114 | DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 
is said that it was unknown to the Greeks at the time when they were written”. But 
from about B.c. 400 frankincense is commonly ànd unceasingly mentioned by classical 
writers. 
HERODOTUS (born B.c. 484) mentions it frequently”; and what he says about it is of 
course particularly valuable. He says, “ Arabia . . . is the only country which produces 
frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, ladanum. The Arabians do not get any of these, 
except myrrh, without trouble. The frankincense they procure by means of the gum 
storax, which the Greeks obtain from the Pheenicians ; this they burn and thereby obtain 
the spice. For the trees which bear the frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, 
small in size and of varied colours, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They 
are of the same kind as the serpents which invade Egypt, and there is nothing but the 
smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees'?. “ As one proceeds beyond 
Heliopolis up the country, Egypt becomes narrow, the Arabian range of hills, which 
have a direction north to south, shutting it up on one side, and the Libyan range upon 
the other. The former ridge runs on without a break and stretches away to the sea called 
Erythræan : it contains the quarries whence the stone was cut for the pyramids of 
Memphis; and this is the point where it ceases its first direction, and bends away in the 
manner above indicated. In its greatest length from east to west it is, as I have been 
informed, a distance of two months' journey; towards its extreme east, its skirts produce 
frankincense ”*. “The Arabs brought every year a thousand talents of frankincense, 
in tribute to Darius”. “ It is also on the great altar [of gold] that the Chaldeans burn 
the frankincense, which is offered to the amount of one thousand talents weight, every 
year at the festival of the god "5 [Bel]. In describing “the mode of embalming amongst 
the Egyptians, according to the most perfect practice," he says * they fill the cavity [ofthe 
abdomen] with the purest bruised myrrh, with cassia, and every sort of spicery, except 
Jrankincense’””. And of the Scythians, ** Their women make a mixture of cypress, cedar, 
and frankincense wood, which they pound into a paste upon a rough piece of stone, 
adding a little water to it. With this substance, which is of a thick consistency, they 
paste their faces all over, and indeed their whole bodies. A sweet odour is thereby 
imparted to them; and when they take off the plaster on the day following, their skin is 
clean and glossy ” °. 
THEOPHRASTUS, who lived only a century later (B.c. 394-287), gives the fullest and 
most accurate account of frankincense of all ancient writers. I give a translation of 
what he says about it, in full, and especially as it has never before, I believe, been done 
into English (History of Plants, book ix. ch. 4). 
* Concerning frankincense and myrrh and balsam, and whatever else is like these, it 
* Crusius, Homeric Lexicon, trans. Smith, ed. Arnold. 
* Schweighæuser, Lexicon Herodoteum. '3 Book iii. Thalia, 107, Rawlinson's translation. 
* Book ii. Euterpe, 8, Rawlinson’s trans. — ê Book iii. Thalia, 97, Rawlinson’s trans. 
* Book i. Clio, 183, Rawlinson's trans. 7 Book ii. Euterpe, 86, Rawlinson's trans. 
* Book iv. Melpomene, 75, Rawlinson’s trans. 
* Oeóópasros. "Theophrasti Eresii opera que supersunt omnia. Greca recensuit, Latine interpretatus est, 
indices rerum et verborum absolutissimos adjecit Friderieus Wimmer, Doct. Philos. Parisiis, Didot, 1866, ow 
pp. 143-145. 
