied it to a similar purpose. Our Egyptian travellers call
it the “Silk-tree”; and in Northern Africa, where it abounds, Europeans
make of it stuffing for the mattresses, which are expensive, and highly
esteemed for their coolness and cleanliness. In Bengal a kind of gutta
percha is made by boiling the juice. This weed, so common in the East,
may one day become in the West an important article of commerce.
[FN#16] “Al-Ihram” literally meaning “prohibition” or “making unlawful,” equivalent
to our “mortification,” is applied to the ceremony of the toilette, and
also to the dress itself. The vulgar pronounce the word “heram,” or “l’ehram.” It
is opposed to “ihlal,” “making lawful” or “returning to laical life.” The further
from Meccah it is assumed, provided that it be during the three months
of Hajj, the greater is the religious merit of the pilgrim;
consequently some come from India and Egypt in the dangerous attire.
Those coming from the North assume the pilgrim-garb at or off the
village of Rabigh.
[FN#17] These sheets are not positively necessary; any clean cotton
cloth not sewn in any part will serve equally well.
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