Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/92

 described in §15, but the Cape of Spices itself. Mosyllum was probably, therefore, rather a prominent headland on the coast, altogether such as Ras Hantara.

This, by the way, was reputed to have been the eastward limit of the conquests of Ptolemy Euergetes, King of Egypt, in the 3d century B. C.

10. Cinnamon.—The text is kasia, from Hebrew kezia (Ps. XLV, 8; Ezek. XXVII, 19, XXX, 24), the modern cassia. This meant usually, in Roman times, the wood split lengthwise, as distinguished from the flower-tips and tender bark, which rolled up into small pipes and was called kinnamomon, from Hebrew kheneh, a pipe; khinemon (Exod. XXX, 23, Prov. VII, 17, Cant. IV, 14); Latin canna, French cannelle.

Cinnamon and cassia are the flower-tips, bark, and wood of several varieties of laurel native in India, Tibet, Burma and China. Engler and Prantl, Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, classify them as follows:

Cinnamon is mentioned as one of the ingredients of the sacred anointing oil of the Hebrew priests (Exod. XXX). The Egyptian inscriptions of Queen Hatshepsut's expedition, in the 15th century B. C., mention cinnamon wood as one of the "marvels of the country of Punt" which were brought back to Egypt.

Cinnamon was familiar to both the Greeks and Romans, and was used as incense, and as a flavor in oils and salves. It is menioned by Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Pliny. Dioscorides gives a long description of it. He says it "grows in Arabia; the best sort is red, of a fine color, almost like coral; straight, long, and pipy, and it bites on the palate with a slight sensation of head. The best sort is