II. 
GRAND CAIRO. ^^ 
testimony to a similar custom. It seems evi- chap 
dent, from the words of sacred Scripture, that 
the practice of burning incense, among the Jews^ 
was introduced with reference to the supposed 
salutary nature of the exhalation. Immediately 
following the ordinance for its use, it is stated, 
that the time of burning it shall be at the 
dressing and lighting of the lamps*; when an 
offensive smell, thereby created, might probably 
have pervaded the temple. Whatsoever may 
have been the cause of its original introduction 
among the sacrifices, whether of the Jews or 
Healhens, its being appropriated to the service 
of the Temple long caused it to be held in super- 
stitious veneration. Many medical properties, 
which it never possessed, have been attributed 
to it ; and, down to the latest ages, considered 
as an offering acceptable unto Heaven, it has 
been celebrated as giving efficacy to prayer, or, 
in the language of poetry, as wafting to Paradise 
the orisons of men*. 
(4) " And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense, every morning -. 
when-he dresseth the lamj^s, he shall burn incense upon it. And when 
Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it ; a 
perpetual incense before the Lord, throughout your generations." 
Exod. XXX. 7, 8. 
(5) Alexander the Great, after the conquest of Arabia, sent a ship 
laden with incense to his preceptor Leoiiidus, for the service of the 
temples; and his early prodigality, in heaping incmse upon the 
altars of Uis country, is noticed by Plltiy, (Hist. N'at. lib. xii. 
cap. 
