DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 115 
has [already ] been said, that they are produced by incision, and spontaneously. And we 
must [now] endeavour to tell what is the nature of the trees, and if they have any thing 
peeuliar as to their origin or collection, or other matters; and, in like manner, con- 
cerning the other sweet-smelling trees; for almost the whole of them grow in places 
towards the south and east. The franki -tree and myrrh and cassia and cinnamon 
grow in the Chersonese of the Arabians, about Saba and Adramyta, and Citibeena and 
. Mali But the trees of frankincense and myrrh grow, some of them on the mountain, 
. and others in private plantations, at the foot of the mountain; on which account, some 
of them are cultivated, and others are not: and they say that the mountain is lofty and 
thickly wooded, and covered with snow, and that rivers also flow down from it into the 
plains, and that the frankincense-tree is not large, being five cubits high, and covered 
with boughs, and that it has a leaf like that of the pear-tree, only much smaller, and is of 
a grassy colour, very like rue, and has altogether a smooth bark like the laurel; but that 
the myrrh-tree is still smaller in size and more shrub-like, and that it has a hard trunk, 
i and is twisted towards the ground, and is thicker than a man's leg, and has a smooth 
- bark, like purslane. But others, who say they have seen them, nearly all agree concern- 
ing their size, namely, that neither of the trees is large, the myrrh-tree being the smaller 
and lower [of the two]. And they state that the frankincense bears a resemblance to a 
laurel, and that it has a smooth bark, but that the myrrh is prickly and not smooth, 
and that it has a leaf like the elm, only crisp, and prickly at the top, like the ilex-tree. 
And these said that in a voyage which they were making from the Bay of Heroes, they 
disembarked to search for water on the mountain, and thus saw the trees and the mode 
of collecting [the frankincense]. And that the trunks and boughs of both were incised ; 
but that the former appeared to have been cut, as it were, by an axe, and the latter to 
have had more gentle incisions; and that the drops partly fell down and partly remained 
on the tree. And that in some places mats woven of palm-leaves were placed under- 
neath, while in others the ground underneath was hardened and kept clean; and that 
the frankincense on the mats was pure and transparent, but that on the ground less so; 
and that they scraped off what adhered to the trees with knives, so that the bark stuck 
to some of them. And they said that the whole mountain was divided among the 
Sabeans; for that they were the lords [of the place], and that they were just towards 
one another, on which account no one kept any guard [over his own property]; and that 
having themselves taken thence an abundance of frankincense and myrrh, which they 
placed in their ships, none of the inhabitants being present, they had sailed away. And 
these both told this, and said they heard that the myrrh and frankincense is gathered 
together on every side to the temple of the Sun ; and that this belongs to the Sabæans, 
being by far the most sacred thing in the country, and that certain armed Arabs have the , 
custody of it; and that when they bring it, each, heaping up his own frankincense, and the 
myrrh in a similar way, leaves them with the keepers, and places upon the heap " little 
tablet, stating the number of the measures, and the price at which each measure is to be 
sold; and that when the merchants come they inspect these tablets, and having measured 
. any heap that pleases them, they put the price of it in the place from which it is taken ; 
and that the priest then coming takes a third part of the price for the god, and there 
