217
says that the malabathrum which entered so prominently into Roman perfumes should have a smell like nard, and other Roman writers seem to have confused it with the Ganges nard mentioned in § 63. (See also Lassen, I, 279-285; II, 555-561.)
Horace, (II, vii, 89), refers to it as follows:
“Coronatus nitentes
Malobathro Syrio capillos. ”
Malabathrum and spikenard were the two most treasured ingre- dients of the ointments and perfumes of the Roman empire.
A curious trade condition is suggested by the fact that the Ro- mans knew cinnamon and cassia only as coming from the Somali coast of Africa, while they knew the malabathrum as coming from various parts of India; and yet the malabathrum was, in at least one case, the leaf from the same tree that produced a variety of cinnamon. The Periplus in no place mentions the export of cinnamon from India, but in §§ 56 and 63 describes the export of malabathrum. This seems to indicate a trade monopoly of very ancient date and thorough enforcement, by which the bark only went for trade purposes to the African coast, while the leaf was an open article of trade to India.
Lindsay ( History of Alerchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce , I, 156-7), also remarks on this “striking instance of the secrecy with which the ancients conducted the more valuable portions of their trade.’’ Herodotus, he thinks, “could only have obtained his infor- mation about cinnamon from the merchants who traded along the shores of Malabar . . . who kept the secret of its provenance as the Carthaginians kept that of British tin."
Another letter from Mr. R. E. Drake-Brockman, dated Berbera, April 27, 1910, gives further confirmation of the absence of the cin- namon species from the Somali peninsula. (See under § 13, p. 87).
“It is unlikely that the original inhabitants of this country knew anything of cinnamon until they had heard of its commercial value from the natives of India or Arabs, who have been known to the coastal people from the earliest times. These same traders, if they penetrated into the interior at all, which is extremely doubtful, would have hunted for anything of any commercial value, and if cinnamon had existed they would have continued to export it up to the present day as they do frankincense, myrrh and gum arabic. A point which is worthy of notice is that the Somalis have names for all the last three, whereas they have had to go to the Arabic language for their names for cinnamon. They know of two varieties, koronfol and karfa , both of which are imported.
“It is highly probable that both Strabo and Pliny were led to
