SPIKENARD

נרד . By this was meant a highly aromatic plant growing in the Indies, called “nardostachys,” by Dioscorides and Galen; from whence was made the very valuable extract or unguent, or favourite perfume, used at the ancient baths and feasts, unguentum nardinum , unguentum nard i spic atæ , [the perfume or unction of spikenard,] which it appears from a pa age in Horace, was so valuable, that as much of it as could be contained in a small box of precious stone, was considered as a sort of equivalent for a large ve el of wine, and a handsome quota for a guest to contribute at an entertainment, according to the custom of antiquity: Nardo vina merebere: Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum. “Bring you the odours, and a cask is thine. Thy little box of ointment shall produce A mighty cask.” Francis. St. Mark, xiv, 3, mentions “ointment of spikenard very precious,” which is said to be worth more than three hundred denarii; and John, xii, 3, mentions a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly; the house was filled with the odour of the ointment; it was worth three hundred denarii. It is not to be supposed that this was a Syrian production, but the true “atar” of Indian spikenard; an unguent, containing the very e ence of the plant, and brought at a great expense from a remote country.