CONCERNING ODOURS, 20-23 



viscid quality ; and, when subjected to fire, it gives 

 out a smell of sesame, as though it were being 

 disintegrated. Such are the special characters and 

 properties of the various oils. 



Of tlit spices used in making perfumes and their treatment. 



V. Almost all spices and sweet scents except 

 flowers are dry hot astringent and mordant. Some 

 also possess a certain bitterness, as we said above, 

 as iris, myrrh, frankincense, and perfumes in general. 

 However the most universal qualities are astringency 

 and the production of heat ; they actually produce 

 these effects. 



All spices are given their astringent quality by 

 exposure to fire, but some of them assume their special 

 odours even when cold and not exposed to fire ; and 

 it also appears that, just as with vegetable dyes some 

 are applied hot and some cold, so is it with odours. 

 But in all cases the cooking, whether to produce the 

 astringent quality or to impart the proper odour, is 

 done in vessels standing in water and not in actual 

 contact with the fire ; the reason being that the 

 heating must be gentle, and there would be con- 

 siderable waste if these were in actual contact with 

 the flames ; and further the perfume would smell of 

 burning. 



However there is less waste when the perfume 

 obtains its proper odour by exposure to fire than 

 when it does so in a cold state, since those perfumes 

 which are subjected to fire are first steeped either in 

 fragrant wine or in water : for then they absorb J less : 

 while those which are treated in a cold state, being dry, 

 absorb a more, for instance bruised iris-root. Thus, if 

 1 avairtvet. So Sch. explains, cf. eKirlvuxriv, 24. 



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