BALESSAN, BALM, or BALSAM.
The great value set upon this drug in the east remounts to very early ages; it is coeval with the India trade for pepper, and the beginning of it consequently lost in the darkness of the first ages. We know from scripture, the oldest history extant, as well as most infallible, that the Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers and merchants, trafficking with the India commodities into Egypt, brought with them balm as part of the cargo with pepper; but the price that they paid for Joseph was silver, and not a barter with any of their articles of merchandise.
Strabo alone, of all the ancients, hath given us the true account of the place of its origin, “Near to this, that historian says, is the most happy land of the Sabeans, and they are a very great people. Among these, frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon grow, and in the coast that is about Saba the balsam also.” Among the myrrh-trees behind Azab all along the coast to the Straits of Babelmandeb is its native country. It grows to a tree above fourteen feet high, spontaneously and without culture, like the myrrh, the coffee, and frankincense tree; they are all equally the wood of the country, and are occasionally cut down and used for fuel. We need not doubt but that it was early transplanted into Arabia, that is, into the south part of Arabia Felix, immediately fronting Azab, the place of its nativity. The high country of Arabia was too cold to receive it, being all mountainous; water freezes there.
Balessan
London Publish’d Decr. 1.st 1789 by G. Robinson & Co.
Balessan.
There is an anecdote relating to Sir William Middleton, who was surprised and taken prisoner by the Turks in the first attempt to open the trade of the Red Sea, that when about to set[24] out for Sanaa, corruptly called Zenan, the residence of the Imam, or prince of Arabia Felix, he was by the people desired[25] to take his fur cloak along with him to keep him from the cold; he thought they were ridiculing him upon what he had to suffer from the approaching heat, which he was convinced in the middle of Arabia must be excessive.
The first plantation that succeeded seems to have been at Petra, the ancient metropolis of Arabia, now called Beder, or Beder Hunein, whence I got one of the specimens from which the present drawing is made.
Josephus[26], in the history of the antiquities of his country, says, that a tree of this balsam was brought to Jerusalem by the queen of Saba, and given, among other presents, to Solomon, who, as we know from scripture, was very studious of all sort of plants, and skilful in the description and distinction of them. Here it seems to have been cultivated and to have thriven, so that the place of its origin came to be forgotten.
Notwithstanding this positive authority of Josephus, and the great probability that attends it, we are not to put it in competition with what we have been told from scripture, as we have just now seen, that the place where it grew, and was sold to merchants, was Gilead in Judea, more than 1730 years before Christ, or 1000 before the queen of Saba; so that reading the verse, nothing can be more plain than that it had been transplanted into Judea, flourished, and had become an article of commerce in Gilead long before the period Josephus mentions: “And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels, bearing spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt[27].” Now, the spicery, or pepper, was certainly purchased by the Ishmaelites at the mouth of the Red Sea, where was the market for Indian goods, and at the same place they must have bought the myrrh, for that neither grew nor grows any where else than in Saba or Azabo east to Cape Gardefan, where were the ports for India, and whence it was dispersed all over the world.
The Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers, loaded their camels at the mouth of the Red Sea with pepper and myrrh. For reasons not now known to us, they went and completed their cargo with balsam at Gilead, so that, contrary to the authority of Josephus, nothing is more certain, than 1730 years before Christ, and 1000 years before the queen of Saba came to Jerusalem, the balsam-tree had been transplanted from Abyssinia into Judea, and become an article of commerce there, and the place from which it originally was brought, through length of time, combined with other reasons, came to be forgotten.
Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Solinus,and Serapion, all say that this balsam came only from Judea. The words of Pliny are, “But to all other odours whatever, the balsam is preferred, produced in no other part but the land of Judea, and even there in two gardens only; both of them belonging to the king, one no more than twenty acres, the other still smaller[28].”
At this time I suppose it got its name of Balsamum Judaicum, or, Balm of Gilead, and thence became an article in merchandise and fiscal revenue, which probably occasioned the discouragement of bringing it any more from Arabia, whence it very probably was prohibited as contraband. We shall suppose thirty acres planted with this tree would have produced more than all the trees in Arabia do at this day. Nor does the plantation of Beder Hunein amount to much more than that quantity, for we are still to observe, that even when it had been as it were naturalised in Judea, and acquired a name in the country, still it bore evident marks of its being a stranger there; and its being confined to two royal gardens alone, shews it was maintained there by force and culture, and was by no means a native of the country. And this is confirmed by Strabo, who speaks of it being in the king’s palace or garden at Jericho. This place being one of the warmest in Judea, shews likewise their apprehensions about it, so that in Judea, we may imagine it was pretty much in the state of our myrtles in England, which, though cultivated in green-houses in all the rest of the island, yet grow beautifully and luxuriantly in Devonshire and Cornwall, the western parts of it.
