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Arabia is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the
only country which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon,
and ledanum. The Arabians do not get any of these, except the
myrrh, without trouble. The frankincense they procure by means of the
gum styrax, which the Greeks obtain from the Phoenicians; this they
burn, and thereby obtain the spice. For the trees which bear the
frankincense are guarded by winged serpents, small in size, and of
varied colours, whereof vast numbers hang about every tree. They are
of the same kind as the serpents that invade Egypt; and there is
nothing but the smoke of the styrax which will drive them from the trees.
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