By The Time That The Fire Has Expired, The Scenting Process Is
Completed, And Both Her Person And Robe Are
Redolent of incense,
with which they are so thoroughly impregnated that I have
frequently smelt a party of women strongly
At full a hundred
yards' distance, when the wind has been blowing from their
direction. Of course this kind of perfumery is only adapted for
those who live in tents and in the open air, but it is considered
by the ladies to have a peculiar attraction for the other sex, as
valerian is said to ensnare the genus felis. As the men are said
to be allured by this particular combination of sweet smells, and
to fall victims to the delicacy of their nasal organs, it will be
necessary to give the receipt for the fatal mixture, to be made
up in proportions according to taste :--Ginger, cloves, cinnamon,
frankincense, sandal-wood, myrrh, a species of sea-weed that is
brought from the Red Sea, and lastly, what I mistook for shells,
but which I subsequently discovered to be the horny disc that
closes the aperture when a shell-fish withdraws itself within its
shell; these are also brought from the Red Sea, in which they
abound throughout the shores of Nubia and Abyssinia. In addition
to the charm of sweet perfumes, the women who can afford the
luxury, suspend from their necks a few pieces of the dried glands
of the musk cat, which is a native of the country; such an
addition completes the toilet, when the coiffure has been
carefully arranged.
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