Note 12 — Appendix: Buying and Selling Prices of Oriental Products

Crawfurd (Dict. Indian Islands) says that this is the eagle-wood of commerce. Its name in Malay and Javanese is kalambak or kalambah, but it is also known in these languages by that of gahru, or kayu-gahru, gahru-wood, a corruption of the Sanscrit Agharu. This sweet-scented wood has been used immemorially as an incense throughout eastern countries, and was early introduced into Europe by the Portuguese. The perfumed wood is evidently the result of a disease in the tree, produced by the thickening of the sap into a gum or resin. The tree is confused with the aloes, but properly speaking has no connection with that tree; and the word agila has been wrongly translated into “eagle” [see above “aguila”]. The tree probably belongs to the order of Leguminosæ. The best perfumed or diseased wood is found in the mountainous country to the east of the Gulf of Siam, including Camboja and Cochinchina. Castenheda says that at Campar, on the eastern side of Sumatra, are “forests which yield aloes-wood, called in India Calambuco (kalambak). The trees which produce it are large, and when they are old they are cut down and the aloes-wood taken from them, which is the heart of the tree, and the outer part is agila. Both these woods are of great price, but especially the Calambuco, which is rubbed in the hands, yielding an agreeable fragrance; the agila does so when burned.” See Crawfurd, ut supra, pp. 6, 7, and Yule’s Cathay, ii, p. 472, note 1.