ROSES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 56, 6 March 1877, Page 4

ROSES.

In one of the bopks attributed to Solomon, eternal wisdom is compared to the plantations of rose trees at Jericho. Princess Nburmahal, the most lovely lady in the harem of the great Mogul, had 'a canal filled with rose water and rowed about on it with her august consort. The heat. of the sun disengaged, the essential ? oil from the water, and their inajes ties, haying observed. the fact^nvented otto of ro g eg TlmEm porer'&el.ogaba.us filled a fish-pond with rose-water. It is nowhere . said. whether the fishes approved of this proceeding. When the Sultan Sriljadtn who had so much trouble with hardfisted English King Richard and his tarbuleht Christian friends, took Jerusalem in 1188, be would not enter the temple, which he profanely called a mosque, till he had its walls washed with rose water, and Sauut assures us that 500 camels were no more tban sufficient to car ry the purifying liquid. Also, after the taking of Constantinople by Mahqmet, 1,, in a.d. 1425, the church of St. Sophia was solemnly purified with rose water . betore it was converted into a mosque. The high priest of the Hebrews wore a crown of roses when he offered up certain sacrifices under the Mosiac dispensation; and'it was, perhaps, in remembrance of: tbif* fact. that the Synod of Nisraes, which was held in the third century, enjoined every Jew to wear a rose on hi _ r breast as a distinguishing mark of. Inferiority. In many countries the Jews still celebrate the festival of Easter Flowers, during which they ornament their lamps, chandeliers and beds, wilh* roses. Thus it happened tbat these flowers were hateful to the early Christians, and are often condemned fn the writings of the Fathers, who professed that they could not understand that pious people could think with equanimity of roses when they remembered the crown of thorns; afterwards this hostile feeling seemed to have died out. When Marie An-„ toinette passed through Nancy on her way to be married with Louis XVI., tho ladies of Lorraine prepared her a bed strewn with roses. In tbe middle ages roses were held so precious in France that a royal license was necessary, to grow. tbem. Charlemagne recommended the cultivation of tlie. rose in his "Capitulation." The Persians of Shiraz stop their wine bottles with roses, which give the # wine a pleasing smell; and during the festival of Abrizao, which takes place during the equinex, Persian ladies throw roses at each other when they pay visits. At Rome it was the practice of the church to bless the rose on a special day set apart, which was called Rose Sunday. The custom of blessing the golden rose seems to have began in the eleventh and twelfth century. The benediction was pronounced with particular solem- I oity on th 6 fourth Sunday in Lent, and the golden rose thus consecrated was given as a mark of the Sovereign Pontifl'sT favor to some prince or princess. -"* i— — i i I,M ""JL..'