Book 5 — CHAPTER I. THE VILLA AND THE FARMYARD.

If we now, for a moment, quit the city and its amusements, and observe the tone and character of Hellenic rural life, we shall find, perhaps, that there existed in antiquity a still greater contrast between town and country than in modern times. From the poetry of Athens, rife with sylvan imagery, we, no less than from its history, discover how deeply they loved the sunshine and calm and quiet of their fields. The rustic population confined to the city during the Peleponnesian war almost perished of nostalgia within sight of their village homes. Half the metaphors in their language are of country growth. The bee murmurs, the partridge whirrs, the lark, the nightingale, the thrush, pour their music through the channels of verse and prose. The odours of ripe fruit, of new wine “purple and gushing,” the fresh invigorating morning breeze from harvest fields, from clover meadows dotted with kine, the scent of milk-pails, of honey, and the honey-comb, still breathe sweetly over the Attic page, and prove how smitten with home delights the Athenian people were,

“With plesaunce of the breathing fields yfed.”

This their manly and healthful taste, however, 270constantly, in time of war, exposed them to the malice of their enemies. For the valleys and grassy uplands of Attica, being thickly covered with villas and farmhouses,^[1068] the first act of an invading army was to lay all those beautiful homesteads in ashes. Thus the Persians, in their two invasions, destroyed the whole with fire and sword. But the gentlemen, immediately on their return, rebuilt their dwellings^[1069] with greater taste and magnificence, so that, before the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war, it is probable that, as a scene of unambitious affluence, taste, high cultivation, and rustic contentment, nothing was ever beheld to compare with Attica. Here and there, throughout the land, perched on rocks, or shaded by trees, were small rustic chapels dedicated to the nymphs, or rural gods.^[1070] On the mountains, and in solitary glens, and wherever springs gushed from the cliffs, caverns were scooped out by the hands of the leisurely shepherds,^[1071] and consecrated by association with mythology. Fountains, also, and water-courses, altars, statues,^[1072] and sacred groves,^[1073] protected at once by religion and the laws,^[1074] imprinted on the landscape features of poetry and elegance.

Another cause which, in the eyes of the Athenians, imparted sanctity to their lands, was the practice of burying in them their dead. The spot selected for this sacred purpose seems usually to have been the orchard, where, amid fig-trees and trailing vines,^[1075] often near the boundaries of the estate, might be seen the ancient and venerable monuments of the dead. All Attica, therefore, in their eyes, appeared 271holy as a sepulchre; and, as every one guarded his own ancestral ashes, to sell a farm cost a man’s feelings more than in countries where people inter those they love in public cemeteries; and this circumstance with many would operate like a law of entail.^[1076]

But it is easy thus to present to the imagination a general picture of the country. What we want is to thrust aside the impediments, to dissipate the obscurity of two thousand years, and lift the latch of a Greek farmhouse, such as it existed in the days of Pericles.

In the first place it was common in Attica to erect country-houses in the midst of a grove of silver firs,^[1077] which in winter protect from cold, and in summer attract the breezes that imitate in their branches the sound of trickling runnels, or the distant murmur of the sea. Towards the centre of the grove, with a spacious court in front and a garden behind, stood the house,^[1078] sometimes with flat, sometimes with pointed roof, ornamented with a picturesque porch, and surrounded with verandahs or colonnades. Occasionally opulent persons had on the south front of their houses large citron trees,^[1079] growing in pots, on either side the door, where they were well watered and carefully covered during winter.^[1080] In the plainer class of dwellings, numerous outhouses, as stables, sheds for cattle,^[1081] henroosts, pigstyes, &c., extended round the court, while the 272back-front, generally in the East the principal, opened upon the garden or orchard.

