The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 2 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa











































 -  Merbath lies below Dhafar, and serves as
its port. Olibanum is found nowhere except in the mountains of Dhafar, in - Page 863
The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 2 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa - Page 863 of 1350 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

Merbath Lies Below Dhafar, And Serves As Its Port.

Olibanum is found nowhere except in the mountains of Dhafar, in the territory of Shehr; in a tract which extends 3 days in length and the same in breadth.

The natives make incisions in the trees with a knife, and the incense flows down. This incense is carefully watched, and can be taken only to Dhafar, where the Sultan keeps the best part for himself; the rest is made over to the people. But any one who should carry it elsewhere than to Dhafar would be put to death."

The elder Niebuhr seems to have been the first to disparage the Arabian produce of olibanum. He recognises indeed its ancient celebrity, and the fact that it was still to some extent exported from Dhafar and other places on this coast, but he says that the Arabs preferred foreign kinds of incense, especially benzoin; and also repeatedly speaks of the superiority of that from India (des Indes and de l'Inde), by which it is probable that he meant the same thing - viz., benzoin from the Indian Archipelago. Niebuhr did not himself visit Hadhramaut.

Thus the fame of Arabian olibanum was dying away, and so was our knowledge of that and the opposite African coast, when Colebrooke (1807) published his Essay on Olibanum, in which he showed that a gum-resin, identical as he considered with frankincense, and so named (Kundur), was used in India, and was the produce of an indigenous tree, Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, but thereafter known as B. thurifera.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 863 of 1350
Words from 231887 to 232146 of 370046


Previous 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300
 310 320 330 340 350 360 370 380 390 400
 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500
 510 520 530 540 550 560 570 580 590 600
 610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700
 710 720 730 740 750 760 770 780 790 800
 810 820 830 840 850 860 870 880 890 900
 910 920 930 940 950 960 970 980 990 1000
 1010 1020 1030 1040 1050 1060 1070 1080 1090 1100
 1110 1120 1130 1140 1150 1160 1170 1180 1190 1200
 1210 1220 1230 1240 1250 1260 1270 1280 1290 1300
 1310 1320 1330 1340 1350 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online