Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/365

Rh your own principle, as I am the stranger. Now, what I have to ask you is this,— Do you know the Shekh of Beder Hunein? Know him! says he, I am married to his sister, a daughter of Harb; he is of the tribe of Harb." "Harb be it then (said I) your trouble will be the less; then you are to send a camel to your brother-in-law, who will procure me the largest, and most perfect plant possible of the Balsam of Mecca. He is not to break the stem, nor even the branches, but to pack it entire, with fruit and flower, if possible, and wrap it in a mat." He looked cunning, shrugged up his shoulders, drew up his mouth, and putting his finger to his nose, said, "Enough, I know all about this, you shall find what sort of a man I am, I am no fool, as you shall see."

this the third day at dinner, but the flower (if there had been any) was rubbed off. The fruit was in several stages, and in great perfection. The drawing, and description from this * ,plant will, I hope, for ever obviate all difficulty about its history. He sent me, likewise, a quart bottle of the pure balsam, as it had flowed that year from the tree, with which I have verified what the old botanists in their writings have said of it, in its several stages. He told me also the circumstances I have related in my description of the balsam, as to the gathering and preparing of the several kinds of it, and a curious anecdote as to its origin. He said the plant was no part of the creation of God in the six days, but that, in the last of three very bloody battles, which Mahomet fought with the noble Arabs of Harb, and his kins- VOL. I.


 * See the article Balessan in the Appendix.