PERFUMES OF THE EOSE. 



187 



most esteemed and ^^recious perfumes. So far from this, 

 however, he only speaks of the " Royal Perfume," so 

 called because it was prepared expressly for the King of 

 the Parthians. This Avas composed of the oil of Ben, an 

 Arabian tree, with several aromatic substances. Accord- 

 ing to Langles, w^ho has carefully examined a great num- 

 ber of oriental works, no writer, previous to the sixteentli ^ 

 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 per- 

 fume, 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 j^leasure 

 was sailins: tos^ether in a canal which Nourmahal had 

 filled with rose-water. 



One day that the Emperor was thus sailing with Nour- 

 mahal, they perceived a sort of froth forming and floating 

 upon the water. They drew it out, and perceived that it 

 was the essential oil w^hich the heat of the sun had disen- 

 gaged from the water and collected together on the sur- 

 face. Tlie whole seraglio pronounced the perfume the 

 most exquisite known in the Indies ; and they immediate- 

 ly 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 AH7iei\ A''thr^ 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 neces- 

 sary, the same author states, to recollect the distinction 

 between AHher^ or AHher gul and gulab^ which is simply 

 rose-water. 



