BOOK XII. XXXVIII. 78-xL. 80 



mention elsewhere because in their case it does noL 

 hold the first place. Also in Arabia there is a sur- 

 prising demand for foreign scents, which are imported 

 from abroad : so tired do mortals get of things that 

 are their own, and so covetous are they of what be- 

 longs to other people. XXXIX. Consequently they 

 send to the Elymaei « for the wood of the bratus, a 

 tree resembhng a spreading cypress, with very white 

 branches, and giving an agreeable scent when burnt. 

 It is praised in the Histories of Claudius Caesar as 

 having a marvellous property : he states that the 

 Parthians sprinkle its leaves into their drinks, and 

 that it has a scent very Hke cedar, and its smoke is an 

 antidote against the effects of other woods. It 

 grows beyond the River Karun on Mount Scanchrus 

 in the territory of the city of Sostrata. 



XL. They also import from Carmania the stobrus Scent-irees, 

 tree, to use for the purpose of fumigation ; it is soaked 

 in palm wine and then set ahght. The vapour is 

 thrown back from the ceihng to the floor ; it has an 

 agreeable scent, but it causes headache, which is not 

 however severe enough to be painful : it is used as a 

 soporific for invaUds. For these trades they have 

 opened up the city of Carrhae, which is the market 

 town of these parts. From Carrhae everybody used 

 formerly to go on to Gabba, a journey of twenty days, 

 and to Palestine in Syria ; but afterwards, according 

 to Juba, they began to make for Charax and the 

 Parthian kingdom for the sake of the perfume trade. 

 But my own view is that they used to convey those 

 commodities to the Persians even before they took 

 them to Syria or Egypt,this being attested by Hero- 

 dotus,* who records that the Arabs used regularly to 

 pay a yearly tribute of a thousand talents of incense 



59 



