136 



BURSERACE^. 



Dayr el Bahri in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried 

 on between Egypt and a distant country called Punt or Fount as early 

 as the 17th century B.C. In these paintings there are representations 

 not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum trees planted in 

 tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt. Inscrip- 

 tions on the same building, deciphered by Professor D., describe with 

 the utmost admiration the shipments of precious woods, heaps of 

 incense, verdant incense trees/ ivory, gold, stimmi (sulphide of anti- 

 mony), silver, apes, besides other productions not yet identified. The 



Pount was first 



i 



considered 



■iD 



old 



the opposite Arabian coast. Punt possibly refers to " Opone," an 

 name for Hafoon, a place south of Cape Gardafui. 



A detailed account of frankincense is given by Theophrastus^ (b.c. 

 370-285) who relates that the commodity is produced in the country of 



mg the southern shores of Arabia. It appears from Diodorus that the 

 Sabaeans sold their frankincense to the Arabs, through whose hands it 

 pa^ed to the Phoenicians who disseminated the use of it in the temples 

 throughout their possessions, as well as among the nations with whom 

 they traded. The route of the caravans from south-eastern Arabia to 



m 



feprenger. Plutarch relates that when Alexander the Great captureil 

 traza, oOO talents of olibanum and 100 talents of myrrh were taken, 

 and sent thence to Macedonia. 



The lihanotoplwroua region of the old Sabseans is in fact the very 

 country visited by Carter in 1844 and 1846, and lying as he states on 

 the south coast of Ai-abia between lono-. .52' 47' and 52" 23' east.^ It 

 was also known to the ancients, at least to Strabo and Arrian, that 

 the opposite African coast likewise produced olibanum,' as it is no^s' 

 doing almost exclusively ; and the latter states that the drug is shippec 

 partly to Egypt and partly to Barbaricon at the mouth of the Indus. 

 ^ r^ exemplifying the great esteem in which frankincense was hcia 

 Dy the ancients, the memorable gifts presented by the Magi to tht 

 infant Savmn. .,.-11 .„.„„.. —A few other instances nia} 



t 

 t 



d 



be mentioned : Herodotus' relates that the Arabians paid to Darius 

 ^mg ot Persia, an amiual tribute of 1000 talents of frankincense. _ ^ 

 on th ^'''^.^'^^i'l^ Clreek inscription, brought to light in modern time. 



rums ot the temple of Apollo at Miletus 



>nrine by JSeleucus II., king of Syria (B.C. 246-22V), ana m. 

 Antiochus Hierax, king of Cilicia, which included in addition 



ade 

 nd hi 



^ypUon Qnecnfrorn the Mth century before 



^ZL""^''''''':i «" « ^nomment of the 



terrac7of'the lewnllf n '"^"f '«^T "•^'"'^"^ ^^'« 

 lated from thirT: ""-^ ^J"--fBaheri, trans- 



thus render™. tK ^''^'''''' ^- ^^^ 

 cense-treea brou:.l.f ^"*^''^ verdant in- 



trial 



of this god Amoii, the lord of the teiie 

 thrones. Never has anything similar _^ 

 seen since the foundation of the ^''^''-j^jjo 

 '^Hist. Plant, lib. iv. c. 7.—*^'= 



Sprenger, I.e. 219. rMnrnphie 



« See also Sprenger, Vk f^f^^^ lii. 

 Arahkn,. sirn, 1875. 290 302, «^J%'99, 



* ' ' Thus transfretanum, ?F^'"^f .oj 48.S. 



sRawlinson's Herodotus, "• '^^liu'anum 

 -Sprenger, I.e. 300, alludes to ohb^^" 

 being exported to Babylonia anfl x- j 



sChishull, Anthiidtntes Asiatic^' 

 1758. 65-72. 



4 



