filled with water, distilled with roses: he bathed in aromatic wine; and always sat surrounded by flowers, rendered still more sensitive by the odours of musk' and amber2. Homer knew so well the influence of perfumes, says Athenæus, that he has not allowed them to any one of his heroes, except Paris. CHAPTER III. PERFUMES, which administer such pleasure to voluptuaries3, were once supposed to be peculiarly grateful to In the plain of Cumana, where the rattlesnake is frequently found, the air becomes impregnated with the odour of musk, when the earth is saturated with rain, and the heat of the sun raises exhalations. 2 Some writers have asserted, that no animals are alive to olfactory pleasure yet the nightingale inhales the sweets of roses; cats assuredly delight in valerian; and the rattlesnake is attracted by bromelia. Elephants, too, browse Should the reader wish with pleasure among flowers and odoriferous shrubs. to acquaint himself with the multiplied relations between odours and the morbific states of the human frame, he may refer to a memoir, read to the Philomatic Society of Paris, by Mons. Alibert.-Vid. Rapport General des Travaux de la Societé Philomatique de Paris, i. 131. 3 Away before me-to sweet beds of flowers; Twelfth Night, act i. sc. 2. The odours of Venus indicated her origin;— Virg. lib. i. 407. "Ambrosiæque comæ divinum vertice odorem The well known lyric of Ben Jonson, beginning is from Petronius. VOL. I. Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, &c. Semper munditias, semper, Basilisca, decores, X the dying and the dead'. A Persian poet has an elegant stanza on the ringlets of his mistress:-"Should the air waft the odour from the hair of my love, the perfume, stealing over my tomb, would recall me to life, and render me vocal in her praise." And because a custom, so amiable and elegant, as that of decorating with flowers the graves of relatives, conduces to the gratification of some of the best feelings of our nature, no apology will be necessary for dwelling upon it at length. The Romans of condition were generally buried in their gardens, or fields, near the public road. This custom Propertius does not seem to have approved; since he desires his friends by no means to observe it, in regard to himself: lest his shade should be disturbed by the noise of passengers. Ausonius has a similar sentiment. The manner, in which the Romans took leave of their friends, was extremely affecting:-" Vale, vale, vale! nos te ordine quo natura permiserit-cuncti sequemur!" Then, wishing the earth to lie lightly on their relics, they departed. The monuments were then decorated with chaplets and balsams3, and garlands of flowers. To this affectionate custom Virgil alludes, when he describes Æneas sprinkling his father's grave with purple flowers; and in another passage, where he exclaims; Heu miserande puer! si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris.-Manibus date ilia plenis ; One of the Java kings desired to be interred in a spot, where the earth was sweet scented. He was in consequence buried near Tegal: his tomb is held in great veneration, and he is known by an appellation, signifying fragrant :Jegál-árum. Vid. Raffles' Hist. Java, 4to. vol. ii. p. 165. 2 Augustin. Gem. p. ii. 1. 32. The amiable father has a beautiful reflection in De Civit. Dei, lib. i. c. 12. 3 Fasti, v. 534. Tibul. lib. iii. el. 4. Propert. iii. el. 15. Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis This practice has prevailed among many of the most celebrated nations. The Persians adopted it from the Medes, and the Greeks from the Persians; and Pythagoras introduced it into Italy. The tomb of Achilles was decorated with amaranth; and the urn of Philopomen was covered with chaplets: and, that the grave of Sophocles was embellished with roses and ivy, we learn from an epitaph written by Simonides2. Ivy3 and flowerets, also, were planted near the grave of Anacreon5. ■ En. lib. vi. 882. A passage occurs, too, in the Gnat, sufficiently illustrative of the prevalence of this custom. Virgil's poem of the Gnat,―let pedants speak as they will, has more life, spirit, and description, than any of his Bucolics. There is less harmony in the numbers, it is true; but it will be a fortunate era, in literature, when men judge by sense, rather than by sound. "Wind, gentle evergreen, to form a shade 3 In modern Greece the Turks plant over graves the myrtle, and the amaryllis lutea.-Vid. Walpole's Memoirs relating to European and Asiatic Turkey. * These flowers were called Epwres. Elian relates, that Calanus, the Indian philosopher, who accompanied Alexander, being arrived at 83 years of age, caused a pile of sweet smelling wood to be raised; and, decking himself with garlands of flowers, threw himself into the flames.--II. c. 41. 5 This tomb be thine, Anacreon; all around Let ivy wreathe; let flowerets deck the ground; Virgil decorates the body of Pallas with strewed leaves of arbutus and other funeral evergreens. The ceremony of laying the unfortunate youth upon his bier is extremely affecting; and the passage, where he is compared to violets and hyacinths, plucked by the hands of a virgin, highly natural, beautiful, and pathetic. Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem Seu mollis violæ, seu languentis hyacinthi: Eneid. xi. 1. 68. To this we may add, that few passages, in that fine poem, abound more in natural pathos, than that, where Andromache is represented, as raising green altars to the memory of Hector' :-a passage, reminding us of several in Ossian, where he describes the monuments, which were erected to the heroes of remote ages. "Narrow is thy dwelling-place now! dark is the place of thine abode! with three steps I compass thy grave, oh thou, that wert so great before! four stones, with their heads of moss, are the only memorial of thee! A tree with scarce a leaf, long grass, which whistles in the wind, mark, in the hunter's the grave of the mighty Morar." Songs of Selma. “O lay me, ye that see the light, near some rock of eye, 'Lib. iii. 302. So will thine ashes yet a pleasure know, If any pleasure reach the shades below. * Vid. also Archæl. v. 2. p. 178. Lycophron tells us, that the tombs of two rivals were placed on the opposite sides of a mountain, lest their shades might be disturbed by the honours, paid by their respective relatives. my hills; let the rustling oak be near; green be the place of my rest; and let the sound of the distant torrent be heard." In the times of the ancient fathers of the Christian church, crowns of flowers were placed on the gravestones of virgins1; and baskets of lilies, violets, and roses, on the graves of husbands and wives. II. The savages of the Mississippi frequently retire to weep over the graves of their lost relatives; and there is a tribe in those wilds, whose women go every day to the graves of their infants; and with silent and pathetic eloquence, which shames all noisy grief, shed bitter tears, and press some milk from their bosoms upon the grass, that covers their remains. This milk they call by a name, signifying the sap of the human breast. The buryingplaces of the people of Morocco are generally situated in the fields; where every one purchases a spot of ground, which he surrounds with a walk, and plants with flowers. In Jaya4 they scatter a profusion of flowers over the bodies of their friends; and the Afghauns" hang cornets on tombs, and burn incense; while the ghosts are believed Fuit quoque mos ad capita virginum apponendi florum coronas.— Cassalon de vet. Sac. Christ. 334. 2 De Pages, Vol. i. p. 30. 8vo.-The savages of New South Wales place cypress leaves on the graves of their chiefs.-Vid. Oxley's Journ. Australia, p. 139. 4to. 3 In 1688 there were no burying-places in Tonquin; every man being interred in his own land. Vid. Dampier, Voy. Vol. ii. P. 52. * De Pages, 8vo. i. p. 283.—Valentyn, Vol. iv. p. 15.—Stavorinus, Vol. iv. p. 375. 5 Elphinstone, Caubul. p. 223. 4to. |