Note 121 — Chapter XXXIII · THE CULT OF NORTHERN AS OPPOSED TO SOUTHERN STARS.

Mariette, "Dêr el-Bahari," p. 31. Mr. W. T. Thistleton-Dyer, the director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, agrees in this view. He permits me to print the following extract from a letter written to me:—"The only positive fact that I can deal with is the representation in the pictures of a small scrubby tree, which seems to have been about four feet high. It appears to have yielded a gummy or resinous exudation from its trunk. Mariette supposes this to be myrrh. Pount to be Somali-land, and To Nuter the Socotran Archipelago. All this fits in very well with botanical facts. Myrrh-producing plants exist both in Somali-land and Arabia, and also in Socotra, as ascertained by Bayley Balfour. The two former places still are, as they always have been, the place of origin of myrrh, and we know that it was largely used by the Egyptians in embalming. There is no evidence that myrrh, or anything in any way resembling it, was ever found south of the Equator. I cannot carry you further south than Berbera."