Diodorus Siculus says, it grew in a valley in Arabia Felix; he should have said on a number of gentle, sloping hills in Arabia Deserta, which have a very small degree of elevation above the plain, but by no means resemble a valley. This place was the scene of three bloody battles between Mahomet and his kinsmen the Beni Koreish, who refused to be converts to his religion, or acknowledge his divine legation. These are at large described by several of the historians of that nation, with circumstances and anecdotes, as well interesting and entertaining, as elegantly told. They shew plainly that Mahomet’s tribe, the Beni Koreish, did not receive their fanatical manners and disposition from Mahomet and his religion, but were just as obstinate, ignorant, and sanguinary when they were Pagans, as they were afterwards when converted and became Mahometans. The last of these battles, which was decisive in Mahomet’s favour, gave him the sovereignty of Mecca, and was attended with the extirpation of some of the principal families in this tribe.
At this time the balsam is supposed, by being sold in Judea, and not accessible by reason of the commotions in Arabia, to have become almost forgotten in that last part, where the trade from Abyssinia, its native country, was likewise interrupted by this innovation of religion, and by Mahomet’s profanation of the Caaba, or temple of the sun, the ancient resort of the Sabean merchants carrying on the trade of India. This interval the impostor thought proper for a pretended miracle; he said, that, from the blood of the Beni Koreish slain, there had sprung up this grove of trees, from the juice of which all the true believers on his side received a cure for their wounds, however fatal they appeared, nay, some of them were revived from even death itself. Since that time it has maintained its reputation equal to that which it had in antiquity.
Prosper Alpinus says, that one Messoner a eunuch, governor of Cairo in the year 1519, caused bring from Arabia forty plants, which he placed in the garden of Mattareah, where he superintended them. Every day he went to that garden to pay his devotions to the Virgin Mary. It was many times renewed, and has as often perished since. Bellonius says, that in his time there were ten plants at Mattareah, and he is of opinion, that in all ages they grew well in Arabia, which is not true, for those at Beder are constantly supplied with new plants so soon as the old ones decay. There was none existing at Mattareah the two several times I visited Cairo, but there were some of the Christians still living there that remembered one plant in that garden.
There were three productions from this tree very much esteemed among the ancients. The first was called Opobalsamum, or, Juice of the Balsam, which was the finest kind, composed of that greenish liquor found in the kernel of the fruit: The next was Carpo-balsamum, made by the expression of the fruit when in maturity. The third was Xylo-balsamum, the worst of all, it was an expression or decoction of the small new twigs of a reddish colour. These twigs are still gathered in little faggots and sent to Venice, where I am told they are an ingredient in the Theriac, or of some sort of compound drug made in the laboratories there: But the principal quantity of balsam in all times was produced by incision, as it is at this day. Concerning this, too, many fables have been invented and propagated.
Tacitus says, that this tree was so averse to iron that it trembled upon a knife being laid near it, and some pretend the incision should be made by ivory, glass, or stone. There is no doubt but the more attention there is given to it, and the cleaner the wound is made, the better this balsam will be. It is now, as it probably ever has been, cut by an ax, when the juice is in its strongest circulation in July, August, and beginning of September. It is then received into a small earthen bottle, and every day’s produce gathered and poured into a larger, which is kept closely corked. The Arabs Harb, a noble family of Beni Koreish, are the proprietors of it, and of Beder, where it grows. It is a station of the Emir Hadje, or pilgrims going to Mecca, half way between that city and Medina.
Some books speak of a white sort brought by the caravans from Mecca, and called Balsam of Mecca, and others a balsam called that of Judea, but all these are counterfeits or adulterations. The balsam of Judea, which I have already mentioned, was long ago lost, when the troubles of that country withdrew the royal attention from it; but, as late as Galen’s time, it not only existed, but was growing in many places of Palestine besides Jericho, and there is no doubt but it is now totally lost there.
When Sultan Selim made the conquest of Egypt and Arabia in the year 1516, three pound was then the tribute ordered to be sent to Constantinople yearly, and this proportion is kept up to this day. One pound is due to the governor of Cairo, one pound to the Emir Hadje who conducts the pilgrims to Mecca, half a pound to the basha of Damascus, and several smaller quantities to other officers, after which, the remainder is sold or farmed out to some merchants, who, to increase the quantity, adulterate it with oil of olives and wax, and several other mixtures, consulting only the agreement of colour, without considering the aptitude in mixing; formerly we were told it was done with art, but nothing is easier detected than this fraud now.
