author - "George William Septimus Piesse"

s. Among the nations ofantiquity, an offering of perfumes was regarded as a token of the mostprofound respect and homage. Incense, or Frankincense, which exudes byincision and dries as a gum, from _Arbor-thurifera_, was formerly burntin the temples of all religions, in honor of the divinities that werethere adored. Many of the primitive Christians were put to death becausethey would not offer incense to idols."Of the use of these luxuries by the Greeks, and afterwards by theRomans, Pliny