HAUPT— TOBIT'S BLINDNESS AND SARA'S HYSTERIA. 87 



Asafetida is found especially between the Aral Sea and the Persian 

 Gulf. The Romans called asafetida laser Syriacum or Persicum. 

 The Greek name was d~o; Mr/lr/nc. Laser Cyrenaicum was a gum- 

 resin obtained from the north of Africa, and greatly appreciated by 

 the ancients as an antispasmodic, deobstruent, and diuretic. It is 

 supposed to have been produced by Thapsia Garganica, the deadly 

 carrot. The amber-yellow resin prepared in Algeria from Thapsia 

 Garganica is called bon-nafa resin. Lascrpitium latifolium, the 

 herb-frankincense or laserwort, is a native of mountainous districts 

 in Europe. The root abounds with a gum-resin, which is acrid and 

 bitter, and is said to be a violent purgative. Laser Cyrenaicum was 

 fragrant; it is therefore known as asa dulcis. The same name is 

 given to benzoin or gum benjamin, i.e., the concrete resinous juice 

 of the benjamin-tree of Sumatra, Java, and the Malay peninsula. 

 It is used in incense in Roman Catholic and Greek churches. It 

 forms the medicinal ingredient of court-plaster, so called because 

 originally applied by ladies of the court as ornamental patches on 

 the face. The tree is known as Styrax Benzoin. Benzoin or ben- 

 jamin is a corruption of Arab, liiban Jazvah, incense of Java.^ The 

 fiist syllable. In, was mistaken for the article. The earlier form of 

 benzoin is benjoin, which is preserved in French. The botanical 

 name of asafetida is Ferula fcctida. Asa is the Persian azd, mastic. 

 The gum-resin obtained from a species of ferula {Ferula galbani- 

 flua) of the desert region of Persia was used in the preparation of 

 the ancient Hebrew incense. It has a peculiar aromatic odor and a 

 disagreeable alliaceous taste. It is called galbanum. The Arabic 

 name is qinnah, and the Persian : birzed. The hollow reed in which 

 Prometheus brought fire from earth to heaven was a branch of 

 ferula. The pith of the stem of giant fennel {Ferula communis) 

 is still used in the Mediterranean region as tinder {cf. Pliny 13, 

 122; 7, 198). 



The ancient Hebrew incense was compounded of frankincense 

 with equal parts of galbanum, stacte, and onycha, and a pinch of 

 salt. Stacte is the fresh gum of the myrrh-tree, and onycha the 

 claw-shaped operculum of a species of wing-shell or fountain-shell, 

 found in the Red Sea. The operculum is the horny, or shelly, plate 



* Cf. vol. 4, p. 240 of the Paris edition of Ibn Batutah. 



