Page 359 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

320 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH.

of ulwah, a mixture of sugar, honey, ghee, and
almonds, boiled to a dense paste, of which

large quantities are sent to India and Persia
in shallow earthen basins about ten inches in
diameter. They manufacture a sweetmeat

similar to this in Syria, from the expressed
juice of the grape; an inferior kind is also
made from the karhb or locust tree, which,

when boiled to the consistency of honey, is
called dibs by the natives; and from the

Arabian being the same as the Hebrew, um
is most probably the article translated honey,
with which the land of Canaan was said to

abound. Wherever in Syria or Palestine
there are vineyards, it is still met with; and

when mixed with the juice of the olive, forms
a principal article of food with the poorer

classes. By adding the ground pulp of the
sesamum orientale to this dibs, and baking

both lightly in an oven, it is rendered
into hlewy. Cotton, canvass, and cot­
ton cloths of a coarse texture, are manufac­

tured by the men at their own houses. Of
these, the Laingi is the most common and

valuable ; they are mostly about ten feet long,
and two feet six inches, or three feet broad,