This kind of grass is cultivated every year by extremely hard work on the part of the farmers. Then at harvest time the natives crush the ripe crop in little mortars, putting the filtered sap into their utensils until it curdles and hardens with the appearance of snow or white salt. Thjey shave pieces off and mix them with bread or water and tajke them as a relish, and it seems to those who taste it sweeter or more wholesome even than a comb of honey.
Some say that it is a sort of that honey which Jonathan, son of King Saul, found on the face of the earth and disobediently dared to taste. The people, who were troubled by a dreadful hunger, were greatly refreshed by these little honey-flavoured reeds during the sieges of Albara, Ma'ara and Arqa.'
