[510] See c. [42] of the present Book.
[511] Virgil, Georg. B. ii. l. 139, mentions Panchaia, in Arabia, as being more especially the country of frankincense. That region corresponds with the modern Yemen. It is, however, a well-ascertained fact, that it grows in India as well, and it is supposed that the greater part of it used by the ancients was in reality imported from that country. The Indian incense is the product of a tree belonging to the terebinth class, named by Roxburgh, who first discovered it, Boswellia thurifera. It is more especially found in the mountainous parts of India. On the other hand, it has been asserted that the Arabian incense was the product of a coniferous tree, either the Juniperus Lycia, the Juniperus Phœnicea, or the Juniperus thurifera of Linnæus. But, as Fée justly remarks, it would appear more reasonable to look among the terebinths of Arabia for the incense tree, if one of that class produces it in India, and more especially because the coniferous trees produce only resins, while the terebinths produce gum resins, to which class of vegetable products frankincense evidently belonged. In commerce, the gum resin, Olibanum, the produce of the Boswellia serrata, and imported from the Levant, bears the name of frankincense.
[512] See B. vi. c. 32. Their name is still preserved in the modern Hadramaut, to the east of Aden.
[513] See B. vi. cc. 31 and 32. He was the son of Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus, by whom he was adopted.
[514] This seems the most probable among these various surmises and conjectures.
[515] These words are said by some to be derived from the Greek, καρφὸς, “a hollow stalk,” on account of its lightness, and δᾳδίον, “a torch,” on account of its resinous and inflammable qualities. It is, however, much more probable that they were derived from the Arabic, and not from the Celto-Scythic, as Poinsinet conjectures.
[516] Fée is probably right in his conjecture, that it was so called solely in consequence of its superior strength.
[517] Meaning “drop” incense.
[518] “Undivided” incense.
[519] From their being the size of an ὄροβος, or “chick-pea.”