160 PLINY's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIII. 



camp. 6 Since those times this luxury has been adopted by 

 our own countrymen as well, among the most prized and, in- 

 deed, the most elegant of all the enjoyments of life, and has 

 begun even to be admitted in the list of honours paid to the 

 dead; for which reason we shall have to enlarge further on 

 that subject. Those perfumes which are not the produce of 

 shrubs 7 will only be mentioned for the present by name : the 

 nature of them will, however, be stated in their appropriate 

 places. 



CHAP. 2. THE VARIOUS KINDS OF UNGUENTS — TWELVE PRIN- 

 CIPAL COMPOSITIONS. 



The names of unguents are due, some of them, to the ori- 

 ginal place of their composition, others, again, to the extracts 

 which form their bases, others to the trees from which they 

 are derived, and others to the peculiar circumstance under 

 which they were first made : and it is as well, first of all, to 

 know that in this respect the fashion has often changed, and 

 that the high repute of peculiar kinds has been but transitory. 

 In ancient times, the perfumes the most esteemed of all were 

 those of the island of Delos, 8 and at a later period those of 

 Mendes. 9 This degree of esteem is founded, not only on the 

 mode of mixing them and the relative proportions, but accord- 

 ing to the degree of favour or disfavour in which the various 

 places which produce the ingredients are held, and the compa- 

 rative excellence or degeneracy of the ingredients themselves. 

 The perfume of iris, 10 from Corinth, was long held in the 

 highest esteem, till that of Cyzicus came into fashion. It was 

 the same, too, with the perfume of roses, 11 from Phaselis, 12 the 



6 The use of perfumes more probably originated in India, than among 

 the Persians. 



7 But of seeds or plants 



8 The perfumes of Delos themselves had nothing in particular to re- 

 commend them ; but as it was the centre of the worship of Apollo, it is not 

 improbable that exquisite perfumes formed a large proportion of the offer- 

 ings brought thither from all parts of the world. 



9 In Egypt. See B. v. c. 11. The unguents of Mendes are again men- 

 tioned in the present Chapter. 



10 Or flower-de-luce. This perfume was called Irinum. The Iris Flo- 

 rentina of the botanists, Fee says, has the smell of the violet. For the 

 composition of this perfume, see Dioscorides, B. i, c. 67. 



1 Bhodinura. n See B. v. c. 26. 



