The scents, like the colours or the noises, already they existed in the nature at the moment at which the man appears on the Earth. The brackish scent of the sea or the one of the Earth wet after raining and so many others. But there is a little while in which the man discovers a new aroma, different from all those to which was customary and he could dominate, because the power to obtain it and to originate it was in his hands. When was this moment? And which was this perfume?

I like to think that everything was originated back in prehistory, a day in which one of those primitive men, who got dressed in animal skins, hunted with axes or stone arrows and they almost spoke and they understood with monosyllables, they ignited a bonfire to warm up themselves or to move away the fierce animals that could watch to them and they ignited, by pure chance, branches or resins of a tree that gave off a pleasant scent, an unpublished scent, that never before they had felt.

They, being surprised and disturbed, would run to call to the other components of the group or of the tribe so they could smell the smoke of that bonfire that gave off a so fragrant and scent aroma. Perhaps that the fact to find it so pleasant and that the smoke rose directly towards the sky, it made think to them about using it like offering to the divinities or to the supernatural forces that inhabited it and that from above they governed their fragile Earth destinies there.

The certain thing is that all the old civilizations used the perfume obtained by means of the smoke of the incense, myrrh, or of other resins and woods to offer it to their Gods and that, nowadays, still are many, the Eastern and western religions that in their liturgy use the penetrating scent of the incense or the small sticks of sandal and other aromatic woods. His English is not so happy, but it's better than my Spanish (or Catalan, as the case may be).

The essence of perfume history is that until very recently most people didn't bathe much and were therefore very stinky. This truth was driven home for me by the novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Suskind. One of the more disturbing character studies I have read, the amoral protagonist is born in 18th century France with the gift of absolute smell, and the story is ultimately about the madness of genius, as the character's maniacal pursuit of olfactory perfection alienates him from his fellow man and leads to murder. Very creepy.