HINNAMON kIn'na-mi5n),(Heb.i4;;, kin-naw ?none), translated 'cinnamon,' occurs in three places of Scripture; first, about 1600 years before the Christian era, in Exod. xxx:23, where it is enum erated as one of the ingredients employed in the preparation of the holy anointing oil.
It is next mentioned in Prov. vii:t7, 'I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes (oholint), and cinnamon.' And again in Cant. iv:14, 'Spike nard and saffron ; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes (oho lint), with all the chief spices. While in Rev. xviii :13, among the merchandise of Babylon, we have 'cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense.' (1) Sweet Cinnamon. In the earliest notice, it is called kinnamon besem, or 'sweet cinnamon.' Dr. Vincent is inclined to consider khennoh beset,' and kinnomon beset,' as derived from the same root. Many writers have doubted whether the kinnamon of the Hebrews is the same article that we now call cinnamon. If we were to put faith in all these doubts, we should be left without any substances possessed of sufficiently remarkable properties to have been articles of ancient com merce. Galen says that cassia and cinnamon are
so much alike that it is not an easy matter to distinguish the one from the other. This is a difficulty that still continues to be experienced.
(2) Cassia Bark. Cassia bark, as we have seen, was distinguished with difficulty from cin namon by the ancients. In the present day it is often sold for cinnamon ; indeed, unless a pur chaser specify true cinnamon, he will probably be supplied with nothing but cassia. It is made up into similar bundles with cinnamon, has the same general appearance, smell, and taste; but its sub stance is thicker and coarser, its color darker, its flavor much less sweet and fine than that of Ceylon cinnamon, while it is more pungent, and is followed by a bitter taste; it is also less closely quilled, and breaks shorter than genuine cinna mon. There can be no reasonable doubt, as cin namon and cassia were known to the Greeks, that they must have been known to the Hebrews also, as the commerce with India can be proved to have been much more ancient than is generally supposed. (See CINNAMON; KIDDAH.) J. F. R.