Little drops from heaven

QUESTION What is manna?

WHEN the Israelites came into the wilderness of Sinai, the Lord provided them with ‘bread from heaven’ (Exodus 16:4).

It is described as ‘small, round’, like ‘hoar-frost on the ground’ and ‘coriander seed’, tasting ‘like wafers made with honey’. It could be baked and boiled (Exodus 16:23; Numbers 11:87).

For the sceptics, there are two theories about manna. From the late 19th century, Arabs in Sinai sold a sweet ‘resin’ from the tamarisk tree they called man

es-simma — heavenly manna. However, as it is composed of sugar, it would not provide sufficient nutrition.

Honeydew is a sugar-rich, sticky liquid secreted by aphids and scale insects as they feed on plant sap. In hot deserts, it rapidly dries, becoming a sticky solid, and later turns whitish, yellowish or brownish. This is prized in the Middle East and is the basis of the Persian nougat gaz. The Tamarisk manna scale (Trabutina mannipara), an insect that feeds on this tree, is seen as a potential source for manna. A. Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne.

QUESTION Did Blue Peter’s John Noakes hold skydiving records?

FURTHER to the earlier answer about John Noakes’s five-milehigh skydiving record, other acts of madness were his wipe-out on the Cresta Run in a bobsleigh and the time he was strapped to a Tiger Moth wing holding a pole with a pin on one end to pop balloons during a flypast.

For me, his most memorable appearance was in 1987 when he choked back tears as he told the nation that his beloved Shep, the Blue Peter dog, had died.

Lesley Pierson, Fawley, Hants.