134 DR. G. BIRDWOOD ON THE GENUS BOSWELLIA. 
when a fresh incision is made in the same place, but deeper. A third month elapses, 
and the operation is again repeated, after which the gum is supposed to have attained a 
proper degree of consistency. The mountain-sides are immediately covered with parties 
of men and boys, who scrape off the large clear globules into a basket, whilst the inferior 
quantity that has run down the tree is packed separately. The gum when first taken 
from the tree is very soft, but hardens quickly. The flame is clear and brilliant ; and 
the traveller is frequently amused by seeing a miserable Bedowi family, cowering under 
a wretched hovel, eating their scanty meal by the light of half-a-dozen frankincense- 
torches!. Every fortnight the mountains are visited in this manner, the trees producing 
larger quantities as the season advances, until the middle of September, when the first 
shower of rain puts a close to the gathering of that year." 
. The export, he goes on to say, is in the hands of “ those never-failing speculators, the 
Banians of Porebunder (Kattiawar) and Bombay." At the close of the north-east 
monsoon they arrive at the coast, and settle at Feluk (Mount Elephant of the ancients, 
Cape Felix of the Portuguese, and Jibbel Feel of Capt. Saris), Bunder Marayah, and 
Bunder Khor, and other Bunders. “ The Bedowins from the interior immediately visit 
them; and as there is no one to compete with them, they manage to engross the greater 
part of the trade." He estimates that the quantity annually exported is:— 
tons. 
TS Dobay: 45512095:,03; deg aa ta ego wan eS 
Posed Ee: Use 2 9/030; paa gen Fre en 285 
TO Abe ie iod ER ec rotar tobas 00228 
TOI n a à OM 
* The trees that produce Laban or frankincense are of two kinds, Luban Meyti and 
Luban Bedowi. Of these the Meyti, which grows out of the naked rock, is the most 
valuable, and, when clean packed and of good quality, it is sold by the merchants on the 
coast for 14 dollar per frasila? of twenty pounds. The Luban Bedowi of the best quality 
is sold for 1 dollar per frasila; of both kinds the palest colour is preferred. The trees 
vary greatly in height ; but I never saw one above twenty feet, with a stem of nine inches 
in diameter. Their form is very graceful, and when springing from a mass of marble 
on the brink of a precipice, their appearance is especially picturesque.” 
He mentions also that myrrh is chiefly brought from Murrayhan in the interior, and 
sold at Bunder Murraayha, near where he also saw a few myrrh-trees. : 
In 1843, also, KEMPTHORNE and VAUGHAN made a short journey into the Soumali 
country, “ from Bunder Marayah, the chief town of the Mijjertheyn Soumalis, near Ras 
Feeluk” (Mount Elephant, ancients; Cape Felix, Portuguese ; and Jibbel Feel, Saris). 
Kempthorne’s description of the franki -tree, which he saw here on the limestone 
mountains, three miles inland from Bunder Marayah, I have copied after my botanı 
description of it below”. Royle says‘ that “ Bennet identified this plant (which is Crut- 
* Compare Pliny, supra. * Compare Purchas, loc. suprà cit. 
* See Trans. Bombay Geo. Soc. vi. and xiii.; Harris, Highlands of Æthiopia, vol. i. 417, 1844; Pharm. Journal, 
iv. 1844 * Pharm. Journal, v. 1845. ; 
