[1] Having, not long since, purchased a bottle of Persian Otto, warranted
_genuine_, (as is all) I laid it carefully by, wrapped thickly round
with cotton wool; the Atar which was certainly excellent, was in a
curious bottle of rough misshapen workmanship, but ornamented with
sundry circles, and lozenges, of various coloured glass. I was
inclined to regard this bottle as a more genuine specimen of oriental
art, than one of those, which, enamelled, with gold, stands forth in
its way an _elegant_ of the first water, and I hoped to have kept it
long. On visiting my Otto shortly afterwards, I found that not only
had it all evaporated, but destroyed its receptacle. Its strength (I
conclude) had dissolved the cement of the aforesaid coloured bits of
glass, and left me only an empty and plain bottle, the ugliest of the
ugly. I mention this circumstance as a caution to amateurs in Atar
Gul.
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