Dayr el Báhri in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried on between Egypt and a distant country called Punt or Pount as early as the 17th century B.C. In these paintings there are representations not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum trees planted in tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt. Inscriptions on the same building, deciphered by Professor D., describe with the utmost admiration the shipments of precious woods, heaps of incense, verdant incense trees,' ivory, gold, stimmi (sulphide of antimony), silver, apes, besides other productions not yet identified. The country Pount was first thought to be southern Arabia, but is now considered to comprehend the Somali coast, together with a portion of the opposite Arabian coast. Punt possibly refers to "Opone," an old name for Hafoon, a place south of Cape Gardafui. A detailed account of frankincense is given by Theophrastus2 (B.C. 370-285) who relates that the commodity is produced in the country of the Sabæans, one of the most active trading nations of antiquity, occupying the southern shores of Arabia. It appears from Diodorus that the Sabæans sold their frankincense to the Arabs, through whose hands it passed to the Phoenicians who disseminated the use of it in the temples throughout their possessions, as well as among the nations with whom they traded. The route of the caravans from south-eastern Arabia to Gaza in Palestine, has recently (1866) been pointed out by Professor Sprenger. Plutarch relates that when Alexander the Great captured Gaza, 500 talents of olibanum and 100 talents of myrrh were taken, and sent thence to Macedonia. The libanotophorous region of the old Sabæans is in fact the very country visited by Carter in 1844 and 1846, and lying as he states on the south coast of Arabia between long. 52° 47′ and 52° 23' east.3 It was also known to the ancients, at least to Strabo and Arrian, that the opposite African coast likewise produced olibanum, as it is now doing almost exclusively; and the latter states that the drug is shipped partly to Egypt and partly to Barbaricon at the mouth of the Indus. As exemplifying the great esteem in which frankincense was held by the ancients, the memorable gifts presented by the Magi to the infant Saviour will occur to every mind. A few other instances may be mentioned: Herodotus relates that the Arabians paid to Darius, king of Persia, an annual tribute of 1000 talents of frankincense. A remarkable Greek inscription, brought to light in modern times on the ruins of the temple of Apollo at Miletus, records the gifts made to the shrine by Seleucus II., king of Syria (B.C. 246-227), and his brother Antiochus Hierax, king of Cilicia, which included in addition Egyptian Queen from the 17th century before 1 In one of the inscriptions they are referred to in terms which Professor D. has thus rendered :-"Thirty-one verdant incense-trees brought among the precious things from the land of Punt for the majesty of this god Amon, the lord of the terrestrial thrones. Never has anything similar been seen since the foundation of the world." 2 Hist. Plant. lib. iv. c. 7.-See also Sprenger, l.c. 219. 3 See also Sprenger, Die alte Geographie Arabiens. Bern, 1875. 296, 302, also 244. "Thus transfretanum," Sprenger, 299. 5 Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii. (1858) 488. -Sprenger, l.c. 300, alludes to olibanum being exported to Babylonia and Persia. 6 Chishull, Antiquitates Asiatica, Lond. 1758. 65-72. two vessels of gold and silver, ten talents of frankincense (Barwτòs) and one of myrrh. The emperor Constantine made numerous offerings to the church under St. Silvester, bishop of Rome A.D. 314-335, of costly vessels and fragrant drugs and spices,' among which mention is made in several instances of Aromata and Aromata in incensum, terms under which olibanum is to be understood.2 With regard to the consumption of olibanum in other countries, it is an interesting fact that the Arabs in their intercourse with the Chinese, which is known to have existed as early as the 10th century, carried with them olibanum, myrrh, dragon's blood, and liquid storax,3 drugs which are still imported from the west into China. The firstnamed is called Ju-siang, i.e. milk perfume, a curious allusion to its Arabic name Luban signifying milk. In the year 1872, Shanghai imported of this drug no less than 1,360 peculs (181,333 lb.). Collection-The fragrant gum resin is distributed through the leaves and bark of the trees, and even exudes as a milky juice also from the flowers; its fragrance is stated to be already appreciable in a certain distance. Cruttenden," who visited the Somali Country in 1843, thus describes the collecting of olibanum by the Mijjertheyn tribe, whose chief port is Bunder Murayah (lat. 11° 43′ N.)" : "During the hot season the men and boys are daily employed in collecting gums, which process is carried on as follows:-About the end of February or beginning of March, the Bedouins visit all the trees in succession and make a deep incision in each, peeling off a narrow strip of bark for about 5 inches below the wound. This is left for a month when a fresh incision is made in the same place, but deeper. A third month elapses and the operation is again repeated, after which the gum is supposed to have attained a proper degree of consistency. The mountain-sides are immediately covered with parties of men and boys, who scrape off the large clear globules into a basket, whilst the inferior quality that has run down the tree is packed separately. The gum when first taken from the tree is very soft, but hardens quickly. Every fortnight the mountains are visited in this manner, the trees producing larger quantities as the season advances, until the middle of September, when the first shower of rain puts a close to the gathering that year." ... The informations due to J. M. Hildebrandt, who visited the Somali in 1875, are in accordance with Cruttenden's statements. The former says, that the latest crops are greatly injured by the rains, the drug being partly dissolved by the water. 