In this way we may, as Hagen suggests, explain
the fact that until recent times the odors preferred by women have not
been the most delicate or exquisite, but the strongest, the most animal,
the most sexual: musk, castoreum, civet, and ambergris.
In that interesting novel--dealing with the adventures of a
Jewish maiden at the Persian court of Xerxes--which under the
title of _Esther_ has found its way into the Old Testament we are
told that it was customary in the royal harem at Shushan to
submit the women to a very prolonged course of perfuming before
they were admitted to the king: "six months with oil of myrrh and
six months with sweet odors." (_Esther_, Chapter II, v. 12.)
In the _Arabian Nights_ there are many allusions to the use of
perfumes by women with a more or less definitely stated
aphrodisiacal intent. Thus we read in the story of Kamaralzaman:
"With fine incense I will perfume my breasts, my belly, my whole
body, so that my skin may melt more sweetly in thy mouth, O apple
of my eye!"
Even among savages the perfuming of the body is sometimes
practiced with the object of inducing love in the partner.
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