Some writers think there is an allusion to the custom of sprinkling guests at feasts with perfumed waters from a silver vessel of vase-like shape and with a perforated top, through which the fluid is thrown on the faces of the guests. This sprinkling is sometimes so copious as to cause embarrassment. Bruce, after describing an interview he once had with a certain dignitary, says: “Our coffee being done, I rose to take my leave, and was presently wet to the skin by deluges of orange-flower water.” Niebuhr relates a similar instance: “The first time we were received with all the Eastern ceremonies, (it was at Rosetto, at a Greek merchant’s house,) there was one of our company who was excessively surprised when a domestic placed himself before him and threw water over him, as well on his face as over his clothes.” See Taylor's Calmet; Fragments. No. 16.
Tile engraving represents a perfume-sprinkler of beautiful form, such as is used in some parts of India.