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DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 125 
a very little child, made no spare of incense, but cast still upon the altar without 
all measure when he offered sacrifice. Whereupon Leonides, his tutor and schoole- 
maister, by way of a light reproofe, said unto him thus, Sir, you should in that maner 
burne incense, when you have once conquered those nations where there growes incense. 
Which rebuke and checke of his tooke so deep a print in Alexander's heart, and so well 
he carried it in memorie, that after he had indeed made conquest of Arabia, he sent 
unto the said Leonides, his tutor, a ship ful fraught and charged with incense; willing 
him not to spare, but liberally to bestow upon the gods when hee sacrificed. To returne 
againe to our historie. When the incense is gathered (as is beforesaid) conveighed it is 
to Sabota, upon cammels' backs, and at one gate (set open for that purpose) is it brought 
into the citie. For by law forbidden it is on pain of death to take any other way. 
Which done, the priests there of the god whom they call Sabis, take the disme or tenth 
part of the incense, by measure, and not by weight, and set it apart for that god. Neither 
is it lawful for any man to buy or sell, before that duty be paied : which serves after- 
wards to support certaine publick expenses of the citie. For all strangers and travellers 
within the compasse of certain daies journey, if they come to the citie are courteously 
received, and liberally entertained at the cost and charge of the said god Sabis. Carried 
forth of the country it cannot be, but through the Gebanites; and therefore there is a 
eustome paid to their king. "The head citie of that kingdom, Thomna, is from Gaza 
(the next port-towne in Judæa toward our coast) seven-and-twentie miles fourscore times 
told: and this way is divided into sixty-two daies journey by camels. Moreover, besides 
tyth aforesaid, there be measures, bestowed upon the priests to their owne use and others 
likewise to the king's secretaries and scribes; and not only these have a share, but also 
the keepers, sextons, and wardens of the temple, the squires of the bodie, the guard and 
pensioners, the king's officers, the porters, groomes, and other servitors, pill and poll, 
and every one hath a snatch. Moreover, allthe way as they travell; in one place they 
pay for their water, in another for fodder and provender, or else for their lodging and 
stable-room, and every where for one thing or other they pay toll: so as the charge for 
every cammell from thence to the sea, upon our coast commeth to 688 deniers ; and yet 
we are not come to an end of paiements ; for our publicanes and customers also belonging 
to our empire must have a fleece for their parts. And therefore a pound of the best 
incense will cost sixteen deniers, of the second fifteen, and the third fourteen. With us 
it is mingled and sophisticated with parcels of a white kind of rosin, which is very like 
to it; but the fraud is soon found by the meanes above specified. The best incense is 
tried and knowne by these markes, viz. If it be white, large, brittle, and easie to take a 
flame when it comes neare a coale of fire; last of all, if it will not abide the dent of the 
tooth, but flie in pieces and crumble, sooner than suffer the teeth to enter into i e 
Pliny also says that the Sabæans cooked their food with the wood of the frankincense- 
tree’; and that, “in the Trojan times, there were no ointments, neither was supplication 
made with frankincense””. 
ARRIAN (about A.D. 90) writes”, “Beyond Kane [Makalla] the bay called Sakhalites 
* Book xiii. ch. 1, Celsius. 
1 Book xii. ch. 17, Celsius. Oxford, 1809 
0] ? » 
3 Vincent's Translation of the Periplus and Voyage of Nearchus, 
