LENTISK, or Mastick-tree; in Latin, Schinus, and in Greek, Schinos; a sort of Tree, the Leaves whereof are always green, the Bark reddish, gummy, and pliable. It produces a kind of Grape; and besides this, it shoots out little Hulls bent like the Shell of a Pea, in these Hulls there is a certain Liquor, which is very clear, and in Process of Time turns to Insects, much such as those which proceed from the little Bladders visible upon Elms and Turpentine-Trees. Mastick is taken from the Lentisk-Tree, by making Incisions in the Bark of it. There is a great deal of it in the Islands of Chio and Candia, in Egypt, and the Indies.
There is Mention made in Daniel of the Lentisk-Tree1; one of the Elders, who accused Susanna, said that he saw her talking with a young Man under a Lentisk-Tree, sub Schino. Daniel alluding to the Sound of Schinus, answers him: The Angel of the Lord will cut thee in two, Schisei se Meson. From this Allusion some have imagined, that the Story of Susanna could have been written in no other Language but Greek, and consequently that Daniel was not the Author of it. This is the Objection raised against it by Julius Africanus, and Saint Jerom2, and several of the Moderns have renewed it. But in Answer to this it is said, that perhaps the Greek Translator changed the Hebrew Name of the Tree, and substituted Schinos in the Room of it, which furnished him with this Allusion; or that there really was an Allusion between the Hebrew Name of the Tree, and the Punishment threatned by Daniel; but as the Original is not now extant, it would be rash to say what this Term was, as it would be likewise to say positively, that there never was any such Original, because it is not now in Being.
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