Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/746

 710 FRANKINCENSE the statement that the frankincense-tree grows in the moun tains of Persia, particularly Caramania. That frankincense, or olibanum, was in ancient times, as now, of West-Asiatic origin there is abundant evidence in the writings of classical authors. It was Sabaean incense that was burnt on the altar of Venus at Paphos (Virg., sEn., i, 416; cf. Geory., ii. 117), and Arabia and the land of Thus were synonymous (cf. Plautus, Trinumtmis, iv. 2. 89, and Poenulus, v. 4. 6). Herodotus (iii. 107) and Pliny (loc. cit.) speak of Arabia as the only country that yields frankincense ; Strabo (xvi. 4) and Arrian more correctly mention it as an export also of the neighbouring African coast. According to Diodorus Siculus (v. 41), the &quot; Holy Island,&quot; at the furthest point of Arabia Felix, the habitation of the Panchteans, was the source of frankincense. In the Scriptures &quot; incense,&quot; or frankincense, is noticed as forming part of the merchandise of the Sabasans (Heb. Shebaiini), who inhabited Sheba or Arabia Felix (cf. Is. lx. 6, Jer. vi. 20, and 1 Kings x. 10). Theophrastus (Opera, ix. 4., ed. F. Wimmer, p. 143) relates that with other spices it was produced by the regions of Arabia about Saba, Adra- myta, Citiba3na, and Mamali, and after transportation to the Sabsean temple of the sun was purchased by mer chants who came thither. The libanotophorous region of the ancients is defined by Carter (J. Bombay Br. R. Asiatic Soc., ii. p. 387, 1847) as extending between the Sabhan Mountains, in 17 30 N. lat. and 55 23 E. long., and the town of Damkote, in the bay of Alkammar, in 52 47 E, long. The trees there are congregated in two distinct localities on the Nejdee or high land, two days journey from the sea-shore, and on the Sahil or plain on the coast. 1 Its ancient evil reputation as a land of fogs and dark atmosphere, where slaves, as a punishment, collected the frankincense (Vincent s Voyage of Nearchus, &c., p. 89, Oxf., 1809), and where the trees that afforded that substance were infested with winged ser pents of various colours, which could be driven away only by the smoke of storax (Herod., iii. 107), was not impro bably due to the fertile imaginations of Arabian spice-mono polists. By their trade in frankincense and other aromatics the Sabaeans and Gcrrhaei, we are informed by Strabo, be came the richest of all the Arabian tribes ; and it&quot; was doubtless from their emporium at Petra that these, with other articles of commerce, were by caravan conveyed into Egypt and Canaan by the Edomites, Iduma3ans, or, as they came to be called, Nabataeans, and into the Mediterranean coast-regions by the Phoenician Arabs. (See Dr G. Bird- wood s Handbook to the British Indian Section, Paris Uni versal Exhibition of 1878, Lond. and Par., 1878, p. 32.) In what is believed to have been the early part of the 15th century B.C. (see EGYPT, vol. vii. p. 737), the ships of the Egyptian queen Hatasu, or Hatshepu, made an expedition to Pun or Punt (held by Professor Diimichen to be the countries on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea where the Phoenicians were established before they settled on the shores of the Mediterranean), and thence brought to Thebes, together with ivory, gold, silver, dog- faced baboons, 2 leopard- skins, and other of the &quot; magnificent products of Pun,&quot; not only incense-resin, but 31 incense-trees, planted in tubs, from the &quot; mountains of the barbarians.&quot; 3 From the frequent employment of frankincense in the sacrifices of the ancients, shown by numerous passages in their prose and poetic writings, it is evident that the trade in that substance must formerly have been very extensive. 1 Cf. Theophrastus (op. cit., p. 144): ret /*/ Iv T$ opfi fit 8 ti&amp;gt; -icus iSiats yeuipyiais virb ryv inrupfiav.&quot; 2 Cf. King Solomon s imports in the ships of the Phoenician city of Tarsus or Tarshish (2 Chron. ix. 21). 3 See Dr J. Diimichen, The Fleet of an Egyptian Queen, &c., translated by Anua Duniielien, plates ii., iii. xv., xvii.