MYRRH. 165 



most perfect sort, the savages choose a young, vigorous tree, whose 

 bark is without moss, or any parasite plant ; and, above the first 

 large branches, give the tree a deep wound with an axe. The 

 myrrh which flows the first year, through this wound, is myrrh of 

 the first growth ; and never in very great quantity. This operation 

 is performed some time after the rains have ceased ; that is, from 

 April to June, and the myrrh is produced in July and August. 

 The sap once accustomed to issue through this gash, continues to 

 do so spontaneously, at the return of every season : but the tropical 

 rains, which are very violent, and continue six months, wash so much 

 dirt, and lodge so much water in the cut, that in the second year, 

 the tree has begun to rot and turn foul in that part, and the myrrh 

 is of a second quality, and sells in Cairo about a third cheaper than 

 the first. The myrrh also produced from gashes near the roots, 

 and in the trunks of old trees, is of the second growth and quality, 

 and sometimes worse. This however is the good myrrh of the 

 Italian shops every where but in Venice. It is of a blackish red, 

 foul colour, solid and heavy, losing little of its weight by being long 

 kept ; and it is not easily distinguished from that of Arabia Felix. 

 The third and worst kind is gathered from old wounds or gashes, 

 formerly made in old trees ; or myrrh that, passing unnoticed, has 

 hung upon the tree ungathered a whole year ; black and earth-like 

 in colour, and heavy, with little smell aud bitterness. This appa. 

 rently is the caucalis of the ancients, 



Pliny speaks of stacte, as if it was fresh or liquid myrrh ; and 

 Dioscorides, (cap. 67,) says something like this also. However it is 

 not credible that the ancients, either Greeks or Latins, placed at 

 such a distance, could ever see the myrrh in that state. The natives 

 of its country say, that it hardens on the tree instantly, on being ex- 

 posed to air; and I, who was several months within 4 days journey 

 of the place where it grew, and had the savages quite at my devotion 

 to jgo and come from thence, could never see the newest myrrh 

 softer than the state in which I send it ; though I think it dissolved 

 more perfectly in water, than when it had been kept. Dioscorides too 

 mentions a kind of myrrh, which he says was green, and of the con- 

 sistence of paste. But as Serapion and the Arabs say, that stacte 

 was a preparation of myrrh dissolved in water, it is probable, that 

 this unknown green kind of Dioscorides was, like the stacte, a com- 



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