HISTORICAL SKETCH 



XXV 



with great care. The charming grounds form a delightful 

 retreat in the cool of the evening — for recreation, and listen- 

 ing to the warblings of the nightingale, and to breathe an air 

 impregnated with the odour of flowers.' 

 Bramsen tells us that — 



' Antioch possesses an extensively wooded garden, abundant 

 with beautiful trees, and the environs of Jaffa are adorned 

 with many fine gardens which produce quantities of sweet- 

 smelling flowers, iruits and vegetables.' 



In our own time Arabia appears for the most part a dry, 

 barren, and thirsty desert, intersected here and there by an 

 oasis or upland district, upon which a settlement is found, 

 where some rude course of cultivation is followed. In early 

 days many kinds of scented and aromatic plants were largely 

 grown for use at all great festivals, and, according to Hero- 

 dotus, Arabia alone had to furnish a yearly tribute of one 

 thousand talents of frankincense to the temples in Babylon. 



The luxurious and refined habits of the Assyrians naturally 

 involved the use of perfumed plants and flowers, and to such 

 an excess was this passion carried, that their last king, when 

 driven to extremity by the rapid advance of his conqueror, 

 chose a death worthy of an Eastern voluptuary by causing a 

 pile of fragrant herbs to be lighted, and placing himself with 

 his wives and treasures upon it all were sweetly suffocated 

 with aromatic smoke. 



From the very earliest records of Egyptian history, per- 

 fumes have played a conspicuous part in all the great festivals, 

 entertainments, and funeral rites ; it was, however, in their 

 grand religious processions that they made the most luxurious 

 display of fragrant incenses, sweet-scented herbs, and flowers. 



To the children of Noah the uses of odorous vapours must 

 thus have been quite familiar, and we need not wonder that we 



