Ebony wood was highly esteemed by the ancients, and emplovcd bv them for a vnrietv of purposes (The- ophr. Hist'. PI. iv, 5 ; Plin. //. A. vi,'30, § 35 ; xii, 4, S 8, 9; Strabo, XV, 703 ; Pausan. i, 42. 5 ; viii, 17, 2; Ovid, Met. xi, 610 ; compare Barhebr. Chrnn. p. 181). It is very appropriately placed in juxtaposition with ivory, on account of the beautiful contrast in color. Ivory and ebony are probably, however, also mentioned to- gether because both were obtained from the same countries, Ethiopia and India ; and, among the com- parativel}' few articles of ancient commerce, must, from this cause, always have been associated together, while their contrast of color and joint employment in inlaid work would contribute as additional reasons for their being adduced as artic!?3 characteristic of a dis- tinct commerce. But it is not in Ezekiel only that ebony and ivory are mentioned together, for Diodorus, as quoted by Bochart, tells us that an ancient king of Egypt imposed on the Ethiopians the jiayment of a tribute of ebony, gold, and eh'iihants' teeth. So He- rodotus f iii, 97), as translated by Bochart, says, "-if^thi- o])es Persis ]n-o triennali tributo vchunt duos choenices auri apyri (id est, ignem nondinn exfert'i'), et ducentas eheni plialangas, et magnos elephanti dentes viginti." Pliny, referring to this ]iassage. remarks, " But Herod- otus" assigneth it rather to Ethiopia, and saitli that every three years the Ethiopians were wont to jiay, by way Of tribute, unto the kings of Persia, 100 billets of the timber of tliat tree (that is, el)ene), together with gold and yvorie;" and again, "From Syeiie (which
EBONY
23
EBONY
confineth and boundeth the lands of our empire and dominion) as farre as to the island Meroo, for the space of 99G miles, there is little ebene found : and that in all those parts betweone there be few other trees to be found but date-trees, \vhich peradventure may be a cause that ebene was counted a rich tribute, and de- ser^'ed the third place, after gold and ivorie" (Hol- land's Plini/, xii, 4). It is sometimes stated that the ancients sup(iosed ebony to come only from India. This arose probably from the passage of Virgil (Georg. ii, 117) : "Sola India nigrum fert ebenum." But the term " India" had often a very wide signification, and included even Ethiopia. Several of the ancients, how- ever, mention both Indian and Ethiopian ebony, as Di- oscorides and Pliny; while some mention the Indian, and others the Ethiopian only, as Lucan (P^ar*-. x, 304) : " Nigris IMeroe fecunda colonis, beta couiis ebeni."
The only objection to the above conclusion of any weight is, that kobnim is in the plural form. To this Bochart and others have replied, that there were two kinds of ebonj', as mentioned bj' Theophrastus, Dios- corides, etc., one Ethiopian, the other Indian. Fuller and others maintain that the plural form is employed because the ebony was in pieces : "Kefertad ebeni pa- langas, qua; ex India et ^Etliiopia magno numero af- fcrebantur. <l><'i\ayyag vocant Herodotus et Arrianus in Perlplo. Wm'nis palungas, aut phnlaiigns, variante scriptura, id est, fustes teretes, et qui navibus suppo- nuntur, aut quibus idem onus plures bajulant" (Bo- chart, I. c). But the names of other valued foreign woods, as Shittim and Almuggim, are also used in the plural form. Besides abni'is, Aral) authors, as stated b}' Bochart (/. c), mention other words as similar to and substituted for ebony : one of these is called shiz, shizl; also sase7n and semsem, in the plural form semasim, described as " nigrum lignum ad patinas conficiendas." Hence, in the Koran, those who are tormented in Ge- henna, it is said, will issue from the fire after a cer- tain period of confinement in it: "They will go forth, I say, like the wood semasim ;" that is, black, from be- ing burnt in the fire. Tliat such a wood was known we have the testimony of Dioscorides : " Some sell ses- amine or acantliine wood for ebony, as they are very similar." Some critics, and even Sprengel, in his late edition of Dioscorides, read avKaj.ni'a instead of aijaa- fiiva, for no other reason apparently but because uvkc'i- fin'ct denotes a tree with which European scholars are acquainted, while sesamiiia is only known to those who consult Oriental writers, or who are acquainted with the products of the East. Bochart rightlj^ reprehends tliis alteration as being unnecessarj', in view of the ex- istence of the words sesamiiia, sasim, or semsem among the modem Arabs, and cites a notice of Arrian to the same effect (Bochart, I. c). The above word is liy Dr. Vincent translated sc«a?«!(OT; but this is an herbaceous oil-]5lant.
If we look to the modern history of ebony, we shall find that it is still derived from more than one source. Thus Mr. Holtzappfel, in his recent work on Turning, describes three kinds of ebonj-. (1.) One from the Mauritius, in round sticks like scaffold poles, seldom exceeding fourteen inches in diameter, the blackest and finest in tlie grain, the hardest and most Iteautifnl. (2.) The East Indian, which is grown in Ceylon and the Peninsula of India, and exported from Madras and Bombay in logs from six to twenty, and some- times even twenty-eight inches in diameter, and also in phmks. This is less wasteful, luit of an inferior grain and color to the above. (3.) The African, ship- ped from tlie Cape of Good Hope in billets, the general size of which is from three to six feet long, three to six inches broad, and two to four inclies thick. This is the least wasteful, as all the refuse is left behind ; but it is the most porous, and the worst in point of color. No Abyssinian ebony is at present imported : this, however, is more likel}' to be owing to the differ- ent routes which commerce has taken, although it is