Much pains was usually taken in selecting the site of a farmhouse,^[1082] though opinions of course varied according to the peculiar range of experience on which they were based. In general such positions were considered most favourable as neighboured the sea, or occupied the summits or the slopes of mountains,^[1083] more especially if looking towards the north.^[1084] The vicinity of swamps and marshes, and as much as possible of rivers, was avoided, together with coombs, or hollow valleys, and declivities facing the south or the setting sun. If necessitated by the nature of the ground to build near the banks of a stream, the front of the dwelling was carefully turned away from it, inasmuch as its waters communicated an additional rigour to the winds in winter, and in summer filled the atmosphere with unwholesome vapours. The favourite exposure was towards the east whence the most salubrious breezes were supposed to blow, while the cheerful beams of the sun, as soon as they streamed above the horizon, dissipated the dank fogs and murkiness of the air. Notwithstanding the warmth of the climate, moreover, they loved such situations as were all day long illuminated by the sun, whilst every care was taken to fence out the sirocco, a moist and pestilential wind, blowing across the Mediterranean from the deserts of Africa. In Italy, nevertheless, the farmer often selected for the site of his mansion the southern roots of mountains, further defended from Alpine blasts by a sweep of lofty woods.

According to the fashion prevailing in antiquity, 273farmhouses were built high, large, and roomy, though Cato^[1085] shrewdly advises, that their magnitude should bear some relation to that of the domain, lest the villa should have to seek for the farm, or the farm for the villa.

Much, however, would depend upon the taste of the individual; but in a plain farmhouse more attention appears to have been paid to substantial comfort, and something like rough John-Bullism, than to that cold finical elegance which certain persons are fond of associating with whatever is classical. An Attic farmer of the true old republican school was anything but a fine gentleman. He scorned none of the occupations or productions by which he lived. On entering his dwelling you found no small difficulty in steering between bags of corn,^[1086] piles of cheeses, hurdles of dried figs^[1087] or raisins, while the racks groaned with hams^[1088] and bacon flitches. If they resembled their descendants,^[1089] too, even their bedchambers were invaded by some species of provisions, for there in the present day you often behold long strings of melons suspended like festoons from the rafters. In one corner of the ground-floor stood a corbel filled with olive-dregs, recently pressed, in another a wool-sack or a pile of dressed skins.^[1090] Yonder in the room looking into the garden, with the honey-suckle twining about the open lattice, were madam’s loom and spinning-wheel, and carding apparatus, and work-baskets; and there with the lark^[1091] might you see her, serene and happy, suckling her young democrat, and rocking the cradle of a 274second with her foot, thriftily giving directions the while to Thratta, Xanthia or “the neat-handed” Phillis.^[1092]

The kitchen must sometimes have been in fine disorder; geese and ducks waddling across the floor, picking up the spilled grain, or snatching away the piece of bread and honey which my young master had just put down on the stool to play at a game of romps with Thratta. Up in the dusky corner there, behind a huge armchair or settle, you may discern a very suspicious looking enclosure, from which, at intervals, issues a suppressed grunt; it is the pigsty.^[1093] But be not offended; the practice is classical; and pigs, in my apprehension, are as pleasant company as geese and many other animals. Now, that geese were fed even about palaces, we have the testimony of Homer, whose Penelope, thethe beau idéal of a good housewife, says—

“Full twenty geese have we at home, that feed

On wheat in water steeped.”^[1094]

But the whole economy of geese-feeding^[1095] has been transmitted to us; in the first place, the birds usually preferred were those most remarkable for their size and whiteness.^[1096] The ancients esteemed the variegated, or spotted, as of inferior value. The same rule applied to fowls. The chenoboscion,^[1097] or enclosure in which the geese were kept, was commonly situated near ponds or freshes,^[1098] abounding with rich grass and aquatic plants. Geese, it was observed, are not nice in the article of food, but devour eagerly nearly all kinds of plants, though the chick-pea, and the couch-grass, the laurel and 275the laurel-rose,^[1099] were by the ancients supposed to be hurtful to them. Of their eggs some were hatched by hens, but such as were designed to be sitten on by the goose herself, (who, during the period of incubation^[1100] was fed on barley steeped in water,) were marked by writing or otherwise, to distinguish them from the eggs of their neighbours, which it was thought she would not be at the pains to hatch. For the first ten days after they had broken the shell the young goslings were kept within-doors, where they were fed on wheat steeped in water, polenta a preparation of barley-meal dried at the fire, and chopped cresses. This period over, they were driven out to feed and afterwards to water; they who tended them taking great care that they should not be stung by nettles, or pricked by thorns, or swallow the hair^[1101] of pigs or kids, which they imagined to be fatal to them.

