Reply #34: Oils and essences were a very significant commodity in the "old days." [View All]

[Beam Me Up]

There were all kinds of them traded and used for all sorts of purposes from ritual religion/magic to healing which, in those days, often had a spiritual component. You could sort of think of it as "liquid incense" that could be applied to the skin, often very aromatic. The Egyptians had special ones used for mummification, for example. Many of them contained drugs such as opium--just as the better brands of "snake oil" once did in early America.