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vate, the whole amounting to two hundred and eighty-six chests, each chest weighing fourscore oques, the oque being about two pounds eleven ounces English. Those who happen not to gather as much mastich as is required of them by the government, are obliged to borrow of their neighbors; and those who have any overplus either sell it privately, or else to the officers of the customs at an under rate; for if a person be caught disposing of his mastich to any one else, or carrying it to such towns as do not plant the tree, he is sent to the gallies and his effects confiscated. In a word, all the lentisks are the property of the Grand Signior, the husbandman having but a small part of the gum for his labor; nor can the trees be sold, but upon condition that the purchaser pay the usual quantity of mastich to the Sultan: The land is commonly sold, and the trees reserved.

The lentisk or mastich tree spreads wide and in a circular manner, and is ten or twelve feet high, its branches growing crooked and bending towards the ground; the largest trunks are about a foot in diameter, covered with rugged bark, of a greyish color, and the leaves are disposed in couples, growing on small ribs, hollowed like a gutter. They are about an inch long, half an inch broad in the middle, and narrow at each end and from the juncture of the leaves grow flowers in bunches like grapes, as the fruit also does, and in each berry there is a white kernel. These trees blow in May, but the fruit is not ripe till autumn or winter.

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The beginning of August they make incisions in the bark of these trees, cutting it cross-wise with large knives, but they do not meddle with the young branches. Next day the juice distils in small tears, forming the grains of mastich, which gradually harden on the ground, and are then swept up and sifted. The height of their harvest is in the middle of August, and they gather abundance if it be dry serene weather, but if it be rainy, the tears are all lost. Towards the end of September they make fresh incisions, but these yield much less mastich than the former, and perhaps not altogether of so good a quality. After it is sufficiently dried and hardened, they sift it, as I said before, in order

to separate it from the dust and filth that mixes with it on the ground; and the dust that flies from it sticks so fast to the face of those employed in this business, that they are forced to use oil to wash it off.

Sometimes an Aga is sent on purpose from Constantinople to receive the mastich due to the Grand Signior, or else the custom house officers of Scio are appointed to receive it, who give notice to the several villages to get ready their respective quotas, and the peasants bring them in accordingly. The Cadi of Scio claims three chests as a perquisite, the clerk who keeps the account demands another, and the officer who weighs it at the custom house takes a toll out of every parcel that goes through his hands; so that when the Sultan and all are served, I am afraid there is little left to reward the labor of the industrious planter. This sort of husbandry however is esteemed so beneficial to the public, that the planters of the lentisks, who are Greek Christians, pay but half the capitation tax, and are allowed to wear white turbans as well as the Turks, which is looked upon as an extraordinary privilege.

Mastich is very much chewed in Scio, both by Greeks and Turks, especially the women. The ladies of the Grand Signior's seraglio at Constantinople, consume great quantities of it, chewing it by way of amusement, or to preserve their teeth and gums, and sweeten their breath especially in a morning fasting. The Turks also burn it among other perfumes, and sometimes put a few grains of it in their bread to give it an agreeable flavor. This gum is moderately warm, and of a dry astringent quality, so that it strengthens the stomach, stays vomiting, stops issues of blood, and is serviceable in all tickling coughs and catarrhs. It also strengthens the reins, and is a good cleanser, and for that reason is prescribed in seminal weaknesses. The best is in small granules, and of a whitish color, though age makes it turn yellow. ish: it is of a fine scent, and enters into the composition of several ointments. There is likewise a kind of mastich brought from Egypt, which serves to sophisticate camphor, but that of Scio, as I before observed, is the best in the world.

The Terebinthus, or turpentine tree, grows in Scio, without culture, on the highway side, or on the borders of the vineyards. It is as tall and spreading as the lentisk, has an ash colored bark, and leaves of a bright green, about two inches long, and pointed at both ends, which have an aromatic taste, and is of an astringent quality. It is remarkable in this tree, as well as in the lentisk, that such branches as bear flowers have no fruit, and such as bear fruit have generally no flowers. These flowers show themselves towards the end of April, before there is any appearance of leaves, and grow in clusters at the extremity of the branches. Each flower has five stamina, the aspices of which are yellowish, filled with farina or dust of the same color. The fruit also appears in clusters like bunches of grapes, three or four inches long, which rise from the centre of a cup consisting of five greenish pointed leaves. Each embryo afterwards turns to a firm cod, covered with an orange colored skin, somewhat acrid and resinous; and the cod incloses a white fleshy kernel, wrapped in a reddish coat.

