they have patience to keep it a year or two, it becomes a mild spirit, losing its heating and pernicious quality. . Indian Fig, or Prickly Pear (Cactus Opunlia), called Taka- nareete, b y the Shelluhs, and Kermuse d'Ensarrah, b y the Arabs and .Moors. T h e tree which produces this fruit grows from ten to twenty feet in h e igh t; its leaves, from the sides o f which the fruit springs, are thick and succulent, and impregnated with a transparent mucilaginous ju ice , which, from its peculiarly cooling and anti-inflammatory qualities, was much used with gum ammoniac, during the plague, for cataplasms and fumigations. T h e Indian fig is ve ry dilferent from other figs ; when ripe, it is o f an oval form, and o f a colour inclining to orange or y e l lo w ; it has a thick succulent rind, so covered with fine sharp prickles, as to render leather gloves, or some other substitute necessary, when peeling it. This fruit is o f an extraordinary refrigerating quality, and is, on that account, eaten in the e a r ly part o f the morning by the people o f Haha and Suse, where it abounds. In hot weather it is a grateful restorative to the relaxed state o f the bowels. The tree grows in stony arid situations, and frequently affords refreshment to the traveller, when he least expects to find so cooling a fruit. Almonds.— T h e quantities o f this fruit produced in the prov in c e o f Suse are incalculable, and have, latterly, been much increased. T h e bitter kind is exported to Europe ; but the sweet, b e in g an article o f food, has been, b y the present Emperor, prohibited from exportation, which has recently diminished considerably the cultivation o f this nutritious fruit. Gum Sandrac Tree.— T h u y a , A ra r , or Sandrac-tree, is prob ab ly the A rb o r v i t x o f Theophrastus : it is similar in lea f to the juniper, and, besides producing the gum sandrac, the wood is invaluable, being somewhat like cedar, having a similar smell, and being impenetrable to the w o rm ; it is, however, a harder wood, and would be a great acquisition in shipb u ild in g ; and there are means o f procuring it. T he roofs o f houses, and cielings o f rooms, are made o f this unperishable wood. E l Rassul.— A small plant little known, but used b y the tanners in the preparation o f leather. Tizra, or Seuhayha.— A shrub about three feet high, used also in the preparation o f leather; it grows near the Jibbel Heddid in the plains* o f Akkermute, in the province o f Shedma. (See the map o f West Barbary). Hashisha, and Kief.— The plant called Hashisha is the A fr ican hemp p la n t ; it grows in a ll the ga rd en s; and is reared in the plains at Marocco, for the manufacture o f tw in e : but in most parts o f the country it is cultivated for the extraordinary and pleasing voluptuous v a cu ity o f mind which it produces in those who smoke i t : unlike the intoxication from wine, a fascinating stupor pervades the mind, and the dreams are agreeable. T h e kief, which is the flower and seeds oi the plant, is the strongest, and a pipe o f it h a lf the size o f a common English tobacco-pipe, is sufficient to intoxicate. T h e infatuation o f those who use it is such, that the y cannot exist withou t it. T h e k ie f is often pounded, and mixed with [E l Majune), an invigorating confection, which is sold at an enormous p r ic e ; a piece o f this as big as a walnut w ill for a time entirely d eprive a man o f a ll reason and in te lle c t; they prefer it to opium, from the v o lu p - * Hiuushe is a name applied in Africa to all plains or places covered with basal lie stones, bearing marks of some ancient convulsion of nature. These places are interspersed over the Desert, or Sahara, and in other parts of Africa. .
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