169
to 13,000 feet. In the Roman Empire it was used as a culinary spice, also as a perfume, entering into many of the ointments, though in less quantity than pepper and cinnamon. The Revised Version gives it as a marginal reading for Exodus XXX, 24, in place of cassia, as one of the ingredients of the anointing oil of the Hebrew priests.
The root was dug up and cut into small pieces, and shipped to both Rome and China. Vincent describes the root as being the size of a finger; a yellowish woody part within a whitish bark. The cortex is brittle, warm, bitterish, and aromatic, of an agreeable smell, resembling orris.
Chishull ( Antiq . Asiat . , 71) notes that the gifts from Seleucus Callinicus to the Milesians included frankincense, 10 talents; myrrh, 1 talent; cassia, 2 pounds; cinnamon, 2 pounds; costus, 1 pound.
By the Romans costus was often called simply radix , the root, as distinguished from nard, which was called folium, the leaf. The price in Rome is stated by Pliny (XII, 25) to have been 5 denarii per pound.
In modern Kashmir the collection of costus is a State monopoly, the product being sent to Calcutta and Bombay, for shipment to China and Red Sea ports. In China it is used in perfumes and as incense. In Kashmir it is used by shawl merchants to protect their fabrics from moths.
The word costus is from the Sanscrit kushtha , “standing in the earth.
See Watt, op. cit., 980; Lassen, op. cit., I, 287-8.
39. Lycium. — This was derived from varieties of the barberry growing in the Himalayas, at elevations of 6,000 to 10,000 feet. Berberis lycium, also B. aristata, B. asiatica , B. vulgaris , order Ber- ber idacea.
From the roots and stems a yellow dye was prepared; while from the stem, fruit and root-bark was made an astringent medicine, the preparation of which is described by Pliny (XXIV, 77). “The branches and roots, which are intensely bitter, are pounded and then boiled for three days in a copper vessel; the woody parts then re- moved, and the decoction boiled again to the thickness of honey. It is mixed with various bitter extracts, and with a murca of olive oil, and ox-gall. The froth of this decoction is used as an ingredient in compositions for the eyes, and the other part as a face cosmetic, and for the cure of corroding sores, fluxes, and suppurations, for diseases of the throat and gums, for coughs, and locally for dressing open wounds. ” Many empty lycium pots have been found in the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii. (See also Watt, op. cit . . 130.)
