On the cold nymph he rained a nectar shower.
Ah! undeserving thus, he said, to die,
Yet still in odours thou shalt reach the sky.
The body soon dissolved, and all around
Perfumed with heavenly fragrances the ground.
A sacrifice for gods uprose from thence—
A sweet, delightful tree of Frankincense.”
—Eusden.
The tree which thus sprang from poor Leucothea’s remains was a description of Terebinth, now called Boswellia thurifera, which is principally found in Yemen, a part of Arabia. Frankincense is an exudation from this tree, and Pliny tells some marvellous tales respecting its mode of collection, and the difficulties in obtaining it. Frankincense was one of the ingredients with which Moses was instructed to compound the holy incense (Exodus xxx.). The Egyptians made great use of it as a principal ingredient in the perfumes which they so lavishly consumed for religious rites and funeral honours. As an oblation, it was burned on the altars by the priests of Isis, Osiris, and Pasht. At the festivals of Isis an ox was sacrificed filled with Frankincense, Myrrh, and other aromatics. On all the altars erected to the Assyrian gods Baal, Astarte, and Dagon, incense and aromatic gums were burnt in profusion; and we learn from Herodotus that the Arabians alone had to furnish a yearly tribute of one thousand talents of Frankincense.—-Ovid recommends Frankincense as an excellent cosmetic, and says that if it is agreeable to gods, it is no less useful to mortals.——Rapin writes that “Phrygian Frankincense is held divine.”
“In sacred services alone consumed,