Vergil writes in Georgics(cff. II, 116-17) : Divisae arboribus patriae. Sola India nigrum; Fert ebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.

And again (cff, I,57) : India mittit ebur, molles sua tura Sabaei.

‘It is the Sabaei of India alone, no other people among the Arabians that beholds the incense-tree’. Vergil’s Sabaei refers to the people whose ancient settlements were on the banks of both the Sabaiaessa and the Sapara Mouths of the Indus river.

Name of frankincense finds the ‘frank’ tribe, their land in the name of this tribe, and the product of this land combines both the name of the land and the tribe:  the frankincense. Frank tribe’s country has been recognised as Africanus and after the Flood, and followed by ancient migration, their settlement find them in the modern Africa.

Franks were the ancient Arabians, and they were then counted as the ‘Indians’. Frankincense trade was carried out through the land of the Minaei, and they were the first people who were anciently involved in this frankincense trade. It is stated that ‘3000 families have a right to that privilege by hereditary succession; for this reason these persons are called sacred, and are not allowed , while pruning the trees or gathering the harvest, to receive any pollution, either by intercourse with women or coming in contact with the dead.’

‘The natural vintage takes place about the rising of the Dog-star, a period when the heat s most intense; the incense which has accumulated in the summer is gathered in the autumn, it is the purest of all, and is of a white colour. Pliny says(XII, 32) that ‘ the incense after being collected, is carried on camel’s back to Sabato(Sapara), of which place a single gate is left open for its admission. To deviate from the highroad while carrying it, the laws have made a capital offense. At this place the priests take by measure, and by weight, a tenth part in honour of their god Sabis; it is not allowable to dispose of it before this has been done; out of this tenth the public expenses are defrayed, for the divinity generously entertains all those strangers who have spent a certain number of days’ journey coming thither. The incense can only be exported through the country of the Gebanitae and for this reason, it is that a certain tax is paid to their king as well’

It is very interesting to see that God Sabis, in whose honour one tenth part of the frankincense is reserved, is identified as Sabitru , or Sabitri of Indian puranas which is same as Sun God.  Pa-anch is called ‘Island of Genius’, where the tree-spirit or god of the tree is recognised with jinn, which identifies the ‘Genius’. And it is believed that it marks also the ‘Island of Blest’, the land where Gilgamesh of the epic Gilgamesh arrived, where dwelt the virgin goddess Sabitu, who tells Gilgamesh that, ‘ no one since eternal days has ever crossed the sea, save, Shamash, the hero’.

Herodotus tells that the Arab brought a tribute of 1000 talent’s weight of frankincense every year to Darius. And that a similar quantity was burnt by king of Chaldaeans every year on their great altar to Bel at ancient Babylon. Alexander the great sent 500 talent’s weigh of frankincense to his tutor Leoni-das from the spoils of Giza, or Gaza(same as the plains of the river Ganges). Seleucus II, King of Syria and his brother Antiochus Hierax, King of Cilicia offered ten talent’s weight of frankincense to the temple of Apollo in Miletus.

Vergil says in Aeneid(cff, I, 416) : Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit ; Laeta suas ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo. Ture calent area sertisque recentibus halant. 

And to the infant Saviour in Bethlehem came ‘three wise men from the east, with gifts,- gold, frankincense, and myrrh’, signifying, according to Persian legend, ‘ the gold the kingship, the frankincense the divinity, and the myrrh the healing power of the Child’.

The Bible mentions offerings of pure frankincense to priests along with ‘sweet spices, stacte, onycha, galbanum, ; of each a like weight’(Ex. XXX,34-5). During the time of the meet offerings (Lv. II.1-3), ‘it shall be of fine flavour, oil should be poured upon it, and frankincense put thereon’.  There were special temples in Jerusalem to store frankincense, and priests were these stores(1 Chron. IX. 26-30).

Story of frankincense, cinnamon, and myrrh describes the story of the ancient world itself and most of its dynasties, and seats of worships that hold the faith of people to the sacredness of the land that produced them. While frankincense identifies the land of ‘frank’ same as Africanus people, cinnamon identifies the Chin people, and myrrh the people of Moreh or the Moriahs.

Myrrh’s biblical descriptions find its use by the Magi, the ancient priest class people who held the hereditary chain of the Sage Magha, or Mogha, whose seat of worship identifies him with the rise of the Dog-star. Biblical commentaries see cinnamon and cassia as two spices indigenous to India.