Ingredients of the sacred incense—The Onyx, or Onycha-Derivation of the word—The Arabic Dofr— The Doofu of Abyssinia—Odour of the perfume.
IN Ex. 30:3434And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: (Exodus 30:34) there occurs a remarkable word, shecheleth, which is used to describe one of the ingredients of the incense to be used in Divine worship. The Jewish Bible renders the word rightly, “onycha," while Buxtorf renders it by “onyx," a word which is likely to mislead the reader, and to cause him to believe it to be a mineral, and not an animal substance.
The Onycha is the operculum of one of the Strombi or Wing-shells, and derives its name from the resemblance which it bears in those shells to a nail or claw. The Greek word onyx primarily signifies a nail, and is indeed the origin of our own word. Secondarily, it is used to denote a precious stone, partly because the white bands of the sardonyx bear some resemblance to the white semi-lunar marks at the base of human nails. In consequence of the resemblance of the operculum to a claw or nail, the Arabs call the Wing-shell “Dofr-el-afrit," or Afrit's (i.e. demon's) claw.
The operculum of the Wing-shells has a sharp and powerful scent when burned, and, when mixed with substances more fragrant but less powerful, it has the effect of adding to their potency if not to their fragrance.
A remarkable corroboration of this rendering occurs in Mr. Mansfield Parkyns's valuable “Life in Abyssinia." In the Appendix to vol. 1. in which the commerce of Abyssinia and the Red Sea is described, the following entry occurs:— "October 5, 1848. Sailed for Suakim in a native boat. Cargo: muslins, marawdi, Surat tobacco, sandal-wood, and doofu. This article is the operculum or horny substance with which some species of shell-fish are furnished to protect the mouth of their shells. These in some parts of Nubia are used for perfume, being burnt with sandal-wood.”
Here we have one or two points worthy of notice. In the first place, it is evident that the Doofu of the Abyssinians is identical with the Dofr of the Arabs. In the second place we find that it is not used alone as a perfume, but is burned together with the fragrant sandal-wood. Lastly, we find that the materials of the incense which were ordained for the special use of the Jewish worship were derived from North-Eastern Africa, and were in all probability familiar to the Jews from their long residence in Egypt.
The opercula of all the Strombidæ possess this powerful, though not very fragrant odor, which has been compared to that of spices, or castoreum, and probably acts the part which is played in many modern perfumes by materials which in themselves possess an odor the reverse of fragrant.
The mineral onyx is represented by a different Hebrew word, namely, shoham.