SC - manual ? #4, #5

[Serian]

In response to some of Serian's questions:

>...almaciga/another tree gum thingy...

My dictionary (Harrap's concise) also translates almaciga
as mastic.

>... 1/4 of "borras" which the only definition I found is
>thick wool, and I'm wondering if it's borax??? ...

For borra, Harrap's suggests fluff first, then gives
sediment or dregs for the plural.  So perhaps this might be
some more of those wine dregs that keep showing up?

>..."Pastarlas" is graze but it might mean make paste with
>the soap...

That's the assumption I've been making, although with no
actual reason other than that it sounds right.

>... And put in each little container a drop of "ros de
>bota" which all I got had to do with helmets and boots and
>didn't make sense.  Any guesses?
...

My first thought was that "bota" sounds rather like "boda"
so perhaps this was a particular type of rose (or rose-like
flower?) commonly associated with weddings, if there was/is
such a thing.  This is a very wild guess.

...
>6.  Algalia finísima
>... galia moscada...
>... nutmeg oil...

I think "galia moscada" may be civet musk; my reasoning
goes something like this:
     "Algalia" is civet; the word looks to be of Arabic
origin, with the "al" at the beginning being the definite
article ("the") pasted onto the front of the word, as often
happened in such adoptions.  It is possible that the "al"
was not, in the time and place of writing, as firmly
attached as it is now, and has fallen off again in the text
of the recipe.
     Nutmeg is more fully "nuez moscada" or, to twist some
languages together, "mosc"ed nut.  I would be inclined to
think that something else is "mosc"ed - or possibly "mosc"y
- - in this phrase.  The fact that "mosc" sounds vaguely like
the English word "musk" is circumstantial support for the
theory, but only circumstantial.  
     And finally, if "galia" is not civet, then this recipe
for "very fine civet" does not seem to actually contain any
civet musk.  

Hope this helps some.  Much applause for your work so far!

Dana/Ximena

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