When full-grown geese were intended to be fattened, the custom was, to confine them in dark and extremely warm cells.^[1102] Their food was scientifically varied and regulated, proceeding from less to more nutritious, until they were judged fit for the table. 276At first their diet consisted of a preparation composed of two parts polenta, and four parts bran boiled in water. Of this they were permitted to eat as much as they pleased three times a day, and once again at midnight, while water was furnished them in abundance. When they had continued on this regimen for some time, they were indulged with a more luxurious table,—nothing less than the most exquisite dried figs, which, being chopped small, and dissolved in water, were served up as a sort of jelly for twenty days, after which the pampered animal itself was ready for the spit.

Occasionally that delicate and humane device, for the practice of which Germany has, in modern times, obtained so enviable a celebrity, of enlarging preternaturally the dimensions of the liver, was resorted to by the ancients,^[1103] whose mode of proceeding was as follows: during five-and-twenty days, being cooped up as before in a place of high temperature, the geese were fed with wheat and barley steeped in water, the former of which fattened, while the latter rendered their flesh delicately white. For the next five days certain cakes or balls, denominated collyria,^[1104] the composition of which is not exactly known, were given them at the rate of seven per day, after which the number was gradually augmented to fifteen, which constituted their whole allowance for other twenty days. To this succeeded the most extraordinary dish of all, consisting of bolusses of leavened dough, steeped in a warm decoction of mallows, by which they were puffed up for four days. Their drink, meanwhile, was still more delicious than their food, being nothing less than hydromel,^[1105] or water mingled with honey. During the last six days dried figs, chopped fine, were added to their leaven, and the process being thus brought to a conclusion, the gourmands for whom they were intended, feasted on 277the tenderest geese and the largest livers in the world. It should be added, however, that before being cooked the liver was thrown into a basin of warm water, which the artistes several times changed. Geese, adds the ingenious gastronomer to whom we are indebted for these details, are, both for flesh and liver, much inferior to ganders. The Greeks did not, however, like the Romans and the moderns, select young geese for this species of culinary apotheosis, but birds of a mature age and of the largest size, from two to four years old, which only proves the superior strength and keenness of their teeth.

Ducks were kept in ponds, carefully enclosed, and, perhaps, covered over that they might not fly away. In the centre were certain green islets,^[1106] planted with couch-grass, which the ancients considered as beneficial to ducks as it was hurtful to geese. Their usual food, which was cast in the water encircling the islets, consisted of wheat, millet, barley, sometimes mixed with grape-stones and grape-skins. Occasionally they were indulged with locusts, prawns, shrimps,^[1107] and whatever else aquatic birds habitually feed on. Persons desirous of possessing tame ducks were accustomed to beat about the lakes and marshes^[1108] for the nest of the wild bird. Giving the eggs to a hen to sit on, they obtained a brood of ducklings perfectly domesticated.^[1109] Wild ducks were sometimes caught by pouring red wine, or the lees of wine, into the springs whither they came to drink.

With respect to barn-door fowl, originally introduced from India and Media into Greece, the greatest care appears to have been taken to vary and improve the breeds. For this purpose cocks 278and hens were imported^[1110] from the shores of the Adriatic, from Italy, Sicily, Numidia, and Egypt, while those of Attica were occasionally exported to other countries. There appears to have been a prejudice against keeping more than fifty fowls^[1111] about one farmyard, some traces of which may also be discovered in the practice of the Arabs.^[1112] The fowl-house furnished with roosts,^[1113] as with us, was so contrived and situated as to receive from the kitchen a tolerable supply of smoke, which was supposed to be agreeable to these Median strangers. The food of fowls^[1114] being much the same all the world over, it is unnecessary to observe more than that the green leaves of the Cytisus were supposed to render them prolific. To preserve them from vermin, the juice of rue, by way I suppose of charm, was sprinkled over their feathers.^[1115] The proportion of male birds was one to six. Hens were usually put to sit about the vernal equinox, during the first quarter of the moon, in nests carefully constructed of boards, and strewed with fresh clean straw, into which, as a sort of talisman against thunder, they threw an iron nail, heads of garlic, and sprigs of laurel.^[1116] During the period of incubation, the eggs which had previously been kept in bran were turned every day.

