FRAGRANT LEAVES V. SWEET-SCENTED FLOWERS. 



135 



have good and reliable evidence to show that they were used by 

 the earliest of civilised people on this earth, and we may believe 

 that they were employed long before people were very highly 

 civilised, since we find them used by savage tribes at the pre- 

 sent day. History tells us that the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and 

 Phoenicians, the Hebrews and Egyptians, the Greeks and the 

 Romans, the Gauls and the Celts, and the Saxons all used sweet 

 odours in some shape or form. By the same token we know 

 that perfumes were used by the sturdy Normans and the crafty 

 Moors : all had and used choice and rare perfumes on which 



Fig. 29. 



they set great store. The same is especially true of the 

 early peoples eastward, as well as westward. Perfumes and 

 savoury odours were used by Hindu and by Aztec alike ; and if a 

 full and true account of perfumes could be written to-day, ] I 

 think we should be a little astonished at the great, and even 

 tragic, parts they have played at times in the history of the 

 human race. In Shakespeare's time old English gardens were 

 rich in fragrant and aromatic herbs, many of which were highly 

 valued in rural medicine. The growing and culling of herbs 

 and simples, and their distillation, or formation into cordials 



