Wilton, Mary Margaret Stanley Egerton: The Book of costume or, Annals of fashion: from the earliest period to the present time (London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1847)

INTRODUCTION.

33

an account of an anointing oil and a perfume, the
former composed of myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus,
cassia, and olive oil; the latter of sweet spices and
frankincense, both of which were to be used in the
tabernacle. All kinds of fragrant and powerful per-
fumes were used by the ancients for embalming, and
they are mentioned in various parts of the Old Testa-
ment, as being known to, and used by, the Hebrews.
They were afterwards much esteemed by the Greeks
and Romans, who imported the most precious from
Syria and India. Perfumes were used in their sacri-
fices to the gods, and also at their feasts, to give an
agreeable scent to their garments and apartments. We
often read, too, in the old poets, that
“ Fragrant oils the stiffened limbs anoint.”
In the camp of Darius, Alexander found, among
the other treasures of which he became master, quan-
tities of rich perfumes and precious ointments.
The love of odours of all kinds soon spread over
the world, and Pliny laments their being allowed even
in the Roman camp, where the eagles, standards, and
ensigns, were perfumed, “as if to reward them for
conquering the world.” Nero is said to have expended
on the funeral pile of his wife more incense than the
scented groves of Arabia could produce in a whole
year.
The fair ladies of our own day perfume their
garments and apartments with the odours which are
extracted from flowers and herbs, more frequently than
with the scented and odoriferous drugs formerly used.
The attar of roses, the sweetest, the most precious of