The turpentine is drawn from these trees by wounding their trunks with a hatchet in the months of August and September, and flat stones are placed under the trees to receive it. This liquor is of a whitish color, bordering a little on green, and is a most excellent natural balsam, and very detergent, being prescribed as such in abscesses and ulcerations. It promotes expectoration, and is of great service in disorders of the breast and lungs; but it is particularly famous for cleansing the urinary passages, and accordingly prescribed in obstructions of the reins gonorrhoeas, &c. 'Tis a very great diuretic, and for that reason care should be taken not to give it to persons troubled with the stone; for in that case all medicines of this nature do rather harm than good, as has been frequently found by experience. The turpentine of Scio is indisputably the best, but it is not much in use on account of its scarcity,* a thousand or twelve hundred

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* The turpentine of Stratsbourg, the produce of the abies of silver fir, is that most commonly used amongst us, and by many it is prefer

weight of it being the most that is annually produced in the whole island.

The beginning of October we took a ride to Cardamyla, a village about eighteen miles North of Scio, beyond port Dolphin, both which places are mentioned by Thucydides, and have retained their ancient names. Five miles from Cardamyla, in a narrow valley, are the ruins of an ancient temple, which are scarce discernable; but to whom it was dedicated, is now entirely uncertain, though it is commonly conjectured to have been a temple of Neptune. A little below this place a fine spring issues out of a rock, which perhaps gave occasion to the building of this edifice; but it is not probable that this was the fountain of Helen, wherein that princess used to bathe, according to Stephens the geographer. It forms a pretty cascade as it falls down the rock and makes the valley through which it runs exceedingly fruitful; but in all this valley we could not find the spring that M. Thevenot speaks of, which had thirty steps to go down to it, of beautiful marble: not that I dispute that traveller's veracity in any thing that he assures us he has been an eye witness of, but in this case he was undoubtedly imposed upon by the manuscript from whence he took great part of his description of Scio. Perhaps the writer of that account had an eye to the fountain o Sclavia, which runs on a marble bottom in one of the pleasantest spots of the whole island, and is shown to strangers as one of its wonders.

red to that of Venice, from which it is distinguished by its green hue, fragrant smell, and citron flavor. Properly speaking, we have no such thing as Venice turpentine, for though there was a turpentine anciently brought from Venice, what now goes by that name comes from Dauphine it is liquid, of the consistence of a thick syrup, and whitish, and flows from the larch tree, either spontaneously or by incision. That flowing naturally is a kind of balsam, not inferior in virtue to that of Peru, for which it is frequently substituted. That drawn by incision, after the tree has ceased to yield spontaneously, is of con siderable use in several arts, and it is of this that varnish is chiefly made. The turpentine of Bordeaux is white and thick as honey: it does not ooze from the tree in the manner it is sent to us, but is a com position of several ingredients.

There is an excellent spring near the chapel of St. Elijah, which is built on the top of the highest mountain in Scio, near the village called Spartonda; and on the same hill we find the ruins of an ancient castle. Near Volisso, we were informed, there are several hot springs, and others about the village of Calantra. As for the spring that Vitruvius speaks of, which deprived of their senses all who drank of it, and for that reason had an inscription placed over it by way of caution to passengers, ⚫ the inhabitants of the island are utterly ignorant of any such thing, and therefore we may look upon it as an idle story. Nor could we get the least information of the Scio-earth mentioned by the same author, and also by Dioscorides: but to say the truth, the people of this country trouble themselves very little about its natural history.

There is vast plenty of partridges in Scio, and they may well be reckoned among the curiosities of the island. They are bred up to be much tamer than our poultry, and there are peasants in the several villages who are paid for leading them into the fields in a morning to feed, each family that has partridges trusting its stock to a common keeper, who perhaps, has many hundreds under his care, and in the evening draws them together with a whistle, and brings them home again to their respective masters. These creatures know the call of their keeper so well, that let another person whistle as long as he pleases, not one bird will follow him; but many of them are so tame at home, as to suffer themselves to be touched and stroked by any stranger. This perhaps, may seem incredible to those who have not heard of such a thing before, but for the truth of it I appeal to all travel. lers who have visited this island.*

*There is not one traveller, that I know of, who does not confirm this account of the partridges of Scio, nor need we go so far, it seems, to meet with this curiosity; for M. Tournefort assures us, that he has seen a man in Provence, who used to lead droves of partridges into the country, and call them to him when he pleased; he would take them up with his hand, put them into his bosom, and then dismiss them to pick up a livelihood with the rest.

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