7 Carter describing the collection of the drug in southern Arabia, 1 These remarkable gifts are enumerated by Vignoli in his Liber Pontificalis, Rome, 1724-55, and include beside Olibanum, Oleum nardinum, Oleum Cyprium, Balsam, Storax Isaurica, Stacte, Aromata cassia, Saffron and Pepper. The ancient name of Cape Gardafui was Promontorium Aromatum. * Bretschneider, Ancient Chinese, &c. Lond. 1871. 19. 4 Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1872, p. 4. 5 Trans. Bombay Geograph. Soc. vii. (1846) 121. 6 See sketch of the Somali coast. Pharm. Journ. viii. (13 Apr. 1878) 806. 7 See my paper on Luban Mati and Olibanum, Pharm. Journ. viii. (1878) 805, also Hildebrandt's note in the SitzungsBericht der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin," 19th Nov. 1878, 195.F.A.F. writes thus:-"The gum is procured by making longitudinal incisions through the bark in the months of May and December, when the cuticle glistens with intumescence from the distended state of the parts beneath; the operation is simple, and requires no skill on the part of the operator. On its first appearance the gum comes forth white as milk, and according to its degree of fluidity, finds its way to the ground, or concretes on the branch near the place from which it first issued, from whence it is collected by men and boys employed to look after the trees by the different families who possess the land in which they grow." According to Captain Miles,' the drug is not collected by the people of the country, but by Somalis who cross in numbers from the opposite coast, paying the Arab tribes for the privilege. The Arabian Luban, he says, is considered inferior to the African. It would even appear that the collection of the drug has ceased in Arabia, and that the names of Luban Maheri or Mascati or Sheehaz, referring to the coast of Arabia between Ras Fartak (52° 10′ E.) and Ras Morbas (54° 34') are now applied to the olibanum brought there from the opposite African coast.2 Hildebrandt informed one of us (letter dated 26th Dec., 1878) that he has ascertained at Aden, that all the frankincense imported in Aden comes from Africa. Description-Olibanum as found in commerce varies rather considerably in quality and appearance. It may in general terms be described as a dry gum-resin, consisting of detached tears up to an inch in length, of globular, pear-shaped, clavate, or stalactitic form, mixed with more or less irregular lumps of the same size. Some of the longer tears are slightly agglutinated, but most are distinct. The predominant forms are rounded,-angular fragments being less frequent, though the tears are not seldom fissured. Small pieces of the translucent brown papery bark are often found adhering to the flat pieces. The "Luban Fasous Bedow" as exported from the Mijjertheyn district, in the eastern part of the Somali Country, is in very fine large tears. The colour of the drug is pale yellowish or brownish, but the finer qualities consist of tears which are nearly colourless or have a greenish hue. The smallest grains only are transparent, the rest are translucent and somewhat milky, and not transparent even after the removal of the white dust with which they are always covered. But if heated to about 94° C., they become almost transparent. When broken they exhibit a rather dull and waxy surface. Examined under the polarizing microscope no trace of crystallization is observable. Olibanum softens in the mouth; its taste is terebinthinous and slightly bitter, but by no means disagreeable. Its odour is pleasantly aromatic, but is only fully developed when the gum-resin is exposed to an elevated temperature. At 100° C. the latter softens without actually fusing, and if the heat be further raised decomposition begins. Chemical Composition-Cold water quickly changes olibanum into a soft whitish pulp, which when rubbed down in a mortar forms an emulsion. Immersed in spirit of wine, a tear of olibanum is not yah, in Journ. of R. Geograph Society, xxii. (1872) 65. 1 Loc. cit. * On the neighbourhood of Bunder-Mura altered much in form, but it becomes of an almost pure opaque white. In the first case the water dissolves the gum, while in the second the alcohol removes the resin. We find that pure olibanum treated with spirit of wine leaves 27 to 35 of gum,' which forms a thick mucilage with three parts of water. Dissolved in 5 parts of water it yields a neutral solution, which is precipitated by perchloride of iron as well as by silicate of sodium, but not by neutral acetate of lead. It is consequently a gum of the same class as gum arabic, if not identical with it. Its solution contains the same amount of lime as gum arabic affords. The resin of olibanum has been examined by Hlasiwetz (1867), according to whom it is a uniform substance having the composition C2H3003. We find that it is not soluble in alkalis, nor have we succeeded in converting