AHALIM ovirit.4 and AHALOTH 7 7 usually translated ALOES, occur in several ps sages of the Old Testament, as in Ps. xlv. 8, All thy garments smell of mykih, and ahaloth, and cassia ;' Prov. vii. 17, I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with cinnamon and ahalim;' Canticles iv. 14, Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cin namon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh, and ahaloth, with all the chief spices.' From the articles which are associated with aha/oth and ahalim (both names indicating the same thing), it is evident that it was some odoriferous substance, probably well known in ancient times. Why these words have been translated aloes,' not only in the English, but in most of the older versions, it may not be easy to ascertain ; but there is little doubt that the odoriferous ahaloth of the above passages ought not to be confounded with the bitter and nauseous aloes famed only as a medicine. The latter, no doubt, has some agreeable odour, when of the best quality from the island of Socotra, and when freshly-imported pieces are first broken ; some not unpleasant odour may also be perceived when small pieces are burnt. But common aloes is usually disagreeable in odour and nauseous in taste, and could never have been employed as a perfume. Its usual name in Arabic, sibbar, has no resemblance to its European name. The earliest notice of aloes seems to be that of Dioscorides, iii. 25 ; the next that of Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxvii. 5). Both describe it as being brought from India, whence also probably came its name, which is elwa in Hindee.
The oldest and most complete account with which we are acquainted of the fragrant and aro matic substances known to the ancients is that given in the first twenty-eight chapters of the first book of Dioscorides. There, along with Iris, Acorum, Cyperum, Cardamomum, several Nards, Asarum, Phu, Malabathrum, Cassia, Cinnamon, Costus, Schnus, Calamus aromaticus, Balsamum, Aspalatus, Crocus, etc., mention is also made of Ayallochum, which is described as a wood brought from India and Arabia. In this list, which we shall afterwards have frequent occasion to refer to, we find Agallochum associated with most of the same substances which are mentioned along with it in the above passages of Scripture, whereas the author describes the true aloe in a very different part of his work. Subsequently to the time of
Dioscorides, we find Agallochum mentioned by Orobasius, YEtius, and P. ./Egineta ; but they add nothing to the first description. The Arabs, how ever, as Rhases, Serapion, and Avicenna, were well acquainted with this substance, of which they describe several varieties, mostly named from the places where they were produced, and give other particulars respecting it, besides quoting Dios corides and previous authors of their own country. In the Latin translation of Avicenna these descrip tions appear under Agallochum, Xilaloe, and Lig num aloes ; but in the Arabic edition of the same author, under Aghlajoon, Aghalookhi, but most fully under 'Aod, pro nounced ood. This is one instance, and many others might be adduced, of the Arabs describing the same thing under two names, when they found a substance described by the Greeks— that is, Galen and Dioscorides, under one name, and were themselves acquainted with it under another. In the Persian works on Materia Medica (vide ABAT Timm) we are informed that agallokhee is the Greek name of this substance, and that the Hindee name of one kind, by them called aod-i-hizzdee is agyur. having thus traced a substance which was said to come from India tc the name by which it is known in that country, the next process would perhaps naturally have been to procure the sub stance, and trace it to the plant which yielded it. We, however, followed the reverse method; having first obtained the substance called Aggur, we traced it, through its Asiatic synonymes, to the Agallo chum of Dioscorides, and, as related in the Illustr., of Himalayan Botany, p. 171, obtained in the bazaars of Northern India three varieties of this far-famed and fragrant wood-1. aoa'-i-hindee; 2. a kind procured by commerce from Surat, which, however, does not appear to differ essentially from the third, aod-i-himaree, which was said to come from China, and is, no doubt, the alcamericum of Avicenna.