BOOK XII. XXXII. 60-63 



people also think that a better kind is produced on 

 islands, but Juba says that no incense grows on 

 islands at all. 



Frankincense that hangs suspended in a globular j^"^ . 

 drop we call male frankincense, although in other 

 connexions the term ' male ' is not usually employed 

 where there is no female ; but it is said to have been 

 due to rehgious scruple that the name of the other 

 sex was not empioyed in this case. Some people 

 think that male frankincense is so called from its 

 resemblance to the testes. The frankincense most 

 esteemed, however, is the breast-shaped, formed 

 when, while a previous drop is still hanging suspended, 

 another one following unites with it. I fmd it 

 recorded that one of these lumps used to be a whole 

 handful, in the days when men's eagerness to pluck 

 them was less greedy and they were allowed to 

 form more slowly. The Greek name for frankincense 

 formed in this manner is * drop-incense ' or ' soHd 

 incense,' and for the smaller kind * chick-pea 

 incense ' ; the fragments knocked olf by striking the 

 tree we call manna. Even at the present day, how- 

 ever, drops are found that weigh as much as a third 

 of a mina,^ that is 28 denarii. Alexander the Great 

 in his boyhood was heaping frankincense on the altars 

 in lavish fashion, when his tutor Leonides told him 

 that he might worship the gods in that manner when 

 he had conquered the frankincense-producing races ; 

 but when Alexander had won^ Arabia he sent Leonides 

 a ship with a cargo of frankincense, with a message 

 charging him to worship the gods without any stint. 



Frankincense after being collected is conveyed to Transport of 

 Sabota on camels, one of the gates of the city' heing Z7f!^'Yfedt' 

 opened for its admission ; the kings have made it a t^anean. 



45 



