128 
Flint's katural histobt. 
[Book XII. 
these by the name of stagonia^ and atomus/^ while the smaller 
pieces are called orobia.* The fragments which are broken off 
by shaking the tree are known to us as manna.^ Even at the 
present day, howeyer, there are drops found which weigh one- 
third of a mina, or, in other words, twenty- eight denarii. 
Alexander the Great, when a boy, was on one occasion loading 
the altars with frankincense with the greatest prodigality, 
upon which his tutor Leonides^ remarked to him that it 
would be time to worship the gods in such a lavish manner 
as that, when he had conquered the countries that produced 
the frankincense. After Alexandria had conquered Arabia,^ 
he despatched to Leonides a ship freighted with frankincense, 
and sent him word, requesting that he would now worship the 
gods without stint or limit. 
The incense, after being collected, is carried on camels' 
backs to Sabot a, at which place a single gate is left open for 
its admission. To deviate from the high road while convey- 
ing it, the laws have made a capital offence. At this place the 
priests take by measure, and not by weight, a tenth part in 
honour of their god, whom they call Sabis ; indeed, it is not 
allowable to dispose of it before this has been done : out of 
this tenth the public expenses are defrayed, for the divinityi 
generously entertains all those strangers who have made a cer- 
tain number of days' journey in coming thither. The incense 
can only be exported through the country of the Gebanitae, 
and for this reason it is that a certain tax is paid to their 
king as well. Thomna,^ which is their capital, is distant 
from Gaza, a city of Judsea, on the shores of our sea, 4436^° 
2 Meaning " drop " incense. ^ " Undivided " incense. , 
^ From their being the size of an opojSoQ, or " chick-pea." 
s There is some doubt as to the correctness of this reading. The ''manna" 
here mentioned is quite a different substance to tbe manna of modern com- 
merce, obtained from the Fraxinus ornus of naturalists. 
^ He was a kinsman of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and a mau- 
of very austere habits. Plutarch says, that on ^his occasion Alexander 
sent to Leonidas 600 talents' weight of incense and myrrh. 
7 See B. vi. c. 32. 
8 Probably the same as the deity, Assabinus, mentioned by Pliny in c. 
42 of the present Book. Theophrastus mentions him as identical with the 
sun, others, again, with Jupiter. Theophrastus says that the god received 
not a tenth part, but a third. 
As to this place and the Gebanitse, see B. vi. c. 32. 
There must surely be some mistake in these numbers. 
