CONCERNING ODOURS, 57-59 



produce a general scent derived from them all. 

 This is why every few days they open the vessel and 

 remove each time that perfume whose scent is over- 

 powering the others, adding at the same time smaller 

 quantities of the less powerful scents, such as . . -, 1 

 while some perfumes are never added, such as 

 galingale, of which we spoke just now. 



When they make compound perfumes, they 

 moisten the spices with fragrant wine : and this 

 certainly seems to be useful for producing fragrance, 

 seeing that perfumers also use it. These com- 

 pound perfumes last a long time. They are used 

 to impart a pleasant odour to clothes, while the 

 powders are used for bedding, so that they may 

 come in contact with the skin : for this kind of 

 preparation gets a better hold and is more lasting, 

 so that men use it thus instead of scenting their 

 bodies directly. 2 Some, before putting the powder 

 in the bedding, soak it in fragrant wine, so that it 

 may acquire its scent : and some powders they 

 moisten by mixing them with mead and wine, or 

 again simply with mead. For in general both these 

 things help to give them fragrance. Compound 

 perfumes also last well. From which what was said 

 above becomes manifest, inasmuch as solid perfumes, 

 when mixed 3 with one another, acquire a greater 

 fragrance. 



4 It is to be expected that perfumes should have 

 medicinal properties in view of the virtues of spices : 

 for these too have such virtues. The effects of 



4 In W.'s text, which I have followed, there is some re- 

 arrangement (after Furlanus) of the order of sentences in 

 this chapter and the next : e.g. part of 61 is transferred to 

 59. Both figures are retained for convenience of reference. 



379 



