40 PERFUMES OF THE ROSE. 



that author would have mentioned it among the most esteemed 

 and precious perfumes. So far from this, however, he only 

 speaks of the " Royal Perfume," so called because it was pre- 

 pared expressly for the King of the Parthians. This was com- 

 posed of the oil of Ben, an Arabian tree, with several aromatic 

 substances. According to Langles, who has carefully examined 

 a great number of oriental works, no writer previous to the 16th 

 century has mentioned the essential oil of roses, although these 

 flowers abounded at that time, and mention is made of rose- 

 water as an agreeable perfume. Besides these negative proofs 

 against the ancient existence of this perfume, Langles quotes 

 several oriental historians, from which it seems evident that its 

 discovery dates about the year 1612, and was owing entirely to 

 accident. 



According to Father Catron, in his History of the Mogul 

 Empire, in the fetes which the sultana Nourmahal gave to the 

 great Mogul Jehan-guire, their chief pleasure was sailing together 

 in a canal which Nourmahal had rilled with rose-water. 



One day that the Emperor was thus sailing with Nourmahal, 

 they perceived a sort of froth forming and floating upon the water. 

 They drew it out, and perceived that it was the essential oil , 

 which the heat of the sun had disengaged from the water and 

 collected together on the surface. The whole seraglio pro- 

 nounced the perfume the most exquisite known in the Indies ; 

 and they immediately endeavored to imitate by art that which 

 nature had made. Thus was discovered the essence, essential 

 oil, otto or attar of roses. 



According to Langles, the word A'ther, Athr or Othr, which 

 the Arabs, Turks, and Persians use to designate the essential oil 

 of Roses without adding the name of that flower, is Arabic, and 

 signifies perfume. It is necessary, the same author states, to 

 recollect the distinction between Ather or Aether gul and gu- 

 lab, which is simply rose-water. 



From the very small quantity congealed on the surface of 

 the water, the manufacture is limited and the cost of the arti- 

 cle immense. Langles states that the rose-water is left ex 



