Song of Solomon 4:14

saffron Heb. karkômoccurs in the O.T. only here, but its meaning is clear from the Arabic kurkum= the Crocus sativus. There are many species of crocus in Palestine, and from most of them saffron is obtained. The women and children gather the pistil and stigma from the centre of each flower. These are dried in the sun and then pounded. It is used for a condiment. The name -saffron" is merely the Arabic zafran= -yellow." The best saffron is of an orange-red colour. See Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 480.

calamus Heb. qâneh, i.e. -aromatic reed." According to Tristram, p. 438, who makes a careful collation of all the passages in which the word occurs, this is not a sweet cane like the sugar-cane, but an aromatic cane imported from the East, either from Arabia Felix, or more probably from India. It is the same as the qeneh bôsem, the -sweet calamus" of Exodus 30:23.

cinnamon Heb. qinnâmôn, our cinnamon, a plant unknown in Syria. It is a native of Ceylon, and belongs to the family of the laurels. The tree attains to the height of 30 feet and has a white blossom. The spice is simply the inner rind separated from the outer bark and dried in the sun. See Tristram, Nat. Hist. p. 346.

trees of frankincense For frankincense see ch. Song of Solomon 3:6.

aloes A stately tree (Numbers 24:6) from which some aromatic substance was derived. It has generally been identified, according to Tristram (p. 333), with the Aquilaria agallocha, the eagle wood, found in Cochin China and Silhet in Northern India. This tree attains a height of 120 feet, and from it a costly perfume is extracted, which yields a fragrant odour when burned. The Enc. Brit., sub voce, supposes that it more probably is the Aquilaria malaccensis, found in the Malayan Peninsula, from which it would more easily find its way into Palestine in Biblical times than the other from North India. Cp. article -Aloes," Encycl. Bibl. vol. 1. p. 121.

the chief spices i.e. the chief spice-bearing trees. It is notable that all the trees of this -paradise" are rare exotics, probably to hint that the bride's charms are as rare and as much to be admired as such plants are. But the rare and foreign character of all the objects to which the bride is compared is entirely incompatible with the supposition that our book is a collection of popular songs (Volkslieder). In them the comparisons are always with homely well-known objects.