i î f o l ' a i ’ © e r e m o m i ^ . 27
C H A P T E R IV.
i î P o r a P © e r e n r j o a i e / , © y ^ r e a f t / ,
^ a r P a n i l / .
.i i
H E application of flowers and plants to ceremonial
purposes is of the highest antiquity. From the
earliest periods, man, after he had discovered
“ What drops the Myrrh and what the balmy Reed,”
offered up on primitive altars, as incense to the
Deity, the choicest and most fragrant woods, the
aromatic gums from trees, and the subtle essences
he obtained from flowers. In the odorous but intoxicating fumes
which slowly ascended, in wreaths heavy with fragrance, from the
altar, the pious anciénts saw the mystic agency by which their prayers
would be wafted from earth to the abodes of the gods ; and so, says
Mr. Rimmel, “ the altars of Zoroaster and of Confucius, the temples
of Memphis, and those of Jerusalem, all smoked alike with incense
and sweet-scented woods.” Nor was the admiration and use of
vegetable productions confined to the inhabitants of the old world
alone, for the Mexicans, according to the Abbé Clavigero, have, from
time immemorial, studied the cultivation of flowers and odoriferous
plants, which they employed in the worship of their gods.
But the use of flowers and odorous shrubs was not long confined
by the ancients to their sacred rites ; they soon began to consider
them as essential to their domestic life. Thus, the Egyptians,
though they offered the finest fruit and the finest flowers to the gods,
and employed perfumes at all their sacred festivals, as well as at
their daily oblations, were lavish in the use of flowers at their
private entertainments, and in all circumstances of their every-day
life. At a reception given by an Egyptian noble, it was customary,
after the ceremony of anointing, for each guest to be presented
with a Lotus-flower when entering the saloon, and this flower the
guest continued to hold in his hand. Servants brought necklaces
of flowers composed chiefly of the Lotus ; a garland was put round
the head', and a single Lotus-bud, or a full-blown flower was so
attached as to hang over the forehead. Many of them, made up
into wreaths and devices, were suspended upon stands placed in the
room, garlands of Crocus and Saffron encircled the wine cups, and
over and under the tables were strewn various flowers. Diodorus
informs us that when the Egyptians approached the place of diyine
worship, they held the flower of the Agrostis in their hand, intimating
that man proceeded from a well-watered land, and that he
required a moist rather than a dry aliment; and it is not improbable
that the reason of the great preference given to the Lotus on these
occasions was derived from the same notion.
This fondness of the ancients for flowers was carried to such
an extent as to become almost a vice. When Antony supped with
Cleopatra, the luxurious Queen of Egypt, the floors of the apartments
were usually covered with fragrant flowers. When Sarda-
napalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, was driven to dire
extremity by the rapid approach of the conqueror, he chose the
death of an Eastern voluptuary; causing a pile of fragrant woods
to be lighted, and placing himself on it with his wives and treasures,
he soon became insensible, and was suffocated by the aromatic
smoke. When Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, held high
festival at Daphne, in one of the processions which took place,
boys bore Frankincense, Myrrh, and Saffron on golden dishes, two
hundred women sprinkled everyone with perfumes out of golden
watering-pots, and all who entered the gymnasium to witness the
games were anointed with some perfume contained in fifteen gold
dishes, holding Saffron, Amaracus, Lilies, Cinnamon, Spikenard,
Fenugreek, &c. When the.Roman Emperor Nero sat at banquet in
his golden palace, a shower of flowers and perfumes fell upon him;
but Heliogabalus turned these floral luxuries into veritable curses,
for it was one of the pleasures of this inhuman being to smother
his courtiers with flowers.
Both Greeks and Romans caried the delicate refinements of
the taste for flowers and perfumes to the greatest excess in their
•costly entertainments ; and it is the opinion of Baccius that at
their desserts the number of their flowers far exceeded that of
their fruits. The odour of flowers was deemed potent to arouse
the fainting appetite ; and their presence was rightly thought to
enhance the enjoyment of the guests at their banqueting boards:—
“ The ground is swept, and the triclinium clear,
The hands are purified, the goblets, too,
Well rinsed; each guest upon his forehead bears
A wreath’d flow’ry crown ; from slender vase
A willing youth presents to each in turn
A sweet and costly perfume ; while the bowl,
Emblem of joy and social mirth, stands by.
Filled to the brim ; and then pours out wine
Of most delicious flavour, breathing round
Fragrance of flowers, and honey newly made.
So grateful to the sense, that none refuse ;
While odoriferous fumes fill all the lo om .”—Xenophanes.