BOOK XIII 



I. This is the degree to which the forests are 

 valuable in the matter of scents ; and their various 

 products were not sufficiently remarkable by them- 

 selves, and luxury took pleasure in mixing them all 

 up together and making a single scent out of the 

 combination : thus perfumes were invented. It is Perfumes, 

 not recorded who first discovered them. In the days reiued!^' 

 of the Trojan War they did not exist, and incense was 

 not used when prayers were made to the gods : even 

 in the rites of reUgion people only knew the scent of 

 cedar and citrus wood, trees of their own country, or 

 more truly the reek, as it rose in wreaths of smoke, 

 though attar of roses had ah*eady been discovered,for 

 it also is specified as an ingredient in commending 

 oUve oil. Perfume ought by right to be accredited 

 to the Persian race : they soak themselves in it, and 

 quench the odour produced from dirt by its ad- 

 ventitious attraction. The first case that I am able to 

 discover was when a chest of perfumes was captured 

 by Alexander among the rest of the property of King 

 Darius when his camp was taken. Afterwards the 

 pleasure of perfume was also admitted by our fellow- 

 countrymen as well among the most elegant and 

 also most honourable enjoyments of Hfe, and even 

 began to be an appropriate tribute to the dead ; 

 and consequently we will enlarge on the subject. 

 Those among perfumes which are not the product of 



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