Perfume.

Manawatu Herald, 22 April 1897, Page 2

Perfume.

The Bedouins perfume their handkerchiefs with an odoriferous earth called " ares," which comes from Aden, south of Arabia, and is in much requisition by the desert Arabs.. These nomad people use civet to anoint their bodies, a substance of the consistency of honey, taken from the anal glands of the civet oat, strong and offensive in itself, but agreeable when a very small proportion is mixed with other ingredients. Kitto says that " Arabs do not salute, they simply smell each other. It is common for a parent to say, ' Ah, child, thy smell 13 like the Sen-Paga»Poo," a flower sacred to Chrisna." However agreeable this may be to the nostrils of the Bedouin the mixture of the odours of dirty skins and the strong civet perfume is a graveolence anything but peasant to the European nose.

Balm was much prized by the natives of Judea and Arabia, from whence it was procured. Pliny says that Vespasian and Titus had shrubs of it growing in Borne, which were carefully tended, the branches being carried by the Romans in their fcriumphal processions. To gather the balsam was a slow and tedious task. Alexander the Great thought it ft fair midsummer day's word to fill a " concha " with balm, that is, leas than a thousandth part of a pintCinnamon is an aromatic bark of odorous fragrance. It is a native of Ceylon and India. Eitto tells us that it is " precious and appropriate to religious use. It is much valued, and was the first spice sought after or procured in all Oriental voyages,

anoient or modern." The Egyptians and Romans held it in high esteem. Herodotus assnres ns that a species of cinnamon was taken from the nests of birds, and also found sticking like lime to the beards of goats. This substance was gathered, compounded, and used as ointment and salves.

■ The South of France is the flower garden of Europe. Flower farming ia extensive in the Yar Valley, and covers about a hundred and fifteen thousand English aores. These gardens produce over three thousand tons of flowers annually. Lavender is our English production, and is cultivated about Hertford, Surrey, and several other districts. Its name, lavandula, from ltvare, to wash, indicates its use, which was perfuming the baths of wealthy people. Its flowers are considered excellent for disorders of the head and nerves. There are districts of lavender fields in Spain and North Africa, where it thrives mostly on high sea levels. Sweet as are the influences of perfume as a panacea for wounds — a tonic for flagging health— a refreshment of the beat and dust— a luxnry for the. toilet — and a delicious, permeating gratification for the senses — we would stop short of the custom of the Carmani, who mingle their companions' blood with fragrant sherbert, and quaff it as a pledge of friendship, sealing the compact with much mutual anointing of spikenards and attars. This,, to say the least, is exaggerating the province of perfumes.