Camphor, Frankincense, Myrrh, Sweet Benzoin

1. CAMPHOR

Nau-tzi, or camphor, comes from Brunei and Pin-su.

It is wrongly said to come from Palembang, Sumatra because that place is a hub for foreign trade.

The camphor-tree is like the pine-tree, growing in the remotest hills and valleys.

As long as the branches and trunk continue unhurt, the tree will contain the gum even for hundreds and thousands of years.

Otherwise, it will evaporate.

The natives go in teams of several tens of men when they gather camphor from the hills. They are provided with clothes made of tree bark and and with supplies of sago for food.

They go in different directions. Whenever they find any camphor-trees, they fell them with hatchets, as many as ten or more.

They cut these lengthwise. Each one then cut these into boards. They notch these along the sides and cross-wise to produce chinks. A wedge is forced into them to colect the camphor.

The camphor which forms crystals is called plum flower camphor because it resembles the plum flower.

An inferior quality is called gold foot camphor.

Broken bits are called rice camphor. With splinters, it is called grey camphor.

After all the camphor has been removed from the wood, it is called camphor chips.

Nowadays people break these chips into small bits and mix them with sawdust. They put it in a porcelain vessel, hermetically sealed by another vessel. When baked in hot ashes, the vapour formed by the mixture condenses and forms lumps called collected camphor. It is used for women’s head ornaments.

Camphor oil is an oily kind of camphor with a pungent aroma. It is used to moisten incense, or mixing with oil.

2. FRANKINCENSE

Ju-hiang (milk incense), or hun-lu-hiang comes from the from the depths of the remotest mountain Valleys of 3 Arab countries:

• Ma-lo-pa
• Shi-ho
• Nu-fa,

The tree which yields this drug may be compared to the sung or pine tree.

Its trunk is notched with a hatchet, upon which the resin flows out.

It hardens into incense and gathered and made into lumps. It is transported on elephants towards the Arab coast and are bartered in Sumatra. This is why it is commonly collected in Sumatra.

The Customs authorities in Sumatra classify it into 13, based on the strength of its fragrance.

1. Kien-hiang or picked incense is the very best kind. It is round and of the size of the end of a finger. It is commonly called ti-ju or dripping milk
2. Ping-ju or potted milk is the second quality. Its colour is inferior to that of the picked incense. It is placed in pots. 3-5. The ping-hiang variety has 3 grades:

• superior
• medium
• inferior 6-8. Tai-hiang or bag incense is put in bags and has 3 grades too

9. The ju-ta kind is mixed with gravel
10. Hei-ta is black.
11. Shu-shi hei-ta is water-damaged incense with its aroma turned, and colour spoiled while on board the ship.
12. Cho-siau is mixed incense of various qualities and consisting of broken pieces.
13. Chan-mo powder is cho-siau passed through a sieve and made into dust.

3. MYRRH

Mo-yau comes from

The ii^ ^). the country of Ma-lo-mo (0 R|| j^) of the Ta-shi. tree resembles in height and size the pine-tree (7^) of China; its bark is one or two inches thick. At the time of gathering the incense they a hole ground at the in the foot of the tree, and then split first dig open the bark with a hatchet, upon which the juice runs down into the hole during fully ten days, when it is removed. Note, 15 The Chinese name for myrrh, meaning «mo medicine or drug» is a transcription of the Arabic name mwrr through the Cantonese mu*. See BretschneiderJ Ancient Chinese and Arabs, 20, note 4; and Hirth, J. C. B. R. A. S., XXI, 220. Pon-ts’au, 34,49, quotes no authorities — on 20 this subject earlier Ma-Io-mo than the Sung. Hadramaut coast of Arabia. Our author has stated in his description of the Berbera coast (Pi-p’a-lo) that that country produced much myrrh (supra, p. 128). At the present time the best myrrh comes from the Somali country near Harar. The myrrh which is got from the hills about Shugra and Sureea to the east of Aden (which must have been included 25 in Merbat as Chinese understood it) is of an inferior quality. See Encyclopaedia Britannica (9* edit.) XVII, 121. Theo. Bent, Southern Arabia, 254, says myrrh in large quantities grows in the Gara mountains of the Hadramaut. Hanbury, Science Papers, 378—380, says myrrh comes from the Ghizan district on the east coast of the Bed Sea, from the coast of Southern is clearly an error for Ma-lo-pa or Merbat, the This error has been noticed in a previous passage, supra, p. 121, n. 11. Arabia, east of Aden, from the Somali country, south and west of Cape Gardafui, and from the 30 country between Tajura and Shoa. See also Linschoten, op. cit., II, 99. The mo mentioned in the Yu-yang-tsa-tsu (18,io^) as being called a-tz’i ([JfH" -^^ the last Character being also read so, tso and tsoJc) in Fu-lin, is the myrtle, the Aramean name of which is asa, the original of a-tz"i. Hirth, J. A. 0. S., XXX, 21. 4. DRAGON’S-BLOOD 35 Hiie-Jcie comes also (j^ ^). from the Ta-shi countries. This tree is somewhat the myrrh-tree, except that its leaves are rather different in size of the latter; the manner of gathering is also the same. There is like from those a variety of198 11,4-6 SAYEET BENZOIN. tree whicli is as smooth as the face of a mirror; these are old trees, their juice by the hatchet; flows spontaneously, without their heing tapped best quality. Incense which contains an admixture of bits of the juice of the lakawood-tree (|^ dragon’s-blood)) (^ j^ wood m. ^), and is commonly this is the is made of called «imitation

5. SWEET BENZOIN

The best kin-yen-hiang comes from Cambodia.

The Arab kind is of inferior quality.

People think that this comes from Sumatra when it is really imported from there from Arabia and then into China.

This incense is the juice of a tree. It has different kinds:

• a black one
• a pale yellow one
• a snow-white one, on being broken open, which is the best
• one with gravel, as the inferior kind

Its aroma is so strong that it may be largely used for mixing is 35 of inferior used in combination with all by those who wear sachets of ambergris and other perfumes of delicate aroma. Foreigners also prepare from it, with (other) perfumes, a mixture with which they rub their bodies. 40'