priced at half a dinar or less.
I had with me a tree of bussad measuring one and a half span. I
charged four dinars per mithqal. if the slender ones were unworthy,
they would not be presented to rulers. We have previously mentioned
that 'Alawi Taharti had, besides presents from Egypt, a large bussad tree,
the details of which, alas! I could not discover.
Bussad is often smooth. If you happen to closely examine it in the
centre, you will find very minute lines inscribed upon it in the manner of
the lines upon the ventral sides of the fingers, and in the centre there are
circles of the same kind. These circles are concentric. The neighbouring
fingers also have the same circles. The roots of the fingers pass through
these arched mortised triangles, the smallest being in the centre of the
place of joining.
I believe that these lines have been created by God Almighty as the
fingers are the most sensitive part of the human body, the tactile sensation being felt through them. These extremities and the inner parts have
been made all the more sensitive as the pulse is felt through them.
Roughness would obstruct the tactile sensation, and therefore, God has
made them very soft and lined, so that they may be amenable to touch
as well as perception in addition to clutching objects. It is difficult to
clutch with a smooth thing, just as the seizure of a smooth thing is difficult. However, what we have said about the secrets of nature are our
thoughts, and they need not be in consonance with the actual facts.
In our opinion, with the ghubari ruby as the standard, the weight of
bussad is 64-13/24.
Al-Kindi and Nasr write that bussad is a green tree of the Mediterranean having root and branches. When taken out of the sea, it becomes
stony, hard and red. Occasionally, a piece of bussad weighs 60 mithqals
and it is called marjan. There is a kind in the Mediterranean which is not
red but is inclined towards whiteness. It is called miraq. There is another of the roseate colour. Brought from the West, it is called fasinjani.
He (Nasr?) writes that a kind of it is designated as dllki which I
presume would be dihlaki, as he writes that it is brought from Aden. A
branch (bussad) has been found to weigh one rati. It was uprooted by
the divers by means of tongs and brought-up like the pearl-shell. It is
softened by the mill-stone and the striga plant and a hole is bored into it
by iron made wet with water.
Al-Kindi writes that a variety of bussad is brought from Aden. It is
white and worthless, as it becomes disorganised in the sea. It is uprooted
by means of tongs.
This assertion of Al-Kindi attests to the fact that it becomes petrified
in the sea and is uprooted by means of tongs. The white kind is the most
inferior, while the red kind, very hard, rough and perforated, is the best.
