Washington County News | 1937-06-03 | Page 7 | Romans Loved Cinnamon; Used it in their Balms

Romans Loved Cinnamon; Used It in Their Balms The strong fragrance of cinnamon cinna-mon greeting our nostrils, gives us pleasure even before we eat the food that it flavors. The human nose has always responded re-sponded to this odor and the ancient Romans held it in particular esteem. es-teem. They used it liberally in their ointments and balms as well as in their cooking, and as the ultimate ul-timate mark of their appreciation of this spice they set it apart as the incense for sacrificial and ceremonial ceremo-nial fires. When a god was to be appeased, or the shade of a departed spirit was to be honored, it was the perfume per-fume of cinnamon wafted heavenward heaven-ward on uprising clouds of smoke that carried the message. No Roman Ro-man doubted that an odor so pleasing pleas-ing to man could fail to placate the Olympian dieties. The Roman media of atonement was not buns but bonfires, and their theory was that the more cinnamon cin-namon consumed, the greater the incense and therefore the greater the pleasure of the diety or the spirit who was being honored.