FRANKINCENSE. 445 



their use, even in the Christian churches. Aubrey, in 

 his Hermetic Philosophy, says, " Good spirits are 

 delighted and allured by sweet perfumes, as rich gums, 

 fi-ankincejise, salts, fyc., which was the reason that 

 the priests of the Gentiles and also the Christians 

 used them in their temples and sacrifices*." " It is a 

 curious fact," observes Dr. Clarke, " that this super- 

 stitious notion respecting a fragrant gum should also 

 exist in South America. The pastillas of Lima are 

 considered by the priests to be efficacious in destroy- 

 ing the influence of evil spirits, and are always burnt 

 on the altars during the solemnization of high mass f.'* 



Frankincense is the concrete juice of a species of 

 Juniper (Juniperus lycid), and has every charac- 

 teristic of a gum- resin ; it appears in the form of 

 small irregular pieces, semi-transparent, and of a 

 brown, or dirty yellow colour. The tree whence it 

 exudes attains to the height of twenty feet ; the leaves 

 are pointed, and grow imbricated, or lapping over 

 each other, in four rows ; the berries are large, and 

 when ripe of a black hue. 



Frankincense was one of those articles of com- 

 merce which we have before noticed as being for 

 many centuries wrapped up in fable and mystery. 



The port of Moscha (Moscat), near the promontory 

 of Syagros (Rasal-Gat) in Arabia, was a great em- 

 porium for the frankincense produced in the adjacent 

 country. Vessels from Cane traded to this port, and 

 those from Barygasa, on the opposite coast, or the 

 more distant parts of India, when too late for accom- 

 plishing their voyages in the propitious season, were 

 wont to pass their winter here, and exchange their 

 calico, corn, and oil, for frankincense, the sale of 

 which the king most vigorously engrossed to his own 

 advantage. This monopolizing spirit is general 



* Second edition, London, 1721, page 172, as quoted in 

 Clarke's Travels, vol. v. p. 77. t Ibid. 



