THE USE AND ABUSE OP SCENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 23 February 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE USE AND ABUSE OP SCENTS.

"Pure water is the best perfume," but of all the links that bind us to the past scents are one of the daintiest and one of the most ancient. From the very earliest dawn of civilisation many women— and let It be whispered with bated breath, many men—have luxuriated in the use of scents. In the East, in that land where flowers of intoxicating fragrance thrive so abundantly, we learn from a very ancient book, more through the restrictions and punishments threatened for disobedience than perhaps from actual details, that in Biblical times scents were indulged in for personal pleasure. Among the Israelites it would seem that they were mostly employed for religious purposes, and they were prepared witn scrupulous care. In the 30th chapter of Exodus Aaron is commanded through Moses with most minute directions to make "An holy anointing oil, and immediately following, he is told how to compound a perfume."Tako untc.thee sweet spices, stacte. and onycha and gal banum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense of each shall there be a like position thereof; it shall be unto^ rt.ee holy for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto shal oven be cut off from his people. A most severe punishment, when one remembcis how they were, surrounded by hostile nations. The Israelites no doubt gained their knowledge and love of scents

FROM THE EGYPTIANS, who were very learned in the art of perfumery. The Scythians, according to Herodotus, rubbed their arms, necks and faces with sweet smelling scents! The ancient Greeks, men and women, frankly revelled in the use of scents, and more particularly irf this true of the Athenians, who excelled «ln epicurean pleasures. Their gods, it is also told, delighted In perfumes. Classical history records how the nymph Aenone was charged to seek or invent methods to embellish the body and help it to retain the beauty of youth. She was the favoured perfumer of Olympia, Sophocles, with graphic phrase, paints for our delight Venus before a mirror perfuming her luxuriant hair, and Minerva anointing her chaste body with oil. Under Solon, the practice of scenting the body was carried to such excess that this wise legislator deemed it necessary to pass a law curtailing the use of perfumes; but his laws availed not a whit better than the sarcasm of Socrates, who mockingly asserts "that the slave and the free man, when they are perfumed, have both the same odour." As proof to how high a degree of refinement and prodigality the art of perfuming the person was carried in Greece I will quote a description from the poet Alexis, who lived about 350 B.C. Pie writes: "One no longer dips the fingers into an alabaster vase, as was the custom in the old days, but, now doves impregnated with diverse scents perform this kind office. Each bird carries a particular and different scent. It hovers In the air and then flutters its wet wings, and rains on robes and all around delightful odours. Be not too jealous, gentlemen; t also have been bedewed with violet odours." But the use of scents was not confined to the banqueting hall. The guests, when preparing for the feast, scented themselves with fastidious care. "Each portion of the body had its own particular perfume. Wild mint was recommended for the arms, palm-tree oil for the cheeks and chest. The eyebrows and hair were anointed with an ungent extracted from marjoram; the knees and the neck with an essence extracted from ground ivy. This last was REPUTED USEFUL IN DRUNKEN BOUTS, as also was the perfume obtained from roses. The quince furnished an essence against drowsiness and dyspepsia; while the perfume drawn from vine leaves increased the flow of wit .and essence of white violettes was deemed favourable to dlgestfon. Tn Greece ihc perfumers' shops were open to all-comers. They were the rendezvous of the grave and the gay. Practically, they were the club houses whore affairs of State were discussed, fashions decreed, and, so little does mankind change, tales of scandal told. From Greece perfumes quickly made their way to Romp. Their sale there at first 'Was strictly prohibited. But apparently the prohibition only served to stimulate the desire, for the Romans out-vied the Greeks in their indulgence in scents. After they had conquered Bgpyt, India, and Arabia they obtained enormous quantities of perfumes from these countries, and they used them most lavishly. They scented their baths, their bedrooms, their beds, and, like the Greeks, they had different perfumes for different parts of their body. Not contented with this, they scented their wives and they even scented the eagles and standards before they carried them into battle. With such excessive prodigality did they perfume themselves that Plautlus Plaucus, when proscribed by the triumvirs, revoalerl htmself to his persuers by the perfumed emanations of his body. Naturally in this respect women sinned equally with men. "Wherever Ihou goest," said the poet Martialis to Ga'.lia, "one would say that the stall of Cosmus—the perfumer a ]a mode—accompanies thee: and thou knowest," he jepringly added, "that my dopr could be perfumed just the same as thou." Another time he finds—and very justly, too— fault with a 1 man because "he is scented, and omits the odour of cinnamon from every pore." According to Gibbon, at Rome "the air of the Amphitheatre was continually refreshed by the playing of fountains, and profusely.lmpregnated by the grateful scent of aromaties." To the Romans, let it be added, we have cause to bo grateful for one of our most pleasing scents. Frangipani, a most delicious perfume, was concocted by ono of the earliest Roman nobles, and has ever since been known by his name. It in supposed to be the MOST ENDURING PERFUME COMPOUNDED, and it is said to be composed of every ■ known spice,. In equal proportions, to which is added ground iris, or orris root, In weight equal to the whole, with one per cent, of musk, or civet. The liquid scent Invented by Mercutlo Frangipani is prepared by digesting the powder in rectified spirits/which dissolves out the fragrant principles. It is , worthy of note, and Sir John Bowring is my authority, that some porcelain jars were found in the adjacent ruins to the Pyramids which contained cosmetics and perfumes three thousand to four thousand years old; these jars bore Chinese inscriptions. But now to come to modern history, Thanks to kindly, gossiping Stow we kno-w the exact date-, when., perfumes were introduced into England. He tells us that "Milloners and haberdashers had not then any gloves imbroydered or trimmed with gold or silks; neither could they make any costly wash or perfume, until about the fifteenth yeero of the Queene (Elizabeth), when the Right Honourable Ed. dc Vere, Earl of Oxford, came from Italy, and 'Drought with him gloves, sweete baggs, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant things, and that yeere the Queene had a paire of perfumed gloves, trimmed only with four tuffes, or roses of coloured silk . . . . She was pictured with these gloves upon her handes, and for many yeeres after it was called the Earl of, Oxford's perfume.'' Perfumed gloves in. England, France and Italy were a fayourite device for Scenting the person.' As far bapk as 1190 the glovers Of Paris constituted a considerable community, having statutes