it into a crystalline body by the action of dilute alcohol. It is not uniformly distributed throughout the tears; if they are broken after having been acted upon by dilute alcohol, it now and then happens that a clear stratification is perceptible, showing a concentric arrangement. Olibanum contains an essential oil, of which Braconnot (1808) obtained 5 per cent., Stenhouse (1840) 4 per cent., and Kurbatow (1871-1874) 7 per cent. According to Stenhouse it has a sp. gr. of 0-866, a boiling point of 179.4° C., and an odour resembling that of turpentine but more agreeable. Kurbatow separated this oil into two portions, the one of which has the formula CH16, boils at 158° C., and combines with HCl to form crystals; the other contains oxygen. The bitter principle of olibanum forms an amorphous brown mass. The resin of olibanum submitted to destructive distillation affords no umbelliferone. Heated with strong nitric acid it develops no peculiar colour, but at length camphretic acid (see Camphor) is formed, which may be also obtained from many resins and essential oils if submitted to the same oxidizing agent. Commerce-The olibanum of Arabia is shipped from several small places along the coast between Damkote and Al Kammar, but the quantity produced in this district is much below that furnished by the Somali Country in Eastern Africa. The latter is brought to Zeyla, Berbera, Bunder Murayah, and many smaller ports, whence it is shipped to Aden or direct to Bombay. The trade is chiefly in the hands of Banians, and the great emporium for the drug is Bombay. A certain portion is shipped through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Jidda, Von Kremer 2 says to the value of £12,000 annually. The quantity exported from Bombay in the year 1872-73 was 25,100 cwt., of which 17,446 cwt. were shipped to the United Kingdom, and 6,184 cwt. to China.3 Uses As a medicine olibanum is nearly obsolete, at least in Britain. The great consumption of the drug is for the incense used in the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches. 1 I obtained 32.14 per cent. from the finest tears of the kind called Fasous Bedowi, with which I was presented by Capt. Hunter of Aden.-F.A.F. 2 Aegypten, Forschungen über Land und Volk, Leipzig, 1863. 3 Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for 1872-73, pt. ii. 78. MYRRHA. Gummi-resina Myrrha; Myrrh; F. Myrrhe; G. Myrrhe. Botanical Origin-Ehrenberg who visited Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and Arabia in the years 1820-26, brought home with him specimens of the myrrh trees found at Ghizan (Gison or Dhizân), a town on the strip of coast-region called Tihâma, opposite the islands of Farsan Kebir and Farsan Seghir, and a little to the north of Lohaia, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, in latitude 16° 40′, and also on the neighbouring mountains of Djara (or Shahra) and Kara. Here the myrrh trees form the underwood of the forests of Acacia, Moringa, and Euphorbia. Nees von Esenbeck who examined these specimens, drew up from them a description of what he called Balsamodendron Myrrha, which he figured in 1828.1 3 After Ehrenberg's herbarium had been incorporated in the Royal Herbarium of Berlin, Berg examined these specimens, and came to the conclusion that they consist of two species, namely that described and figured by Nees, and a second to which was attached (correctly we must hope) two memoranda bearing the following words:-" Ipsa Myrrhæ arbor ad Gison,-Martio," and "Ex huic simillima arbore ad Gison ipse Myrrham effluentem legi. Hæc specimina lecta sunt in montibus Djara et Kara Februario." This plant Berg named B. Ehrenbergianum. Oliver in his Flora of Tropical Africa (1868)* is disposed to consider Berg's plant the same as B. Opobalsamun Kth., a tree or shrub yielding myrrh, found by Schweinfurth on the Bisharrin mountains in Abyssinia, not far from the coast between Suakin and Edineb. Schweinfurth himself does not admit the identity of the two plants." It is certain, however, that the myrrh of commerce is chiefly of African origin. But Captain F. M. Hunter, Assistant Resident of Aden, informed us that the Arabian myrrh tree, the Didthin, is found not only in the southern provinces of Arabia, Yemen, and Hadramant, probably also in the southern part of Oman, but likewise on the range of hills which, on the African shore, runs parallel to the Somali coast. The Somalis who gather the myrrh in Arabia allege that the Arabian "Didthin" is identical with that of their own district. Its exudation is the true myrrh," Mulmul" of the Somalis, the "Mur" of the Arabs, or “Heerabole" of the Indians. Another myrrh tree, according to Captain Hunter, is growing in Ogadain and the districts round Harrar, that is between the 7th and 10th parallels, N. lat., and 43° to 50° E. long. This is the "Habagħadi” of the Somalis, which is not found in Arabia, nor in the coast range of 1 Planta Medicinales, Düsseldorf, ii. (1828) tab. 355. 2 On applying in 1872 to Prof. Ehrenberg to know if it were possible that we could see this very specimen, we received the answer that it could not be found. 3 Berg u. Schmidt, Darstellung u. Beschreibung. offizin. Gewächse, iv. (1863) tab. xxix. d.; also Bot. Zeitung, 16 Mai, 1862. 155. 4 Vol. i. 326. 127. Petermann, Geogr. Mittheilungen, 1868. 6 Letters addressed in 1877 to F.A.F. 7 Bola, Bal, or Bol were names of the myrrh in the Egyptian antiquity.-Ehrenberg, De Myrrhæ et Opocalpasi detectis plantis, Berolini, 1841, fol. |