It does not appear to me, that the ancients had ever seen this plant, they describe it so variously; some will have it a tree, some a shrub, and some a plant only; and Prosper Alpinus, a modern, corroborates the errors of the ancients, by saying it is a kind of vine, (viticosus). The figure he has given of it is a very bad one, and leaves us entirely in doubt in what class to place it. The defect of the plant in Judea and in Egypt, and the contradiction in the description of the ancients as to its figure and resemblance, occasioned a doubt that the whole plants in these two countries, and Arabia also, had been lost in the desolation occasioned by the Mahometan conquest; and a warm dispute arose between the Venetians and Romans, whether the drug used by the former in the Theriac was really and truly the old genuine opobalsamum? The matter was referred to the pope, who directed proper inquiry to be made in Egypt, which turned out entirely in favour of the Venetians, and the opobalsamum continuing as formerly.
A very learned and tedious treatise was published by Veslingius, in the year 1643, at Padua, where this affair was discussed at full length. As both parties of the disputants seem to argue concerning what it is from the misunderstood reports of what it was, I shall content myself briefly with stating what the qualities of the opobalsamum are, without taking pains to refute the opinions of those that have reported what the opobalsamum is not.
The opobalsamum, or juice flowing from the balsam-tree, at first when it is received into the bottle or vase from the wound from whence it issues, is of a light, yellow colour, apparently turbid, in which there is a whitish cast, which I apprehend are the globules of air that pervade the whole of it in its first state of fermentation; it then appears very light upon shaking. As it settles and cools, it turns clear, and loses that milkiness which it first had when flowing from the tree into the bottle. It then has the colour of honey, and appears more fixed and heavy than at first. After being kept for years, it grows a much deeper yellow, and of the colour of gold. I have some of it, which, as I have already mentioned in my travels, I got from the Cadi of Medina in the year 1768; it is now still deeper in colour, full as much so as the yellowest honey. It is perfectly fluid, and has lost very little either of its taste, smell, or weight. The smell at first is violent and strongly pungent, giving a sensation to the brain like to that of volatile salts when rashly drawn up by an incautious person. This lasts in proportion to its freshness, for being neglected, and the bottle uncorked, it quickly loses this quality, as it probably will at last by age, whatever care is taken of it.
In its pure and fresh state it dissolves easily in water. If dropt on a woollen cloth, it will wash out easily, and leaves no stain. It is of an acrid, rough, pungent taste, is used by the Arabs in all complaints of the stomach and bowels, is reckoned a powerful antiseptic, and of use in preventing any infection of the plague. These qualities it now enjoys, in all probability, in common with the various balsams we have received from the new world, such as the balsam of Tolu, of Peru, and the rest; but it is always used, and in particular esteemed by the ladies, as a cosmetic: As such it has kept up its reputation in the east to this very day. The manner of applying it is this; you first go into the tepid bath till the pores are sufficiently opened, you then anoint yourself with a small quantity, and, as much as the vessels will absorb; never-fading youth and beauty are said to be the consequences of this. The purchase is easy enough. I do not hear that it ever has been thought restorative after the loss of either.
The figure I have here given of the balsam may be depended upon, as being carefully drawn, after an exact examination, from two very fine trees brought from Beder Hunein; the first by the Cadi of Medina at Yambo; the second at Jidda, by order of Yousef Kabil, vizir or minister to the sherriffe of Mecca. The first was so deliberately executed, that the second seemed of no service but to confirm me in the exactitude of the first. The tree was 5 feet 2 inches high from where the red root begins, or which was buried in the earth, to where it divides itself first into branches. The trunk at thickest was about 5 inches diameter, the wood light and open, and incapable of polishing, covered with a smooth bark of bluish-white, like to a standard cherry-tree in good health, which has not above half that diameter; indeed a part of the bark is a reddish brown; it flattens at top like trees that are exposed to snow-blasts or sea-air, which gives it a stunted appearance. It is remarkable for a penury of leaves. The flowers are like that of the acacia-tree, white and round, only that three hang upon three filaments, or stalks, where the acacia has but one. Two of these flowers fall off and leave a single fruit; the branches that bear this are the shoots of the present year; they are of a reddish colour, and tougher than the old wood: it is these that are cut off and put into little faggots, and sent to Venice for the Theriac, when bruised or drawn by fire, and formerly these made the Xylo-balsamum.
Concerning the vipers which, Pliny says, were frequent among the balsam trees I made very particular inquiry; several were brought me alive, both to Yambo and Jidda. Of these I shall speak in another place, when I give the figure, and an account of that animal so found.