Arabia. The present incense country is southern Arabia, especially
Hadramaut. Here the incense tree (of which you see a small branch in the
picture) grows. The young trees are cut with a knife, and from the
incisions made in the bark a milk-like juice comes out. When it has had
time to harden, the large clear globules are scraped off into baskets and
the inferior kind that has run down the bark is collected separately. It
is shipped from Arabia to Bombay or goes out from Aden and still commands
a good price. In some Roman Catholic churches this incense is burnt every
Sunday and if you will go to a large druggist he may be able to show you
pieces of Arabian incense.

Myrrh and frankincense are frequently mentioned together. Both are
sweet-smelling gums and both came originally from Arabia. According to a
Greek legend, Myrrha was the daughter of one of the kings of Cyprus who
angered her father and when he attempted to stab her, fled to Arabia. Here
she was changed into a tree called myrrh! A few of these trees are still
found in Yemen, but myrrh is not at all as plentiful as it once was in
Arabia. It is a low, thorny, ragged-looking tree with bright green leaves.
The gum exudes from cracks in the bark near the root of the plant. When
dry it is of a rich brown colour and has a bitter taste. The word "myrrh"
in Arabic means bitter, and I think that is the origin of the name given
to the tree and not the foolish story of the Greek mythology. You must
look up all the references in the Bible to myrrh. I wonder whether the
myrrh which Nicodemus used to embalm the body of our Saviour for His
burial came from Arabia? In Matthew's gospel we read of the wise men who
came from the East to worship Jesus. "And when they had opened their
treasures they presented unto Him gifts; gold and frankincense and myrrh."
Do you not think that these wise men came from Arabia, even as the queen
of Sheba did, to see the king of the Jews? Perhaps Isaiah prophesied of
their coming when he wrote concerning Arabia: "The multitude of camels