THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



275 



Photograph by Charles K. Closer 

 THE "GOGGLYWOGGLE" (SEE PAGE 268) 



and they go among the wild trees which 

 tradition has allotted him as a family in- 

 heritance. Each tree is given ten or a 

 dozen deep, oblique slashes two or three 

 inches in length, and a wrench of the 

 knife tears the lower end of the wound 

 open to form a kind of pocket. In these 

 pockets the amber-colored or whitish 

 "tears" of resin collect, hardening slowly. 

 At the end of a month the collector re- 

 turns, rips out the partially hardened 

 resin with the point of his knife, and 

 makes more wounds in the bark. He re- 

 peats the process once a month until the 

 end of September. 



As soon as the luban tears are hard 

 they are ready for the market, and they 

 are usually bartered to an Arab trader 

 for kerosene or cotton cloths from Amer- 

 ica. A tree in Socotra will produce an- 

 nually about 8 pounds of luban, worth 10 

 cents a pound ; a Somaliland tree will 

 produce twice as much and of a quality 

 twice as valuable. 



This was all very fine ; but as it was now 

 nearly noon and all the frankincense trees 

 in sight were 20 feet high and from 8 to 

 10 inches in diameter, I told the guide to 

 hurry along and bring us to the little trees 

 which we could take back to the ship. 



