Esther 2:12

According to the manner of the women; who were kept so long, partly, for their better purification, as it here follows; partly, out of state, as that which became so great a king; and partly, that being so long in safe custody, the king might be sure that the child begotten upon any of them was his own. With oil of myrrh; which is useful both for making the skin exactly clean, and smooth, and solid, and for giving strength and rigour to the body. With sweet odours; which was the more necessary, because the bodies of men and women in those hot countries did of themselves yield very ill scents, if not corrected and qualified by art.