On the korarima, or cardamom of Abessinia / [Charles T. Beke].

  • Beke, Charles T. (Charles Tilstone), 1800-1874
Date:
[1847]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the korarima, or cardamom of Abessinia / [Charles T. Beke]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/8 (page 512)
    ON TIIE KORARIMA, OR CARDAMOM OF ABESSINIA. After this explanation there cannot, I apprehend, exist any doubt that the Korarima is neither the produce of Gura^ie nor is it imported mto Africa; but that it comes from farmin’ the interior of Africa, and, in fact, (as I was informed) from Tumhe, beyond the Blue River. Whether it is actually the produce of that district, or is brought thither from the lower parts of Walle^a, stdl further to the west, towards the Bahr el Abyad, White River, or Nile, has yet to be ascertained. • TIr' Jol?nston and myself were together in the Red Sea ’ 1 ?ave hlm some of my specimens of Korarima. I do not know from what other source that gentleman may have derived his information respecting the place of growth of this spice; but, at al events, he is under some great mistake in say- ing that it ‘ is chiefly in the deep valley of the Abiah branch of the Balir al Azzareeke [Bahr el Azrek], those you have received coming from that part of it which separates Guraque [Gurfigiel Z™ G-ln?Z° [Djandjaro].” True it is, that Tumhe, which is li° V ‘,1 Westein Abessinia as “the country of the Korarima,” R-d ‘“i'a6 T ofd'e Dedhesa’ ‘he direct southern arm of the Bahr el Azrek, or Blue River; but this is full one hundred and fifty nodes away to the west ol both Guragie and Djandjaro; and those two countries are not separated from each other by that river or any branch of it, but by the Zeb6e, now called Gibbe by the Gallas, which joins the Godjeb, a tributary of the Bahr el Abyad, or White River. y As to the fruit being “perforated and strung upon a strong thiead for convenience of carriage and the usages of trade ” this ZfJ P°ky bn'the case amonS ‘he retail dealers of Guride and Shoa but at Baso it is certainly otherwise, those which I pur¬ chased having been counted to me from a sack in which they ici t loose, hke coffee. Neither are they invariably perforated (although ,t ,s true that they are mostly so), for I have now of those which6I LhlC l are|clu,te,ll.ole- and, id mistake not, one I have no onb ini P'easure °f sendinS t0 y°“ 'vas the same, i nav e no doubt of the correctness of your own surmise that tW are thus perforated “ for the purpose of hanging them up to drv ” those found to be already sufficiently dry, of course, not requirine to be so treated. And I find ipdeed that the pierced fruit are of a somewhat lighter colour than those which aie sound as if the former had been gathered before they were perfectly rip’e portion of a, °'V me t0,am®nd an erratum in the concluding fn D'° Pa,;aSraPh my former information, printed in page 168 of the Pharmaceutical Journal: instead of “the “ X to the'south.1” ““ ^ ^ ‘° the south’’’ !t should be St. Mildred's Court, April 5th, 1847.