The commoner kinds of oil, too, are mixed with those of myrrh and laurel, to which are added sampsuchum, lilies, fenugreek, myrrh, cassia,[714] nard,[715] sweet-rush, and cinnamon.[716] There is an oil, too, made of the common quince and the sparrow quince, called melinum, as we shall have occasion to mention hereafter;[717] it is used as an ingredient in unguents, mixed with omphacium, oil of cyprus, oil of sesamum,[718] balsamum,[719] sweet-rush, cassia, and abrotonum.[720] Susinum[721] is the most fluid of them all: it is made of lilies, oil of balanus, calamus, honey, cinnamon, saffron,[722] and myrrh; while the unguent of cyprus[723] is compounded of cyprus, omphacium and cardamum, calamus, aspalathus,[724] and abrotonum. There are some persons who, when making unguent of cyprus, employ myrrh also, and panax:[725] the best is that made at Sidon, and the next best that of Egypt: care must be taken not to add oil of sesamum: it will keep as long as four years, and its odour is strengthened by the addition of cinnamon. Telinum[726] is made of fresh olive-oil, cypirus,[727] calamus, melilote,[728] fenugreek, honey, marum,[729] and sweet marjoram. This last was the perfume most in vogue in the time of the Comic poet Menander: a considerable time after that known as “megalium” took its place, being so called as holding the very highest rank;[730] it was composed of oil of balanus, balsamum, calamus, sweet-rush, xylobalsamum,[731] cassia, and resin. One peculiar property of this unguent is, that it requires to be constantly stirred while boiling, until it has lost all smell: when it becomes cold, it recovers its odour.[732]
There are some single essences also which, individually, afford unguents of very high character: the first rank is due to malobathrum,[733] and the next to the iris of Illyricum and the sweet marjoram of Cyzicus, both of them herbs. There are perfumers who sometimes add some few other ingredients to these: those who use the most, employ for the purpose honey, flour of salt, omphacium, leaves of agnus,[734] and panax, all of them foreign ingredients.[735] The price of unguent[736] of cinnamon is quite enormous; to cinnamon there is added oil of balanus, xylobalsamum, calamus, sweet-rush, seeds of balsamum, myrrh, and perfumed honey: it is the thickest in consistency of all the unguents; the price at which it sells ranges from thirty-five to three hundred denarii per pound. Unguent[737] of nard,[738] or foliatum, is composed of omphacium or else oil of balanus, sweet-rush, costus,[739] nard, amomum,[740] myrrh, and balsamum.
While speaking on this subject, it will be as well to bear in mind that there are nine different kinds of plants of a similar kind, of which we have already made mention[741] as being employed for the purpose of imitating Indian nard; so abundant are the materials that are afforded for adulteration. All these perfumes are rendered still more pungent by the addition of costus and amomum, which have a particularly powerful effect on the olfactory organs; while myrrh gives them greater consistency and additional sweetness, and saffron makes them better adapted for medicinal purposes. They are most pungent, however, when mixed with amomum alone, which will often produce head-ache even. There are some persons who content themselves with sprinkling the more precious ingredients upon the others after boiling them down, for the purpose of economy; but the strength of the unguent is not so great as when the ingredients have been boiled together. Myrrh used by itself, and without the mixture of oil, forms an unguent, but it is stacte[742] only that must be used, for otherwise it will be productive of too great bitterness. Unguent of cyprus turns other unguents green, while lily unguent[743] makes them more unctuous: the unguent of Mendes turns them black, rose unguent makes them white, and that of myrrh of a pallid hue.
Such are the particulars of the ancient inventions, and the various falsifications of the shops in later times; we will now pass on to make mention of what is the very height of refinement in these articles of luxury, indeed, I may say, the beau ideal[744] of them all.
(2.) This is what is called the “regal” unguent, from the fact that it is composed in these proportions for the kings of the Parthians. It consists of myrobalanus,[745] costus, amomum, cinnamon, comacum,[746] cardamum, spikenard, marum, myrrh, cassia, storax,[747] ladanum,[748] opobalsamum, Syrian calamus[749] and Syrian sweet-rush,[750] œnanthe, malobathrum, serichatum,[751] cyprus, aspralathus, panax, saffron, cypirus, sweet marjoram, lotus,[752] honey, and wine. Not one of the ingredients in this compound is produced either in Italy, that conqueror of the world, or, indeed, in all Europe, with the exception of the iris, which grows in Illyricum, and the nard, which is to be found in Gaul: as to the wine, the rose, the leaves of myrtle, and the olive-oil, they are possessed by pretty nearly all countries in common.
CHAP. 3.—DIAPASMA, MAGMA; THE MODE OF TESTING UNGUENTS.
Those unguents which are known by the name of “diapasma,”[753] are composed of dried perfumes. The lees[754] of unguents are known by the name of “magma.[755]” In all these preparations the most powerful perfume is the one that is added the last of all. Unguents keep best in boxes of alabaster,[756] and perfumes[757] when mixed with oil, which conduces all the more to their durability the thicker it is, such as the oil of almonds, for instance. Unguents, too, improve with age; but the sun is apt to spoil them, for which reason they are usually stowed away in a shady place in vessels of lead. When their goodness is being tested, they are placed on the back of the hand, lest the heat of the palm, which is more fleshy, should have a bad effect upon them.