MYRRH
^83
MYRRH
India, Ethiopia, Troglodytica, and Egypt; in which last country it was called bal (/3aX), according to Plu- tarch, De Iside et Osiride, p. 383 (Kircher, rrod. Copt. p. 175). Plutarch, however, was probably in error, and has confounded the Coptic sal, " myrrh," with hal, " an eye" (Jablonski, Opusc. i, 49 [ed. te Water]). Ac- cordingly hoi is the name by which it is universally known throughout India in the present day; and the Sanscrit name is bola, which occurs at least before the Christian sera, with several other names, showing that it was well known. But from the time of the ancients until that of Belon we were without any positive infor- mation respecting the tree yielding myrrh : lie supposed it to be produced in Syria (so also Propertius [i, 2, 3] and Oppian [^Halieut. iii, 403]), and says {Obsei-vat. ii, 80) that near Rama he met with a thorny shrub with leaves resembling acacia, which he believed to be that producing myrrh (^Mimosa agrestis, vSpr.). Similar to this is the information of the Arabian author, Abu'l- Fadli, quoted by Celsius, who says that vua- is the Arabic name of a thorny tree resembling the acacia, from which flows a white juice, which thickens and be- comes a gum. The Persian authors state that myrrh is the gum of a tree common in the Jlughrub, that is, the West or Africa, in Room (a general name for the Turkish empire), and in Socotra. The Arabian and Persian authors probably only knew it as an article of commerce : it certainly is not produced in Socotra, but has undoubtedly long been exported from Africa into Arabia. It is reported that myrrh is always to be ob- tained cheap and abundant on the Sumali coast. Bruce had indeed long previously stated that myrrh is pro- duced in the country behind Azab. Mr. Johnson, in his Travels in Abyssinia (i, 249), mentions that "Myrrh and mimosa trees abounded in this place" (Koranhedudah, in Ailal). The former he describes as being "a low, thorny, ragged-looking tree, with bright green trifolio- late leaves; the gum exudes from cracks in the bark of the trunk near the root, and flows freely upon the stones immediately underneath. Artiticially it is obtained by bruises made with stones. The natives collect it prin- cipally in the hot months of July and August, but it is to be fomul, though in very small quantities, at other times of the year. It is collected in small kid-skins and taken to Errur, whence the Hurrah merchants, on their way from Shoa, convey it to the great annual market at Berberah, whence great quantities are shipped for India and Arabia." When the Portuguese first entered these seas, gold dust, ivorj^, myrrh, and slaves formed the sta- ple commerce of Adal. As early as the time of Arrian, in his Periplus of the Ey-ythrcean Sea, we find myrrh one of the articles of export, with frankincense, from the coast of Adal, stj'led Barbaria. The Periplus mentions the myrrh of this coast as the finest of its kind, and specifies the means of conveying it to Yemen, or Sabea. There the first Greek navigators found it, and through their hands it was conveyed into Europe under the name of Sabean myrrh. Though there is no doubt that the largest quan- tity of myrrh has always been obtained from Africa, yet it is equally certain that some is also procured in Arabia. This seems to be proved by Ehrenberg and Hemprich, who found a small tree in Arabia, near Gison, on the borders of Arabia Felix, off which they collected pieces of myrrh, wliich, when brought home and analyzed, was acknowledged to be genuine (Nees v. Eisenbeck, Plant. officin. tab. 357). This is the BalsamodeTidron myrrha. oPbotanists, which produces the myrrh of commerce ; it belongs to the natural order Terebinthacece, and is a small tree found in Arabia Felix, allied to the Amyri- dacecB or incense - trees, and closely resembling the Amyris Gileademis, or Balsivnodendron Gileadense. See Balm. Its stunted trunk is covered with a light gray bark, which, as well as the wood, emits a strong balsamic odor. The characteristic gum -resin exudes in small, tear-like drops, at first oily, but drying and hardening on the bark, and its flow is increased by wounding the tree. When collected it is a brittle substance, trans-
Myrrh {BaUamodendron Myrrha).
lucent, of a rich brown color, or reddish yellow, with a strong odor and a warm, bitter taste. Myrrh, it is well known, was celebrated in the most ancient times as a perfume and a fumigator (Martins, Pharmalcoffn. p. 382 sq.), as well as for its uses in medicine. Myrrh was burned in temples, and employed in embalming the bodies of the dead. The ancients prepared a toine of myrrh, and also an oil of myrrh, and it formed an ingredient in many of the most celebrated compound medicines (see Penny Cyclopwdia, s. v. Balsamoden- dron). We read in Cant, i, 13 of a " bundle of myrrh," as our Auth.Ver. has it; but the word "li"i2 (tzeroi-), used for a purse or bag of money (Gen. xlii, 35 ; Prov. vii, 20, etc.), may rather indicate a scent-bag, or smell- ing-bottle, such as is sold by modern perfumers. Mason Good, who has " casque of myrrh," observes that a cas- ket of gold or ivory, containing some costlj' perfume, is still worn by the ladies of Persia suspended from their necks by an elegant chain. The terms " pure myrrh" ("iTTl~"i?2, mor deror', Exod. xxx, 23) and " sweet- smelling myrrh" (1213? "iH, mor ober', Cant, v, 5) probably represent the best, or self-flowing kind (Sept. (jfivpva tKXeicTt) ; comp. Plin. xii, 35 ; see Dopke, Com- ment. V. Ilopest. p. 165). (For the ancient notices, see Celsii Ilierob. i, 520 sq. ; Bodtci a. Stapel, Comment, ad Theophrast. p. 796 sq., 974).