FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Arabia is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the only country which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and laudanum. The Arabians do not get any of these, except the myrrh, without trouble. The frankincense they procure by means of the gum styrax, which the Greeks obtain from the Phoenicians; this they burn, and thereby obtain the spice. For the trees which bear the frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of varied colors, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are of the same kind as the serpents that invade Egypt; and there is nothing but the smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees. The Arabians say that the whole world would swarm with these serpents, if they were not kept in check in the way in which I know that vipers Such, then, is the way in which the Arabians obtain their frankincense; their manner of collecting the cassia is the following: They cover all their body and their face with the hides of oxen and other skins, leaving only holes for the eyes, and thus protected go in search of the cassia, which grows in a lake of no great depth. All round the shores and in the lake itself there dwell a number of winged animals, much resembling bats, which screech horribly, and are very valiant. These creatures they must keep from their eyes all the while that they gather the cassia. Now what are these animals? Locust? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Given the utter desolation of the areas where the Olibanum gum is collected ( the trees look like writhing skeletons growing from gravel) I can only suggest the locust as a creature capable of surviving , in numbers , in such desolation , whilst "in transit ". However I think AD will have something to say about the "background information". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Agreed. Locusts are the likely culprit. But the ancients knew full well what locusts were since Egypt was sometimes plagued with them. Was this merely an old-wives-tale to hide the real source? A quick-tongued merchant wowing his audience and slipping away when the story gets a bit too popular for comfort? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Agreed. Locusts are the likely culprit. But the ancients knew full well what locusts were since Egypt was sometimes plagued with them. Was this merely an old-wives-tale to hide the real source? A quick-tongued merchant wowing his audience and slipping away when the story gets a bit too popular for comfort? A great deal of ADs "Dangerous Tastes", is about the mystique and superstitions surrounding the various trades, I hope he might deliver a pithy comment to us.By the way has anyone on forum been to Oman and seen the trees? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0714127...ce&n=266239 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Agreed. Locusts are the likely culprit. But the ancients knew full well what locusts were since Egypt was sometimes plagued with them. Was this merely an old-wives-tale to hide the real source? A quick-tongued merchant wowing his audience and slipping away when the story gets a bit too popular for comfort? A great deal of ADs "Dangerous Tastes", is about the mystique and superstitions surrounding the various trades, I hope he might deliver a pithy comment to us.By the way has anyone on forum been to Oman and seen the trees? http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0714127...ce&n=266239 No, I've never been to the Arabian peninsula. I wish I had. As for the cassia, it HAS to be an old wives' tale or spice-merchant's urban myth, because cassia never came from Arabia anyway. It's quite the wrong climate. Cassia came (and still does come) from Southeast Asia (where I have been) and southern China. It's the inner bark of several species of tree. Locusts, probably not (as Caldrail said, Greeks and Romans knew all about locusts). They sound very much like baby pterodactyls to me ... But better not quote me on that. Herodotus goes on to describe the harvesting of cinnamon: The process of collecting the cinnamon is even more remarkable. In what country it grows is quite unknown ... The Arabians say that the dry sticks, which we call kinamomon, are brought to Arabia by large birds, which carry them to their nests, made of mud, on mountain precipices, which no man can climb. The method invented to get the cinnamon sticks is this. People cut up the bodies of dead oxen into very large joints, and leave them on the ground near the nests. They then scatter, and the birds fly down and carry off the meat to their nests, which are too weak to bear the weight and fall to the ground. The men come and pick up the cinnamon: in this way it is acquired and exported to other countries. Pliny has an interesting description of how cinnamon crosses the Indian Ocean, and there may even be some truth in it. Does anyone have that handy? I must search it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotWotius Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 (edited) I had a thumb through my Dad's copy of Pliny, and I came across the text below... 'Fabulous antiquitie, and the prince of lyers Herodotus, have reported,42 That in that tract where Bacchus was nourished, Cinamon and Canell either fell from the nests nests of certaine foules, and principally of the Phoenix, through the weight of the venison and flesh which they had preyed upon and brought thither where as they builded in high rockes and trees; or els was driven and beaten downe, by arrowes headed with lead. Also that Canell or Casia was gotten from about certaine marishes, guarded and kept with a kind of cruell Bats, armed with terrible and dreadfull tallons, and with certaine flying Pen-dragons. And all these devises were invented onely to enhaunce the price of these drugs. And this tale is told another way, namely, That in those parts where Canell and Cinamon grow (which is a country in manner of a demy-Iland, much environed with the sea, by the reflection of the beames of the Noon-sun, a world of odoriferous smels is cast from thence, in such sort, that a man may feele the sent at one time of all the aromaticall drugs as it were met togither, and sending a most fragrant and pleasant savour farre and neare: and that Alexander the Great sailing with his fleet, by the very smell alone discovered Arabia a great way into the maine sea. Lies all, both the one and the other: for Cinamome, or Cinamon, call it whether you will, groweth in Edited July 23, 2006 by WotWotius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted July 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Heavens, that's a lot of info. Thanks for the answer, I knew it was a lie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Excellent , another sensational claim by AD " Baby pterodactyls hindered supply of Roman Spices and Table Condiments". Below we see the " alleged assailant" thence the cassia bark , which does look very similar to cinnamon but is known in the trade as "bastard cinnamon" and a cinnamon tree with fresh growth.Lastly we see the sort of lunar environment that olibanum gum is retrieved from. the link leads to a gallery entry and some notes for myrrh ( a valuable balm) http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?act=mo...=si&img=362 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Dalby Posted July 23, 2006 Report Share Posted July 23, 2006 Excellent , another sensational claim by AD " Baby pterodactyls hindered supply of Roman Spices and Table Condiments". This will be all across the web tomorrow, thanks to Viggen's astonishing ability to scale the Google ladder. I'm doomed. My reputation in shreds. :bag: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted July 24, 2006 Report Share Posted July 24, 2006 By the way has anyone on forum been to Oman and seen the trees? Been in Oman briefly but didn't see the trees... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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