KANEH BOSEM (nbt reed of fra ..
grance') and KANEll IIATT013 pun ripr, calamus bonus, good' or fragrant reed') appear to have reference to the same substance. It is mentioned under the name of kanck Lamm in Exod. xxx. 23, and under that of kaneh kattob in Jer. vi. 20. It is probably intended also by kazzch (` reed') simply in Cant. iv. 14 ; Is. xliii. 24 ; and Ezek. xxvii. 19 ; as it is enumerated with other fragrant and aro matic substances. Front the passages in which it is mentioned we learn that it was fragrant and reed-like, and that it was brought from a far country (Jer. vi. 20 ; Ezek. xxvii. 19).
In Dioscorides, bk. i. c. a xciXckaos cipwart Kos is described among the aromata, immediately after Ixolpos. It is stated to be a produce of India, of a tawny colour, much jointed, breaking into splinters, and having the hollow stem filled with pith, like the web of a spider ; also that it is mixed with ointments and fumigations on account of its odour. Hippocrates vvas acquainted with appa rently the same substance, which he calls ecciXamos ekbans and crxolves oloanos, also KitXaikos o-xavos : though it is impossible to say that the erxolpos of Dioscorides, or schcenanthus, is not intended by some of these names. Theophrastus describes both the calamus and schcenus as natives of Syria, or more precisely, of a valley between Mount Lebanon and a small mountain, where there is a plain and a lake, in parts of which there is a marsh, where they are produced, the smell being perceived by any one entering the place. This account is virtually followed by Pliny, though he also mentions the sweet calamus as a produce of Arabia. Polybius also (v. 45) says that in the valley between the Libanus and Anti-Libanus the narrowest part is covered by a lake with marshy ground,fi-om whence are gathered aromatic reeds, 4 Cm ei nopequas Keiperac KdXapos. Strabo men tions that the calamus grows in the country of the Sabzei (xvi. 4); but speaking of Ccele-Syria and its mountains, Libanus and Anti-Libanus, he says (xvi. 2), It is intersected by rivers, irrigating a rich country, abounding in all things. It also
contains a lake, which produces the aromatic rush (0-xolpos) and reed (KciXal..cos). There are also marshes. The lake is called Gennesaritis. The balsam also grows here.' But how little depend ence is to be placed upon the statements of those who do not pay special attention to the localities of plants, might be made evident by quotations from several modern authors, who often mistake the last place of export for the native country of a plant, and sometimes even place in the Old World plants which are only found in America.
That there may be some moderately sweet• scented grass, or rush - like plant, such as the Acorns Calaneus of botanists (long used as a sub stitute for the true calamus), in the flat country be tween Libanus and Anti-Libanus, is quite possible ; but we have no proof of the fact. Burckhardt, in that situation, could find only ordinary rushes and reeds. Though Theophrastus, Polybius, and Strabo, mention this locality as that producing the calamus, yet Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and others, en in cluding Pliny, give Arabia, or the country of the Sabmans, as that vvhich produced the aromatic reed ; while Dioscorides, the only author who writes expressly of the drugs known to the an cients, mentions it being the produce of Ind'a. Bochart argues against India being the sole country producing calamus, because he supposes that it could not have been open to commerce in those early times (Ifieroz., pars. ii. lib. v. c. 6). Dr. Vincent, on the contrary (Petiplus of the Eey thrawn Sea , 11. 365), says, So far as a private opinion is of weight, I am fully persuaded that this line of communication with the East is the oldest in the world—older than Moses or Abra ham.' Indeed, it is now generally acknowledged that India and Egypt must have had commercial intercourse during the flourishing state of the king dom of the Pharaohs. For in this way only can we account for numerous Indian products being mentioned in the Bible, and for their being known to the early Greek writers. Many of these sub stances are treated of under their respective heads in this work.