criptions which testify to the height of
their civilisation. We read of one of the queens of Sheba (the Arabs say
she was named _Bilkis_) who came to prove Solomon with hard questions. She
came with a large caravan of camels bearing spices and gold in abundance;
her present to Solomon consisted of "an hundred and twenty talents of
gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones." Gold is no
longer found in Arabia but it was undoubtedly once very plentiful there.
All the old writers speak of Arabia as a-gold country. One of the Greek
geographers speaks of a stream in which large nuggets of gold were found.
Some people think Ophir was in Arabia. However that may be, the traveller
Burton explored the northwestern part of the peninsula and found old mines
and even traces of gold dust. If Job lived in the land of Midian we can
well understand how he could describe mining operations so well as he does
in the twenty-eighth chapter of his book.

[Illustration: BRANCH OF INCENSE TREE.]

Frankincense and myrrh were also carried across Arabia by the caravans,
and both of these precious gums came from Arabia itself and are still
found there. One of the oldest articles of commerce was incense. The gum
was used in sacrifices and in all the heathen temple worship as well as by
the Jews in their worship. One thousand talents' weight of frankincense
was brought every year to Darius, the Persian king, as tribute from
Arabia. The present incense country is southern Arabia, especially
Hadramaut. Here the incense tree (of which you see a small branch in the
picture) grows. The young trees are cut with a knife, and from the
incisions made in the bark a milk-like juice comes out. When it has had
time to harden, the large clear globules are scraped off into baskets and
the inferior kind that has run down the bark is collected separately. It
is shipped from Arabia to Bombay or goes out from Aden and still commands
a good price. In some Roman Catholic churches this incense is burnt every
Sunday and if you will go to a large druggist he may be able to show you
pieces of Arabian incense.

Myrrh and frankincense are frequently mentioned together. Both are
sweet-smelling gums and both came originally from Arabia. According to a
Greek legend, Myrrha was the daughter of one of the kings of Cyprus who
angered her father and when he attempted to stab her, fled to Arabia. Here
she was changed into a tree called myrrh! A few of these trees are s