SCENTED WARRIORS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 133, 3 December 1930, Page 15

SCENTED WARRIORS

WEEKLY RATION ISSUED

Back in Babylonian times one would think that scent was unknown, states an English writer. . Actually the reverse was the case. Moreover, the use of scent for one and all was compulsory by law, and woe betide the man or woman who dared to appear in public with a person unadored by perfume, the instigator of this remarkable piece of legislation was not less a person than Hammurabi, known to-day as the George Washington of .the ancient world. He was a general, a lawyer, and an engineer—no mean achievement for a single man—and it is believed that the .sorry state- of his soldiers after the'battle put into his head the happy thought of enforced scenting. Soon, the warriors of th i day presented a highly ornate appearance, which was, if anything, more noticeable than that of the women. To each man was allotted a weekly ration of scent and rich creams, with which he smothered his body and hair, before curling the latter after the manner of a modern permanent wave. The perfume of the Egyptians would have revolted modern woman, save as an object of historical interest. It was characterised by an ordour so heavy and sickly that even now it may be detected in the glass vials and vases found in the tombs. The scent was procured in its crude form from aromatic shrubs and plants, and was unrefined in any way. Still greater evidence of the love fostered by _ the ancients for perfume is shown by the recent researches in Babylonia and Assyria, where it has been discovered that in no house of any standing could a visitor eat a meal which had not been previously scented. The air he breathed was perfumed by the smoko from aromatio woods which burned, the men and women around provided a heterogeneous mingling of aromas and the very wine he drank was flavoured by the addition of rich unguents. All of these scents, however, were in no way comparable with the refined products that wo know, as in every case they owed their extraction to raw herbs and flowers. Even the manly Greeks of later date were not exempt from those feminine foibles, though it is true that their vanities extended in a single direction. The Greek warrior or athlete would rub mint into his arms and legs, leaving his head and body alone free from adornment. Our modern perfumes may be rare and cunningly blended, but we should not forget that ifc is to the anciente with their crude raw oils that we must look for the basis of our modern beauty advantages.