Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-09-24
ROse-water COuFtesiss aud Sweet
Scented Apartments.

Musk is one of the perfumes, says q
French writer, translated from the Chi.
cago Inter Ocean, she most highly es-
teemed in the Orient. Evla Efendi
relates that at Kari Arnid, capital of
Diarbekir, is a mosque called Iparie. in
the construction of which musk was
mixed with the mortar, and as this per-
fume is the most enduring, the atmos-
phere in it is ever impregnated. The
same writer says that the mosque of
Zobeide at Tauris, which was built in
like manner, diffuses very strong odor
Of musk, especially when the sun strikes
its half ruined walls.
The rose also is much priced by the
Orientals, and it is no less sought after
by their perlumers than it is celebrated
by their poets. In the tenth century
Ayicenna, a celebrated Arab physician,
found the means for extracting the fra
GRANGE of this beautiful flower, and it is
to him we owe the inveation Of distilla
ton, which was destined to produce as
much e. joymeDt in delicate scents. This
extraordinary man, who, during a wan.
dering life of fifty eight years, succeeded
in writing a hundred volumes, twenty Of
the number forming general encyclo-
pedia, had the fancy to boil flowers in a
crooked necked vessel and to collect the
vspOrs.
il is from the hundred.leaved rose,
called by the Arab gnl-cad berk, that
Avieenna distilled this delightful water
Ia the twelfth century rose water was
already produced in such quantities that
Saladin. upon his entrance into Jerusa-
lem in 1857, had the walls of the mosque
OF Omar washed with it. Its use is now
general 10 all the East 1t is sometimes
used in the additions OF the Mussulman
coquettes, sometimes gushing up in sweet
scented jets in the court Of the harem,
and used to sprinkle the stranger as
sign of welcome. Hiebuhr, in his De-
scription of Arabia" relates that the
European brusquely assailed by this kind
Of salutation appears little pleased, and
occasionally even indignant, for what
seems at first an insult. This greeting
is made by means Of long and narrow
necked vase, called gulabdan, which
among the wealthy is often of gold OF
silver, finely chased, and of glass or
china with the commoner class. Ac-
cording to Niebuhr, the perfume burner
is a wooden vase with wicker covering.
he adds, that in all visits o. ceremony
the perfumed smoke is directed to the
beard aud clothing, in order to impreg-
nate them we'll, and that it is the polite
manner Of dismissing the visitor
The msdern Egyptians have two
modes Of perluming their apartments;
sometimes they are satisfied with throw
ing aloes, cascarilla-bark or balssm,
upon the brasier; sometimes they burn
incense in the mibkharah of chased
metal, which is used also, as in Arabia,
TO perfume the beard Of the visitor after
be has been duly sprinkled with rose
water from the kumkum, which answers
TO the gulabdan OF the Persian. The
Egyptians have such partiality for per-
fumes that they often take ambsrgris in
their coffee, and they even glaze the in
side OF their drinking cups in order to
aromatic the water.
CUSTOMS OF THE TOILET.
The care Of the toilet is. so to speak,
an article Of faith to the Mussulmsn, for
the law Of Mshomet prescribes ablution
| Eve times q day. Every devout believer