159 



BOOK XIII. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF EXOTIC TREES, AND AN 

 ACCOUNT OF UNGUENTS. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) — UNGUENTS — AT WHAT PEEIOD THEY WERE FIEST 



INTKODUCEB. 



Thus far we have been speaking of the trees which are 

 valuable for the odours they produce, and each of which is a 

 subject for our wonder in itself. Luxury, however, has 

 thought fit to mingle all of these, and to make a single odour 

 of the whole ; hence it is that unguents have been invented. 1 

 Who was the first to make unguents is a fact not recorded. 

 In the times of the Trojan war 2 they did not exist, nor did 

 they use incense when sacrificing to the gods ; indeed, people 

 knew of no other smell, or rather stench, 3 I may say, than that 

 of the cedar and the citrus, 4 shrubs of their own growth, as it 

 arose in volumes of smoke from the sacrifices ; still, however, 

 even then, the extract of roses was known, for we find it men- 

 tioned as conferring additional value on olive-oil. 



We ought, by good rights, to ascribe the first use of un- 

 guents to the Persians, for they quite soak themselves in it, 

 and so, by an adventitious recommendation, counteract the 

 bad odours which are produced by dirt. The first instance of 

 the use of unguents that I have been able to meet with is that of 

 the chest 5 of perfumes which fell into the hands of Alexander, 

 with the rest of the property of King Darius, at the taking of his 



1 Fee remarks, that most of the unguents aud perfumes of which Pliny 

 here speaks would find but little favour at the present day. 



2 This does not appear to be exactly the case, for in the twenty-third 

 Book of the Iliad, 1. 186, we find "rose-scented" oil mentioned, indeed, 

 Pliny himself alludes to it a little further on. 



3 " Nidoi-em." This term was used in reference to the smell of burnt or 

 roasted animal substances. It is not improbable that he alludes to the 

 stench arising from the burnt sacrifices. 



4 The "Thuya articulata." See c. 29 of the present Book. 

 ' " Scrinium." See B. vii. c. 30. 