-xix., Leipzig, 1868. A tribute of no less than a thousand talents weight of it was brought to Darius every year by the Arabs, and the same quantity was yearly burnt by the Chaldseans on their great altar to Bel at Babylon (Herodotus, iii. 97, i. 183). From the spoils of Gaza, in Syria, 500 talents weight of frankincense was sent by Alexander the Great to Leonidas (see Plutarch s Lives). It was in olden times accounted one of the most valuable of the products of the East. Ten talents weight of it was one of the precious gifts sent by Seleucus II., king of Syria, and his brother Antiochus Hierax, king of Cilicia, to the temple of Apollo at Miletus, 243 B.C.; 4 and gold, frankincense, and myrrh were pre sented by the magi from the East to the infant Saviour (Matt. ii. II). 5 Later, in the time of St Silvester (314-335 A.D.), we find 100 pounds of &quot; aromatum in incensum,&quot; or frankincense, mentioned among the costly offerings made by the emperor Constantino in the basilica of St Marcellinus and St Peter at Home. 6 Frankincense, or olibanum, occurs in commerce in semi- opaque, round, ovate, or oblong tears or irregular lumps, which are covered externally with a white dust, the result of their friction against one another. It has an amorphous internal structure, a dull fracture ; is of a yellow to yellowish- brown hue, the purer varieties being almost colourless, or possessing a greenish tinge ; and has a somewhat bitter aromatic taste, and a balsamic odour, which is developed by heating. Immersed in alcohol it becomes opaque, and with water it yields an emulsion. It contains about 72 per cent, of resin soluble in alcohol (Kurbatow) ; a large proportion of gum soluble in water, and apparently identical with gum- arabic ; and a small quantity of a colourless inflammable essential oil, one of the constituents of which is the body oliben, C 10 H 16. Frankincense burns with a bright white flame, leaving an ash consisting mainly of calcium carbonate, the remainder being calcium phosphate, and the sulphate, chloride, and carbonate of potassium (Braconnot). r Good frankincense, Pliny tells us, is recognized by its whiteness, size, brittleness, and ready inflammability. That which occurs in globular drops is, he says, termed &quot; male frank incense;&quot; the most esteemed, he further remarks, is in breast-shaped drops, formed each by the union of two tears. 8 The best frankincense, as we learn from Arrian, 9 was for merly exported from the neighbourhood of Cape Elephant in Africa (the modern Eas Fiel) ; and A. von Kremer, in his description of the commerce of the Red Sea (sEr/ypten, &c., p. 185, ii. Theil, Leipzig, 1863), observes that the African frankincense, called by the Arabs &quot;asli,&quot; is of twice the value of the Arabian &quot;luban.&quot; Captain S. B. Miles (loc. cit., p. 64) states that the best kind of frank incense, known to the Somali as &quot; bedwi &quot; or &quot; sheheri,&quot; comes from the trees &quot; Mohr Add &quot; and &quot; Mohr Madow &quot; (vide supra), and from a taller species of Boswellia, the &quot; Boido,&quot; and is sent to Bombay for exportation to Europe; and that an inferior &quot;mayeti,&quot; the produce of the 4 E. Chishull, Antiquitatcs Asiaticce Christianam JEram Antece- dentes, p. 65-72, Lond., 1728, fol. 5 According to nn old Persian legend, and other traditions, the gold signified the kingship, the frankincense the divinity, the myrrh tliR healing powers of the child. See IT. Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, vol. i. pp. 73-78, 1871. 6 Vignolius, Liber PontificaUs, t. i. p. 101, Romre, 1724, 4to. 7 See, on the chemistry of frankincense, Braconnot, Ann. de CTiimtc, Ixviii., 1808, pp. 60-69; Johnston, Phil. Trans., 1839, pp. 301-3 J. Stenhouse, Ann. der Chem. und Pharm., xxxv., 1840, p. 306; and A. Kurbatow, Zeitsch.filr Chem., 1871, p. 201. 8 &quot; Pnecipua autem gratia est mammoso, cum hoerente lacryma priore consecuta alia miscuit se&quot; (Nat. Hist., xii. 32). One of the Chinese names for frankincense, Ju -hiang, &quot;milk-perfume,&quot; is ex plained by the Pen Ts au (xxxiv. 45), a Chinese work, as being derived from the nipple-like form of its drops. (See E. Bretschneider, On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arals, &c., p. 19, Lond., 1871.) 9 The Voyage of Neavchus, loc, cit.