From Berbera also comes Bdellium (Vern. Mhaisábol, or Bysabol*). In the bales of this drug two distinct kinds are met with, viz., ordinary Bdellium, which to a certain extent resembles Myrrh, but is of a darker colour, less oily, and has a peculiar odour destitute of the aroma of Myrrh, and a perfumed kind called by the Arabs Habak-Hadee,† which occurs in irregular-shaped pieces more or less flat, some of them having earth and fragments of bark adhering; it is of a dark reddish brown colour, but opaque yellowish white streaks run through the semi-transparent reddish mass. The odour is more powerful and more perfumed than that of common Bdellium; the taste perfumed, aromatic, and feebly bitter, whereas common Bdellium is strongly bitter and has hardly any aroma. Indian Bdellium (Mhaisagúggal), the produce of B. Mukul, somewhat resembles the African drug in general appearance, the pieces often having portions of papery bark attached to them, but the colour is lighter, often greenish; the odour and taste are somewhat different, and a certain proportion of it is in distinct vermiform pieces as thick as the little finger. Its value is one-third less than that of African Bdellium. Opaque Bdellium is found in small quantities in the packages of Myrrh and other gums which come from Africa. It is known in Bombay as Meenaharma, and is of a yellowish white colour; and quite opaque like ammoniacum ‡; it has hardly any odour, but a very bitter taste. The native practitioners use it to facilitate the extraction of Guinea-worms; it would appear to poison the animal, as it makes it loosen its hold upon the tissues. Indian Bdellium (Mhaisagúggal), the produce of B. Roxburghii, occurs in irregular lumps, covered more or less with dirt and hair, to which portions of papery bark as well as the thick inner bark sometimes adhere; it is of a greenish yellow colour, with an occasional tinge of red; consistence waxy, soft, and brittle; odour peculiar and balsamic, something like cedarwood; taste bitter. With water it forms a greyish-white emulsion; when inflamed it swells and sputters instead of burning with a clear flame like the Gúggal of Boswellia serrata. We have been favoured by Mr. Woodrow with fresh specimens of the stem and exudation of B. Roxburghii collected near Peit, about 30 miles north of Poona, where the tree has been planted to form a hedge round a Hindu temple.
* Buffalo Myrrh, because it is given to these animals to increase the flow of milk, from the Sanskrit Mahisha, a buffalo, and Vola, myrrh. It is also called in Sanskrit Saindhava or Samudriya gúggula, as coming from beyond the sea.
Dioscorides (i., 71,) mentions three kinds of βδελλίον. Indian Bdellium he says, is dirty and dark-coloured, and is called ἁδρόβωλον, i.e., sticky bole. Arabian Bdellium is described as dry, resinous and bluish or greenish black. His third kind is probably a kind of Myrrh.
† Pliny 12, 35, mentions an odoriferous myrrh.
‡ It is perhaps the white myrrh of Pliny, 12, 35.