KOPHER or COPHER (ko'pher), (Heb.
ktf-fer), occurs twice in Canticles, and is in both places translated camfihire in the Authorized Ver sion.
(1) Camphor. Thus (i :t4), 'My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire (kopher) in the vineyards of En-gedi;' and in iv :13, 'Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, camphire (kopher), with spikenard.' It has been supposed to indicate a bunch of grapes (Bairns kopher), also camphor. The word camphire is the old mode of spelling camphor, but this substance does not appear to have been known to ancient commerce; at least we cannot adduce any proof that it was so. The word Kopher is certainly very like Kafoor, the Eastern name for camphor, but it also closely resembles the Greek scOwpos, Cyy5ros. Indeed, as has been observed, it is the same word, with the Greek pronunciation and termination. Tyke toirpos of the Greeks is, no doubt, the Lawsonia inerntis of botanists, and is described by Dioscorides (i, 125) and by Pliny (xii, 24). The Turks and Moors cultivate these with great care and dili gence, because of their sweet-smelling flowers. They also keep their leaves all winter, which leaves they powder and mix with juice of cit rons, and stain therewith on great holidays the hair and nails of their children of a red color, which color may perhaps be seen on the manes and tails of Turkish horses.
(2) Henna. This custom of dyeing the nails and the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, of an iron-rust color, with henna, exists through out the East, front the Mediterranean to the Ganges, as well as in northern Africa. In some parts the practice is not confined to women and children, but is also followed by men, especially in Persia. In dyeing the beard, the hair is turned to red by this application, which is then changed to black by a preparation of indigo. In dyeing the hair of children, and the tails and manes of horses and asses, the process is allowed to stop at the red color which the henna produces. Seeing, then, that the henna is so universally ad mired in the East, both on account of the fra grance of its flowers and the dye yielded by its leaves, and as there is no doubt that it is the enrpot of the Greeks, and as this word is so similar to the kopher of the Hebrews, there is every probability of this last being the henna of the Arabs, Lawsonia alba of botanists.
J. F. R.