The other inhabitants of the farmyard were peacocks,^[1117] commonly confined in beautiful artificial islands 279provided with elegant sheds; pheasants^[1118] from the shores of the Black Sea;^[1119] guinea-fowls from Numidia,^[1120] though according to other authors they were originally found in Ætolia;^[1121] partridges, quails, and the attagas. Thrushes were bred in warm rooms with slight perches projecting from the walls, and laurel boughs or other evergreens fixed in the corners.^[1122] Over the clean floor was strewed their food, dried figs, which had been steeped in water, and mixed with flour or barley meal, together with the berries of the myrtle; the lentiscus, the ivy, the laurel, and the olive. They were fattened with millet, panic, and pure water.^[1123] Other still smaller birds were reared, and fattened in like manner. Every farmhouse had, moreover, its columbary and dove-cotes,^[1124] sometimes so large as to contain five thousand birds. They usually consisted of spacious buildings,^[1125] roofed over and furnished with windows closed by lattice work, made so close that neither a lizard nor a mouse could creep through them. In the floor were channels and basins of water, in which these delicate birds^[1126] might wash and plume themselves, 280and adjoining was a chamber into which such as were required for sale, or the table, were enticed. Even jackdaws were kept about farmyards, and like common fowls had perches set up for them.^[1127]

Much pains was taken by the ancients to improve the breed of animals.^[1128] Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, introduced into that island the Molossian and Spartan dogs, goats from Scyros and Naxos, and sheep from Attica and Miletos.^[1129] The fineness and beauty of Merinos were also known to the ancients, who purchased from Spain rams for breeding at a talent each, that is, about two hundred and forty-one pounds sterling.^[1130]

Horses were at all times few, and, consequently, dear in Greece; they were, therefore, seldom employed in agriculture, but bred and kept chiefly for the army, for religious pomps and processions, and for the chariot races at Olympia. Originally, no doubt, the horse was introduced from Asia, and, up to a very late period, chargers of great beauty and spirit, continued to be imported from the shores of the Black Sea.^[1131] Princes, in the Homeric age, appear to have obtained celebrity for the beauty of their steeds, as Laomedon, Tros, and Rhesos; and it was customary for them to possess studs of brood mares in the rich pasture lands on the sea-shore. That of Priam, for example, lay at Abydos, on the Hellespont.^[1132]

The high estimation in which horses^[1133] were held in remote antiquity, may be gathered from the numerous 281fables invented respecting them,—as that of the centaurs in Thessaly, of the winged courser of Bellerophontes, and the Muses, and of the marvellous steeds presented by Poseidon to Peleus on his marriage with Thetis. They were reckoned, likewise, among the most precious victims offered in sacrifice to the gods. Thus we find the Trojans plunging live horses into the whirlpool of the Scamander^[1134] to deprecate the anger of that divinity. The Romans, likewise, in later times, sacrificed horses to the ocean;^[1135] and, in many parts of Asia, it appears to have been customary in nearly all ages, to offer up, as anciently in Laconia,^[1136] this magnificent animal on the altars of the sun.^[1137] Thus, among the Armenians, whose breed, though smaller than that of the Persians, was far more spirited, this practice prevailed as it still does in Northern India, and Xenophon,^[1138] a religious man, observes in the Anabasis, that he gave his steed, worn down with the fatigues of the march, to be fed and offered up by the Komarch, with whom he had been for some days a guest. From Homer’s account of Pandarus we may infer, that the possessors of fine horses often submitted to great personal inconvenience rather than hazard the well-being of their favourites. For this wealthy prince,^[1139] who possessed eleven carriages 282and twenty-two steeds, came on foot to the assistance of Priam, lest they should not find a plentiful supply of provender at Troy.

