BOOK XII. XXXV. 68 70 



this comes the cultivated kind, and also the better 

 variety of the wild kind, the one tapped in summer. 

 No tithes are given to a god from myrrh, as it also 

 grows in other countries ; however, the growers have 

 to pay a quarter of the yield to the king of the Geb- 

 banitae. For the rest it is bought up all over the 

 district from the common people and packed into 

 leather bags ; and our perfumiers have no difficulty 

 in distinguishing the different sorts by the evi- 

 dence of the scent and consistency. There are 

 a great many varieties, the first among the wild Vari^ies of 

 kinds being the Cave-dweller myrrh, next the ' 

 Minaean, which includes the Astramitic, Gebbanitic 

 and Ausaritic from the kingdom of the Gebbanitae ; 

 the third quahty is tlie Dianite, the fourth a 

 mixture from various sources, the fifth the Sam- 

 bracene from a seaboard state in the kingdom of 

 the Sabaei, and the sixth the one called Dusirite. 

 There is also a white kind found in one place only, 

 which is brought into the town of Mesalum for sale. 

 The Cave-dweller kind is distinguished by its thickness 

 and because it is rather dry and dusty and foreign in 

 appearance, but has a stronger scent than the other 

 sorts. The Sambracene variety is advertised as sur- 

 passing other kinds in its agreeable quahty, but it 

 has not a strong scent, Broadly speaking, however, 

 the proof of goodness is given by its being in small 

 pieces of irregular shape, forming in the sohdifying 

 of the juice as it turns white and dries up, and in 

 its showing white marks hke finger-nails when it is 

 broken, and having a shghtly bitter taste. The 

 second best kind is mottled inside, and the worst 

 is the one that is black inside ; and if it is black 

 outside as well it is of a still inferior quahty. 



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