Chap. 51.] BA.LSAMTJM. 149 



person who makes the incision is generally balanced by an 

 artificial guide, in order that he may not accidentally inflict a 

 wound in the wood beyond the bark. 



A juice distils from the wound, which is known to us 

 as opobalsamum ; it is of extraordinary sweetness, 70 but only 

 exudes in tiny drops, which are then collected in wool, and 

 deposited in small horns. When taken from out of these, the 

 substance is placed in new earthen vessels ; it bears a strong 

 resemblance to a thick oil, and is of a white colour when fresh. 

 It soon, however, turns red, and as it hardens loses its trans- 

 parency. When Alexander the Great waged war in those 

 parts, it was looked upon as a fair summer day's work to fill a 

 single concha 77 with this liquid ; the entire produce of the 

 larger garden being six congii, and of the smaller one a single 

 congius; the price, too, at which it was sold was double its 

 weight in silver. At the present day the produce of a single 

 tree, even, is larger ; the incisions are made three times every 

 summer, after which the tree is pruned. 



The cuttings, too, form an article of merchandize : the fifth 

 year after the conquest of Judaea, these cuttings, with the 

 suckers, were sold for the price of eight hundred thousand 

 sesterces. These cuttings are called xylobalsamum, 78 and are 

 boiled down for mixing with unguents, and in the manufac- 

 tories have been substituted for the juices of the shrub. The 

 bark is also in great request for medicinal purposes, but it is 

 the tears that are so particularly valuable ; the seed holding 



76 This is said, probably, in allusion to the smell, and not the taste. 

 Fee remarks, that Pliny speaks with a considerable degree of exaggeration, 

 as its odour is very inferior to that of several balsams which contain ben- 

 zoic acid. The balsam obtained by incision, as mentioned by Pliny, is not 

 brought to Europe, but only that obtained by the process of decoction ; 

 which is known as "balm of Mecca," or of Judsea. It is. difficult to believe, 

 according to Fee, that it was adulterated with the substances here men- 

 tioned by Pliny ; oil of roses having been always a very precious com- 

 modity, wax being likely to change its nature entirely, and gums not being 

 of a nature to combine with it. Its asserted effects upon milk he states to 

 be entirely fabulous ; the statement is derived from Dioscorides. 



77 The concha, or u shell," was a Greek and Roman liquid measure, of 

 which there were two sizes. The smaller was half a cyathns, .0412 of an 

 English pint ; the larger was about three times the size of the former, and 

 was known also as the oxybaphum. 



-8 Q r « W ood of balsam." It is still known in European commerce by 

 its ancient name. The fruit is called Carpobalsamum. 



