Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/61

 Hebrews. A person anointed was considered as sacred. Oil signified unction itself, and he that had received it was consecrated king, priest or prophet.

The use of the oil in the Roman Catholic Church is too well known to need special comment. The Christian nations kept up the same traditions, which, from Saul to Charles the Tenth, of France, have hardly known any interruption. It is thus that we find the oil in the sacred lamps of churches, in the administration of Sacraments, for baptism, confirmation, extreme unction for the ordinations and religious dedications. In short, the Roman Catholic begins and ends life with an unction of the holy oil.

In the life of the ancients, a friction with perfumed oil was a hygienic practice followed quite generally. The athletes were rubbed with oil before appearing in the arena, so as to give more suppleness and vigor to their bodies, and this salutary usage began to be gradually abandoned only when the admiration for physical force ceased to enjoy favor among the people.

Bertile says that the elasticity and vigor that were found among the Grecians and Romans, were due, undoubtedly, to the use of olive oil, which was so popular among them. While animal fat is injurious to the stomach, and thins the blood, olive oll helps the digestion, enables the body to develop more suppleness, and helps the brain to attain the highest possible stage of human