Several countries were famous^[1140] for their breed of horses, as Cyrene, Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, and the Phasis.^[1141] Thessaly, too, particularly the neighbourhood of Triccæ, abounded in barbs, as did likewise Bœotia. But one of the most remarkable races was that produced in Nisæon,^[1142] a district of Media, which seems to have been white, or of a bright cream colour,^[1143] and of extraordinary size and swiftness. On one of these Masistios^[1144] was mounted during the expedition into Greece. Apollo, in an oracle is said to have spoken of the beauty of mares, alluding, perhaps, to those of Elis, which were remarkable for their lightness and elegance of form; and Aristotle celebrates a particular mare of Pharsatis, called Dicæa, which was famous for bringing colts resembling their sires.^[1145] Among the Homeric chiefs, Achilles and Eumelos boasted the noblest coursers, as we learn from a picturesque and striking passage in the Catalogue:^[1146] “And now, O Muse, declare, which of the leaders and their horses were most illustrious. Excepting those of Achilles, the finest steeds before Troy were those of Eumelos from Pheræ, swift as birds, alike in mane, in age, and so equal in size, that a rule would stand level on their backs. They were both bred by Apollo in Pieria, both mares, and they bore with them the dread of battle. Noblest of all, however, 283were the coursers of Achilles. But he, in his lunar-prowed, sea-passing ships remains incensed against Atreides, the shepherd of his people; his myrmidons amuse themselves on the sea-shore with pitching the quoit, launching the javelin, and drawing the bow; their horses, standing beside the chariots, feed upon lotus, trefoil and marsh parsley; and the chariots themselves, well covered with hangings, are drawn up in the tents of the chiefs, while the soldiers, sighing for the leading of their impetuous general, stroll carelessly through the camp without joining in the war.”

The food of the Homeric horses,^[1147] was little inferior to that of their masters, since, besides the natural delicacies of the meadows, they were indulged with sifted barley and the finest wheat.^[1148] The halter with which, while feeding, they were tied to the manger seems usually to have been of leather. Aristotle,^[1149] remarks, that horses are fattened less by their food than by what they drink, and that, like the camel,^[1150] they delight in muddy water, on which account they usually trouble the stream before they taste it.

The Greek conception of equine beauty^[1151] differed 284but little from our own, since they chiefly loved horses of those colours which are still the objects of admiration: as snow-white, with black eyes like those of Rhesos, which Plato thought the most beautiful; cream-coloured, light bay, chestnut, and smoky grey. They judged of the breeding of a horse by the shortness of its coat and the dusky prominence of its veins. As a fine large mane greatly augments the magnificent appearance of this animal, they were careful after washing to comb and oil it^[1152] while they gathered up the forelock in a band of gilded leather.^[1153] The floors of their stables were commonly pitched with round pebbles bound tight together by curbs of iron.^[1154]

Horses were usually broken^[1155] by professed grooms, who entered into a written agreement with the owners implicitly to follow their directions.^[1156] The process was sufficiently simple. They began with the year-and-a-half colts,^[1157] on which they put a halter when feeding, while a bridle was hung up close to the manger, that they might be accustomed to the touch of it, and not take fright at the jingling of the bit.^[1158] The next step was to lead them into the midst of noisy and tumultuous crowds in order to discover whether or not they were bold enough to be employed in war.^[1159] The operation was not completely finished till they were three years old. When, on the course or elsewhere, horses had been well sweated,^[1160] they were led into a place set apart for 285the purpose, and, in order to dry themselves, made to roll in the sand. It was customary for owners to mark their horses with the Koppa,^[1161] or other letter of the alphabet, whence they were sometimes called Koppatias, Samphoras, &c.

The mule and the ass were much employed in rural labours, the former both at the cart and the plough, the latter in drawing small tumbrils, and in bearing wood^[1162] or other produce of the farm to the city.^[1163] The wild ass^[1164] was sometimes resorted to for improving the breed of mules, which, in the Homeric age, were found in a state of nature among the mountains of Paphlagonia.^[1165]

But their cares extended even to swine, which, if King Ptolemy may be credited, were sometimes distinguished in Greece for their great size and beauty. He, in fact, observes in his Memoirs, that in the city of Assos he saw a milk-white hog two cubits and a half in length, and of equal height; and adds, that King Eumenes had given four thousand drachmæ, or nearly two hundred pounds sterling, for a boar of this enormous size, to improve the breed of pigs in his country.^[1166] So that we perceive those great generals, whom posterity usually contemplates only in the cabinet or in the battle-field, were, at the same time, in their domestic policy, the rivals of the Earls Spencer and Leicester. Superstition, among the Cretans, prevented the improvement of bacon; for as a sow was said to have suckled the 286infant Jupiter, and defended his helpless infancy, they, in gratitude,^[1167] abstained from hog’s flesh.