and laws respecting the privilege of perfuming gloves and selling all manner of perfumes. There are many curious and complicated recipes extant, some of them given at great, length, connected with the then mystery of perfuming gloves. Elizabeth's sen^e of smell, It is said, was particularly fine and sensitive, and nothing offended her Majesty more than a disagreeable odour. "PerfurcJes," we read, "were never richer, more elaborate, more costly, or more delicate than in her reign." The cosmetics and other smaller accessories to a lady's toilet were kept in boxes strongly impregnated with some favourite scent, and were known as "sweet coffers." THE OLD WRITERS cosntantly make reference to these "sweet coffers," and, indeed, they became a necessary paft of the furniture of all State bedchambers, and by their richness and beauty was the taste and liberality of the owner appraised. The various bottles of perfumes employed ■whilst "dressing" were called "casting bottles"; while pomanders, which originally were regarded as a preventive against infection, gradually grew to be extravagant fashionable luxuries. At first they consisted of little balls of perfumed paste, and were worn suspended from the neck, or merely carried in the pocket, but later they became mediums for the most elaborate and exquisite devices in jewellery, and were gifts deemed worthy of acceptance by the highest lady in the land — Elizabeth. The Virgin Queen's proclivity for scents seems to have been unbounded. Besides Indulging in the luxury of perfumed gloves, she had her shoes perfumed! Ladies in those days amused themselves by djstilling fragrant waters. The "still room" was an important feature in all great men's houses. There their wives and daughters took lessons in the art of preparing perfumes and washes. According to the "Northumberla7id Household Book," the plants mostly employed for distillation were:—Roses, Borage, Fumitory, Brakes, Columbynes, Oakleaf, Hai-ts-tongue, Traggon, Parcelly, Balme. Walnutleaves, Ox-tongue, Primroso, Sage, Sorrell, Betony, Cowslip, Elder - flowers, Marygold, Pansy, and others. A poet of that day sings:— Bring, oh, brln;.;1 the essence pot! Amber, mu?k. and bergamot, Eau de C'nipre, Eau de,L.uce, Sanspareil, and citron juice. Little by little the love for scents increased from prodigality to folly, until in 1770 Parliament deemed it necessary' to pass an Act: "That all women, of whatever age, rank, profession or degree, whether virgins, maids, or widows, that shall, from and after such Act, impose upon, seduce, and betray into matrimony any of his Majesty's subjects by the scents, cosmetic washes, false hair, Spanish wool (a rougo) . . . shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours, and that the marriage, upon conviction, shall stand null and void." Extravagant as are the records of the indulgence of former ages in the use of perfumes wo to-day must also plead guilty. London and Paris supply pei>fumes to all parts of the world. The annual products exceed in value £2,01)0,000 sterling, while acres of the fairest spots in Europe and Asia are devoted to the cultivation of flowers destined for the laboratory of the perfumer.