Drink as often as you need, and when the cup is empty, fill it again, and put in fresh Balm-leaves every fourth day, and thou shalt see, through our Lord’s great goodness and mercy, that before twelve days shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.” So saying, and declining to eat, he departed and was never seen again. But the cottager gathered his Balm-leaves, followed the prescription of the Wandering Jew, and before twelve days were passed was a new man. =BALM OF GILEAD.=--The mountains of Gilead, in the east of the Holy Land, were covered with fragrant shrubs, the most plentiful being the _Amyris_, which yielded the celebrated Balm of Gilead, a precious gum which, at a very early period, the Ishmaelites or Arabian carriers trafficked in. It was to a party of these merchants that Joseph was sold by his brethren as they came from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery, and Balm, and Myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt (Gen. xxxvii., 25). There were three productions from this tree, all highly esteemed by the ancients, viz.: _Xylobalsamum_, a decoction of the new twigs; the _Carpobalsamum_, an expression of the native fruit; and the _Opobalsum_, or juice, the finest kind, composed of the greenish liquor found in the kernel of the fruit. The principal quantity of Balm has, however, always been produced by excision. The juice is received in a small earthen bottle, and every day’s produce is poured into a larger, which is kept closely corked. So marvellous were the properties of this Balm considered, that in order to test its quality, the operator dipped his finger in the juice, and then set fire to it, expecting fully to remain scathless if the Balm was of average strength. The Balm of Gilead has always had a wonderful reputation as a cosmetic among ladies. The manner of applying it in the East is thus given by a traveller in Abyssinia:--“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.” By the Arabs, it is employed as a stomachic and antiseptic, and is believed by them to prevent any infection of the plague.----Tradition relates that there is an aspic that guards the Balm-tree, and will allow no one to approach. Fortunately, however, it has a weakness--it cannot endure the sound of a musical instrument. As soon as it hears the approaching torment, it thrusts its tail into one of its ears, and rubs the other against the ground, till it is filled with mud. While it is lying in this helpless condition, the Balm-gatherers go round to the other side of the tree, and hurry away with their spoil.----Maundevile says that the true Balm-trees only grew in Egypt (near Cairo), and in India. The Egyptian trees were tended solely by Christians, as they refused to bear if the husbandmen were Saracens. It was necessary, also, to cut the