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| 0509 |
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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No. 1 produces the Arabian olibanum, and Nos. 1 and 2 together the bulk of the
olitbanum exported from the Sumáli coast under the name Lubán-Shehri. Both are
said to give an inferior kind besides, called L. Bedawi. No. 3 is, according to
Birdwood, the same as Bruce's Angoua. No. 5 is distinctly a new species, and
affords a highly fragrant resin sold under the name of Lubán Máti.
Bombay is now the great mart of frankincense. The quantity exported thence in
1872-1873 was 25,000 cwt., of which nearly one quarter went to China.
Frankincense when it first exudes is milky white; whence the name "White
Incense" by which Polo speaks of it. And the Arabic name libán apparently refers
to milk. The Chinese have so translated, calling it Ju-siang or Milk-perfume.
Polo, we see, says the tree was like a fir tree; and it is remarkable that a
Chinese Pharmacology quoted by Bretschneider says the like, which looks as if their
information came from a common source. And yet I think Polo's must have been
oral. One of the meanings of Lubán, from the Kámús, is Pinus (Freytag). This
may have to do with the error. Dr. Birdwood, in a paper in Cassell's Bible Educator,
has given a copy of a remarkable wood engraving from Thevet's Cosmographie
Universelle (1575), representing the collection of Arabian olibanum, and this through
his kind intervention I am able to reproduce here. The text (probably after Polo)
speaks of the tree as resembling a fir, but in the cut the firs are in the background;
the incense trees have some real suggestion of Boswellia, and the whole design has
singular spirit and verisimilitude.
Dr. Birdwood thus speaks of the B. Frereana, the only species that he has seen in
flower: "As I saw the plant in Playfair's garden at Aden . . . . in young leaf and
covered with bloom, I was much struck by its elegant singularity. The long racemes of
green star-like flowers, tipped with the red anthers of the stamens (like aigrettes of
little stars of emerald set with minute rubies), droop gracefully over the clusters of
glossy, glaucous leaves; and every part of the plant (bark, leaves, and flowers) gives
out the most refreshing lemon-like fragrance." (Birdwood in Linnaean Transactions
for 1869, pp. 109 seqq.; Hanbury and Flückiger's Pharmacographia, pp. 120 seqq.;
Ritter, xii. 356 seqq.; Niebuhr, Desc. de l'Arabie, I. p. 202, II. pp. 125-132.)
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Concerning the Gulf of Calatu and the City so called.
Calatu is a great city, within a gulf which bears the
name of the Gulf of Calatu. It is a noble city, and lies
600 miles from Dufar towards the north-west, upon the
sea-shore. The people are Saracens, and are subject to
Hormos. And whenever the Melic of Hormos is at war
with some prince more potent than himself, he betakes
himself to this city of Calatu, because it is very strong,
both from its position and its fortifications.¹
They grow no corn here, but get it from abroad; for
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731
732
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