OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 163 



offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices 

 sweet unto me." (Chap. vi. 20.) Theophrastus 

 speaks of the vast quantities that were collected and 

 brought from every part to the temples of the Sun. 

 The deity worshipped at Saba exacted a tithe of all 

 the incense, which was brought in immense quanti- 

 ties on the backs of camels. Virgil speaks of the 

 hundred altars that smoked with Sabaean incense in 

 honour of the Paphian Venus. Homer, as has been 

 often remarked, makes no allusion to this substance, 

 though it is repeatedly mentioned by Herodotus. 



All that we find in ancient authors, regarding the 

 production and collection of this celebrated com- 

 modity, is wrapped in fable and mystery. Naturalists 

 are not even certain as to the kind of shrub that pro- 

 duced it ; but it is supposed to be a species of the 

 amyris or balm-tree, so rich in affording gum-resins. 

 Theophrastus, in his History of Plants, says it grew "j 

 wild in Arabia on the slopes of the mountains, and \ 

 that it was also cultivated on the plains surrounding \ 

 ■their base. The native writers assert, that it was j 

 only found in the eastern part of the Happy regions ; 

 and that the districts where it was most common 

 were those of Merbat, Sahar, and Mahrah, though 

 ■the latter had neither fruit nor palm-trees. Hadra- 

 jnaut and an extensive tract called Sachalites are 

 mentioned by the Greek geographers as the native 

 country of incense ; which they represent as of diffi- 

 cult access, extremely unhealthy from the thickness 

 of the air, and grievously infested by serpents, whose 

 bite was incurable. These reptiles are described as 

 -very fierce, of a small spotted kind, and so numerous 

 around each tree, that the peasants were obliged to 

 burn stryax in order to expel them. When gather- 

 ing the incense, the people spread mats or stone 

 slabs under the branches during the seasons when 

 they scarified or made incisions in the bark, and 

 this happened twice annually, — ^in winter and about 



