'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎590] (681/905)

590
SPICES AND CORN.
[CHAP. XXII.
Cat-fisb. with a flat head, and feelers like cats' whiskers from the snout;
they lie at the bottom under a fall of water, and are thus
caught:—a small light canoe is poled up the current by one
man, who keeps it as nearly as possible under the slight fall
or rush caused by the arch ; another man stands forward, and
suddenly darts to the bottom a long bamboo or cane pole
having a hook lashed to the end of it; this he scrapes along,
and occasionally brings up a fish hooked sometimes by the tail,
sometimes by the head. Great quantities are brought up this
way, and sent to Aleppo. Mr. Ainsworth calls them magur,
from the name of a fish in the Ganges.
Spices, &c. The more valuable productions of Arabia are nutmegs, 1
frankincense, myrrh, and other spices, 2 senna leaves, aloes, and
cassia, odorous woods, different balsams, and even indigo ; this
valuable commodity is often mentioned by old writers, and it
is still found westward of the Red Sea. The indigo shrub of
Arabia 3 is of an inferior kind, but it is used by the people of
the country, who, when it happens to be scarce, contrive to
extract a dye from a species of polygala. 4 The crowfoot, hore-
hound, buckler mustard, trefoil, treacle mustard, whitlow grass,
camomile, fescar grass, hawkweed, and ox-eye, are also met
with in Arabia. 5
General pro- The borders of Mesopotamia, the western shores of the
auctions. p ers i an Gulf, and the eastern shore of the Red Sea, together
with portions of Arabia Petrsea and Deserta, and the extensive
provinces of Yemen, Nedjd, El Ah'sa, Tehameh, and Oman,
are partially cultivated; and the general products of the
country consist of soap, wool, cotton, indigo, goats hair,
tobacco, wheat, rice, barley, honey, millet, Indian corn, dhurrak,
salt, sulphur, sesamum, manna, and the castor oil plant. The
sugar-cane grows in Yemen, and it is also cultivated to some
extent 6 near the town of Minna, in 'Oman.
Arabia Petrsea and Arabia Deserta are almost destitute of
1 In Yemen and in 'Omdn.—Lieutenant Wellsted, pp. 132, 139.
8 The traveller cannot easily forget the Egyptian or Spice Bdzdr, one of the
lions of Constantinople. 3 Indigofera of Linnaeus.—Crichton's Arabia.
4 Crichton's Arabia, p. 410. 6 Hasselquist, p. 278.
6 Lieutenant Wellsted, vol. I., pp. 115, 117, 122, and 123.