active power in the Minaean dynasty and the Sabaean that followed it, both of whom subsisted mainly on the carriage of frankincense to the north, in which they were the mediators between the profane world and the unpolluted caste of those who were able by propitiating the spirit of the sacred tree, to shed and gather its blood for the purification of mankind.
28. Coral.—This was the red coral of the Mediterranean, which commanded a high price in India and China, and was one of the principal Roman exports thither, being shipped to Barbaricum, Barygaza and Muziris. (See §§ 39, 49, and 56.) As an import at Cana it was intended for reshipment to India in Arab or Hindu bottoms.
28. Storax in Roman times meant two different things: one, a solid, was the resin of Styrax officinalis, order Styracaceae, somewhat resembling benzoin, and used in incense. Liquid storax was the sap of Liquidambar orientalis, order Hamamelidaceae, native in S. W. Asia Minor, and exported, according to Flückiger and Hanbury (Pharmacographia, pp. 271–6), as far as China. It was an expectorant and stimulant, useful in chronic bronchial afflictions. The Periplus does not distinguish between them, but Flückiger thinks that the storax dealt in at Cana was the liquid storax, destined for India and China; which would have had little use for an incense of less value than their own.
There was, however, a local use for storax in defending the frankincense gatherers from the “ serpents ” guarding the trees; see pp. 131–2.
Hirth in his China and the Roman Orient quotes Chinese annals covering this period, which state that the Syrians {{dq|collect all kinds of fragrant substances, the juice of which they boil into su-ho—which he identifies with storax. Later annals, referring to the 6th century, are more complete. “ Storax is made by mixing and boiling the juice of various fragrant trees; it is not a natural product. It is further said that the inhabitants of Ta-ts’in (Syria) gather the storax (plant, or parts of it), squeeze the juice out, and thus make a balsam (hsiang-kao); they then sell its dregs to the traders of other countries; it thus goes through many hands before reaching China, and, when arriving here, is not very fragrant.”
These references indicate that the Chinese su-ho may not have been the product of one particular tree.
Glaser notes the name su-ho, which the Chinese annals further state to have been the name of the country producing the storax, and connect with the city Li-kan, supposed to be the same as Rekam or Petra, which was a point of shipment. He compares this with the usu-wood mentioned in several Assyrian inscriptions a tribute received from Arabia, and with a city called Usúu, placed by Delitzsch south
