Nature Bulletin No. 548   December 13, 1958
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Daniel Ryan, President
Roberts Mann, Conservation Editor
David H. Thompson, Senior Naturalist

****:FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH

The Bible says that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, "behold, there 
came wise men from the east". It does not say how many but tradition 
has it that they were three magi or, perhaps, three kings "And when they 
were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary its 
mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened 
their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, 
and myrrh".

At the end of His life on earth, after the crucifixion, we are told that 
Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, "about an hundred 
pound weight", which they placed in the linen shroud, "as the manner of 
the Jews is to bury".

Throughout the Bible, including the 37th chapter of Genesis and the 
18th of Revelations, those two exotic spices -- frankincense and myrrh -
- are mentioned again and again. When Jehovah spoke unto Moses on 
Mount Sinai, specifying how the tabernacle, the ark and the altar must 
be built. He also commanded that the holy ointment should contain 
prescribed quantities of pure myrrh and three other spices mixed with 
olive oil; further, the sacred perfume or incense should contain equal 
quantities of pure frankincense and three "sweet spices".

These and other ordinances in the Mosaic Law were probably 
influenced by customs and observances in Egypt where the Children of 
Israel had lived for 430 years and Moses had grown up as a prince in 
Pharaoh' s court. For thousands of years, spices had been brought to 
Egypt by camel caravans from India, Arabia and eastern Africa. From 
them, by secret formulas, the priests prepared several perfumes and 
ointments for religious rites and domestic use. At the feast of Isis the 
burnt offering was an ox, its body filled with frankincense and myrrh. 
When embalming their dead, the body was filled with myrrh, cassia and 
other fragrant materials, dried, wrapped in fine linen, and placed in a 
painted wooden case.

Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin obtained from three or more of 
five species of trees -- the Boswellias -- that grow in Abysinnia and 
Somaliland in Africa, southern Arabia, India and the East Indies. 
Usually of small or medium size, they are related to the terebinth or 
turpentine tree and their compound leaves, with 7 to 9 glossy leaflets, 
are similar to those of a mountain ash.

The gum, obtained by making deep gashes in the trunk and branches, 
and peeling back a few inches of bark below each cut, oozes in large 
white or amber "tears". After 3 or 4 months exposure they become hard, 
brittle, and are collected. During handling and shipping they become 
covered with white dust from rubbing against one another. They ignite 
readily, burn with a clear white flame, and give off a fragrant balsam-
like odor because, in addition to resin and gum, they contain a volatile 
inflammable oil. The incense burned in a censer or thurible during 
rituals of Roman and Greek Catholic churches is a mixture of 
frankincense imported from India, Egypt and Somalia.

Myrrh, also a fragrant gum resin, is obtained by similar methods from 
two species of shrubs or small trees that grow on rocky places in 
Abyssinia, Somaliland and Arabia. Their bark and wood have a strong 
fragrance. The gum, as it oozes from the stems and branches naturally 
or from the incisions made, is at first a soft, sticky, somewhat oily, 
white or yellowish brown resin very bitter to the taste. It soon hardens 
into reddish-brown beads.

No. 549 will be issued January 10. Meanwhile, have a Merry 
Christmas.