FLORA OF ADEN. 
155 
white incense, which is the purest o£ all. 1 Certain grammarians 
defended the opinion that f libanos ' signified the tree and ‘ libanotos 9 
the incense. But the ancient writers, whilst employing f libanos 9 for 
the tree as well as for the gum, used f libanotos 9 exclusively to designate 
the gum. 2 
Frankincense is not mentioned by Homer, and seems not to have 
become known to the Greeks till a later period, when it was largely 
employed in the obsequies of the wealthier citizens, as it is in our day 
with high caste Hindoos. 3 
Though the frankincense was well known to the ancients, they had, 
nevertheless, very vague and often erroneous notions of the plant which 
produces the gum. 4 * Pliny confesses that little was known regarding 
the shape of the tree, and that the Greeks had given thereof the most 
varied descriptions. 6 The information on the method of obtaining the 
gum is equally unreliable. 8 
According to the ancient authors the frankincense came from Shebah. 
In Isaiah (LX, 6) it is said : “ All they from Sheba shall come ; they 
shall bring gold and frankincense,” and in Jeremiah (VI, 20) : “ To what 
purpose do you bring me frankincense from Sheba and the sweet-smelling 
cane from a far country.” — Pliny calls the Sabaeans the best known 
amongst the Arabs on account of the frankincense, 7 and in another place 
he says that Sheba is the Ghuriferous country/ 8 Similarly Yirgilius in 
his Georgica : 
“ Solis est thurea virga Sabaeis.” 9 
Niebuhr and Tristram, not being able to understand how Yemen 
and Hadramaut could produce a quantity of frankincense sufficient to 
satisfy the demands of the Old World, were cf opinion that the Arabs 
imported part of the supply from India. 10 They thought to have found 
an argument in the fact, that the Arabs sometimes call the frankincense 
f kondor 3 or f kundur 9 } an Indian name given to the aromatic gum of 
1 Cf. Plinius. Historia Naturalis. XII, 32 ; Theophrastus. Hisfcoria PI ant arum IX, 4. 
2 Schleusner, J. P. Novus thesaurus philologico-criticus. Leipzig, 1820, vol. 3, p. 453. 
8 Groser, W. H. The trees and plants mentioned in the Bible. London, 1895, p. 212. 
4 Theophrastus. 1. c. ; Diodorus Sic. V, 41. 
8 Plinius. Historia Naturalis. XII, 31. 
6 Plinius. 1. c. XII, 32 — Theophrastus 1. c. XI, 14. 
7 Plinius. 1. c. VI, 32. 
8 Plinius. 1. c. XII, 30. Cf. Strabo XVI, 19. 
9 Virgilius. Georg. I, 58. — For other ancient writers who mention Sheba as being the 
home of frankincense cf Celsius. Hierobotanicon. Amsterdam, 1748, vol. I, 
p. 240—241. 
10 Niebuhr. Description de 1’Arabie. Paris, 1779, vol. p. I, 202 — 203. 
Tristram. The natural history of the Bible. London, 1889 p. 355. 
