124 plikt's NATUEAL HISTOEY. [Book XII. 



common with the country of the Troglodyte. (14.) There is 

 no country in the world that produces frankincense except 

 Arabia, 95 and, indeed, not the whole of that. Almost in the 

 very centre of that region, are the Atramitae, 96 a community of 

 the Sab&ei, the capital of whose kingdom is Sabota, a place 

 situate on a lofty mountain. At a distance of eight stations 

 from this is the incense-bearing region, known by the name 

 of Saba. The Greeks say that the word signifies a " secret 

 mystery." This district looks towards the north-east, and 

 is rendered inaccessible by rocks on every side, while it is 

 bounded on the right by the sea, from which it is shut out by 

 cliffs of tremendous height. The soil of this territory is said 

 to be of a milky white, a little inclining to red. The forests 

 extend twenty schceni in length, and half that distance in 

 breadth. The length of the schcenus, according to the esti- 

 mate of Eratosthenes, is forty stadia, or, in other words, five 

 miles ; some persons, however, have estimated the schcenus at 

 no more than thirty-two stadia. In this district some lofty 

 hills take their rise, and the trees, which spring up sponta- 

 neously, run downwards along the declivities to the plains. 

 It is generally agreed that the soil is argillaceous, and that 

 the springs which there take their rise are but few in number, 

 and of a nitrous quality. Adjoining are the Minsei, the people 

 of another community, through whose country is the sole tran- 

 sit for the frankincense, along a single narrow road. The 



95 Virgil, Georg. B. ii, 1. 139, mentions Panchaia, in Arabia, as being 

 more especially the country of frankincense. That region corresponds with 

 the modern Yemen. It is, however, a well-ascertained fact, that it grows 

 in India as well, and it is supposed that the greater part of it used by 

 the ancients was in reality imported from that country. The Indian in- 

 cense is the product of a tree belonging to the terebinth class^ named by 

 Eoxburgh, who first discovered it, Boswellia thurifera. It is more espe- 

 cially found in the mountainous parts of India. On the other hand, it has 

 been asserted that the Arabian incense was the product of a coniferous tree, 

 either the Juniperus Lycia, the Juniperus Phoenicea, or the Juniperus 

 thurifera of Linnaeus. But, as Fee justly remarks, it would appear more 

 reasonable to look among the terebinths of Arabia for the incense tree, if 

 one of that class produces it in India, and more especially because the coni- 

 ferous trees produce only resins, while the terebinths produce gum resins, 

 to which class of vegetable products frankincense evidently belonged. In 

 commerce, the gum resin, Olibanum, the produce of the Boswellia serrata, 

 and imported from the Levant, bears the name of frankincense. 



96 See B. vi. c. 32. Their name is still preserved in the modern Hadra- 

 niaut, to the east of Aden. 



