Note 1 — Chapter XXXVIII
Henry Yule translation
“
Drogue franche
:—Qui a les qualités requises sans mélange” (
Littré
). “
Franc
.... Vrai, véritable” (
Raynouard
).
The mediæval Olibanum was probably the Arabic Al-lubán, but was popularly interpreted as Oleum Libani. Dr. Birdwood saw at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 samples of frankincense solemnly labelled as the produce of Mount Lebanon!
“Professor Dümichen, of Strasburg, has discovered at the Temple of Daïr-el-Báhri, in Upper Egypt, paintings illustrating the traffic carried on between Egypt and Arabia, as early as the 17th century B.C. In these paintings there are representations, not only of bags of olibanum, but also of olibanum-trees planted in tubs or boxes, being conveyed by ship from Arabia to Egypt.” (Hanbury and Flückiger, Pharmacographia, p. 121.)