Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/130

 This is the Sabota of Pliny (VI, 32) "with sixty temples within its walls."

27. Frankincense, one of the most ancient and precious articles of commerce, is a resin exuded from various species of Boswellia, order Burseraceae, native in Somaliland and South Arabia. Birdwood (Trans. Linn. Soc., XXVII, 1871), distinguishes particularly B. Frereana, B. Bhau-Dajiana (the mocrotu of §9), and B. Carterii, the last-named yielding the best incense. B. thurifera, native in India, yields a resin of less fragrance, much used as an adulterant. Frankincense is thus closely allied to myrrh, bdellium, and benzoin.

The Greek word is libanos, from Hebrew lebonah, Arabic lubân, meaning "white"; ''cf. laben'', the Somali word for cream, and "milk-perfume," which is the Chinese term for frankincense. Marco Polo always calls it "white incense."

Another Hebrew name was shekheleth, Ethiopic sekhin, which Hommel would connect with the "Bay of Sachalites" of §29.

Periplus 120 Frankincense.png Frankincense trees, from the Punt Reliefs in the Deir el Bahri temple at Thebes; dating from the 15th century B.C. After Naville.

The inscriptions of the early Egyptian dynasties contain, as we might expect, few references to the trade in incense, which was brought overland to the upper Nile by the "people of Punt and God's Land" and not sought out by the Pharaohs. That incense was in use is sufficiently clear from the early ritual. The expedition to the