PERFUMES. In the article ANOINTING we have noticed the use of perfumes in Eastern coun tries ; and in the botanical articles all the aromatic substances mentioned in Scripture are carefully examined. Here, therefore, we have only to add a few remarks, which the scope of those articles does not embrace.
The practice of producing an agreeable odour by fumigation, or burning incense, as well as that of anointing the person with odoriferous oils and ointments, and of sprinkling the dress with fragrant waters, originated in, and is confined to, warm climates. In such climates perspiration is profuse, and much care is needful to prevent the effects of it from being offensive. It is in this necessity we may find the reason for the use of perfumes, par ticularly at weddings and feasts, and on visits to persons of rank ; and in fact on most of the occa sions which bring people together with the intention of being agreeable to one another.
The ointments and oils used by the Israelites were rarely simple, but were compounded of various ingredients (Job xli. 22; comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxix. 8). Olive oil, the valued product of Pales tine (Dent. xxviii. 40 ; Mic. vi. 15), was combined with sundry aromatics, chiefly foreign (i Kings x. so ; Ezek. xxvii. 22), particularly bosem, myrrh, and nard [see these words]. Such ointments were for the most part costly (Amos vi. 6), and formed a much-coveted luxury. The ingredients, and often the prepared oils and resins in a state fit for use, were obtained chiefly in traffic from the Phoe nicians, who imported them in small alabaster boxes [ALABASTER], in which the delicious aroma was best preserved. A description of the more costly unguents is given by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xiii. 2). The preparation of these required peculiar skill, and therefore formed a particular profession. The n+rip, rokechim of Exod. xxx. 25, 35 ; Neh. iii. 8 ; Eccles. x. s, called Apothecary' in the A. V., was no other than a maker of perfumes. 'So strong were the better kinds of ointments, and so perfectly were the different component sub stances amalgamated, that they have been known to retain their scent several hundred years. One of the alabaster vases in the museum at Alnwick Castle contains some of the ancient Egyptian oint ment, between two and three thousand years old, and yet its odour remains (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyp tians, ii. 314).
The holy anointing oil,' employed in the sacer dotal unction, was composed of two parts myrrh' [MoR], two parts `cassia' [K1 Dom'', one part cinnamon' [K1NNAmoN], one part sweet cala rims' [KANEIS BosF..m], compounded 'according 1•) the art of the perfumer,' with a sufficient quan tity of the purest olive oil to give it the proper consistence (Exod. xxx. 23, 25). It was Strictly
forbidden that any perfume like this—that is, com posed of the same ingredients—should be used for common purposes, or indeed made at all (xxx. 32, 33); and we cannot but admire the course adopted in order to secure the object contemplated by the law. The composition was not preserved as a secret, but was publicly declared and described, with a plain prohibition to make any like it. Mai monides says that doubtless the cause of this pro hibition was, that there might be no such perfume found elsewhere, and consequently that a greater attachment might be induced to the sanctuary ; and also, to prevent the great evils which might arise from men esteeming themselves more excellent than others, if allowed to anoint themselves with a similar oil (More Nevochinz, ch. xx.) The reasons for attaching such distinction to objects consecrated by their holy appropriations, are too obvious to need much elucidation.
The prodigious quantity of this holy ointment made on the occasion which the text describes, being no less than 75o ounces of solids compounded with five quarts of oil, may give some idea of the profuse use of perfumes among the Hebrews. We are, indeed, told by the Psalmist (cxxxiii. 2), that when the holy anointing oil was poured upon the head of Aaron, it flowed down over his beard and dress, even to the skirts of his garments. This cir cumstance may give some interest to the following anecdote, which we translate from Chardin (Voy ages, iv. 43, edit. Langles). After remarking how prodigal the eastern females are of perfumes, he gives this instance : I remember that, at the solemnization of the nuptials of the three princesses royal of Golconda, whom the king, their father, who had no other children, married in one day, in the year 1679, perfumes were lavished on every in vited guest as he arrived. They sprinkled them upon those who were clad in white ; but gave them into the hands of those who wore coloured raiment, because their garments would have been spoiled by throwing it over them, which was done in the following manner. They threw over the body a bottle of rose-water, containing about half a pint, and then a larger bottle of water tinted with saffron, in such a manner that the clothes would have been stained with it. After this, they rubbed the arms and the body with a liquid per fume of ladanum and ambergris, and they put round the throat a thick cord of jasmine. I was thus perfumed with saffron in many great houses of this country, and in other places. This atten tion and honour is a universal custom among the women who have the means of obtaining this luxury.'—J. K.