Perfume

Shalom, weary traveler. Would you like to refresh yourself with some perfume?

We make our perfumes from distilling herbs, dried resins, bark and flowers in olive oil. Some perfumers use animal fat, but it goes rancid too fast for me. I use plants like hyssop, cedar, sandalwood, nard, galbanum, onchya, aloes, lavender, cassia, cumin. Most of our perfumes smell woody and earthy. Some are used for healing.

Did you know that men make up some of my best customers? They use my perfume on their skin, hair and beards to cover up the smell of goats and sheep after a long, hot day in the fields! There is not always a lot of water here for bathing. Olive oil is also soothing to dry skin.

(if they ask about frankincense and myrrh, and they will - if you have it, show it to them). Frankincense and myrrh are hard to come by. They are dried resin from desert plants and I trade for them when visitors come to Bethlehem. They are used in ritual worship, especially for incense in the temple or the holy anointing oil. Only the priest can use these things, if we do, we’ll be cut off from our people!

We also use cinnamon to freshen the breath. Some of the rabbi’s writings say that bad breath is grounds for divorce!