84 LOUREIRO ON THE NATURE AND MODE 



was contained, and then presents a shapeless-, 

 hard, dark coloured, fragrant mass, full of coarse 

 veins, called Agallochum. 



Thus this substance, however precious, is the 

 immediate result of disease, and often contains a 

 Teredo and a brown species of Meloe j which, by 

 gnawing and penetrating into the interior of the 

 stem, give it the rugged appearance we perceive in 

 the pieces, and bore them full of holes. The 

 disease having spread far into the stem, the upper 

 part at least loses its communication with the lower 

 part through which it received its support and 

 aliment ; while the sound parts of the tree decay, 

 and yield their precious perfume, by the production 

 of which it had paved its way to its own destruc- 

 tion 5 and, as Ovid sings of the Phoenix : 



Se super imponit finitque in odonbus sevum. 



As the Agallochum-trade is very lucrative in the 

 East, the natives of those regions go every year in 

 search of it, at the expence of much hazard and 

 labour, among the mountains j for which purpose 

 they keep together in bodies of ten, twenty or 



