Dictionary.net

A substance found in the Cape Colony, which Thunberg and other travellers mistook for a kind of bitumen; but, according to Dr. Pappe, it is obtained from the urine of the Klipdas or Hyrax Capensis, which, when passed, is thick and of a glutinous nature. The animal is in the habit of evacuating the urine at one spot, where its aqueous parts evaporate in the sun- the more tenacious adhering to the rock and hardening. In smell, and medical properties, it most resembles castor, which, according to Dr. Pappe, it may replace. It is used by the Cape farmers in nervous and spasmodic affections.