In all farms the care of cattle necessarily formed a principal employment. The oxen^[1168] were used in ploughing, treading out the corn, drawing manure to the fields, and bringing home the produce of the harvest. To prevent their being overcome by fatigue while engaged in their labours, the husbandmen of Greece had recourse to certain expedients, one of which was, to smear their hoofs with a composition of oil and terebinth, or wax, or warm pitch:^[1169] while, to protect them from flies, their coats were anointed with their own saliva, or with a decoction of bruised laurel berries and oil.^[1170] Their milch cows, in the selection of which much judgment was displayed,^[1171] were commonly fed on cytisus and clover; and, still further to increase their milk, bunches of the herb dittany were sometimes tied about their flanks. The usual milking-times^[1172] were, in the morning immediately after the breaking-up of the dawn, and in the evening about the close of twilight; though, occasionally, both cows, sheep, and goats were milked several times during the day. In weaning calves they made use of a species of muzzle,^[1173] as the Arabs do in the case of young camels. Their pails, like our own, were of wood,^[1174] but somewhat differently shaped, being narrow above, and spreading towards the bottom. When conveyed into the dairy the milk 287was poured into pans,^[1175] on the form of which I have hitherto found no information.^[1176] That they skimmed their milk is evident (whatever they may have done with the cream), from the mention of that thin pellicle which is found on it only when skimmed, whether scalded or not. “Here, drink this!” said Glycera to Menander, when he had returned one day in exceeding ill-humour from the theatre. “I don’t like the wrinkled skin,” replied the poet to the lady, whose beauty, it must be remembered, was at this time on the wane. “Blow it off,” replied she, immediately comprehending his meaning, “and take what is beneath.”^[1177] Milk, in those warm latitudes, grows sour more rapidly than with us; but the ancients observed that it would keep three days when it had been scalded, and stirred until cold with a reed or ferula.^[1178]

The Greeks of classical times appear to have made no use of butter,^[1179] though so early as the age of Hippocrates they were well enough acquainted with its existence and properties.^[1180] Even in the present day butter is much less used in Greece than in most European countries, its place being supplied by fine olive oil. For cheese, however, they seem to have entertained a partiality, though it is probable that the best they could manufacture would have lost very considerably in comparison with good Stilton or Cheshire, not to mention Parmasan. It was a favourite food, however, among soldiers in Attica, who during war used to supply themselves both with 288cheese and meal.^[1181] Their cheese-lope or rennet in most cases resembled our own, consisting of the liquid substance found in the ruen of new-born animals, as calves, kids, or hares, which was considered superior to lamb’s rennet.^[1182] Occasionally they employed for the same purpose burnt salt or vinegar, fowl’s crop or pepper, the flowers of bastard saffron, or the threads which grow on the head of the artichoke. For these again, was sometimes substituted the juice of the fig-tree;^[1183] or a branch freshly cut^[1184] was used in stirring the milk while warming on the fire. This cheese would seem, for the most part, to have been eaten while fresh and soft,^[1185] like that of Neufchatel, though they were acquainted with various means of preserving it for a considerable space of time. Acidulated curds were kept soft by being wrapped in the leaves of the terebinth tree, or plunged in oil, or sprinkled with salt. When desirous of preserving their cheese for any length of time, they washed it in pure water, and, after drying it in the sun, laid it upon earthen jars with thyme and summer savory. Some other kinds were kept in a sort of pickle, composed of sweet vinegar or oxymel or sea-water, which was poured into the jars until it entirely penetrated and covered the whole mass. When they wished to communicate a peculiar whiteness to the cheese, they laid it up in brine. Dry cheese was rendered more solid and sharp-tasted by being placed within reach of the smoke. If from age it were hard or bitter, 289it was thrown into a preparation of barley-meal, then soaked in water, and what rose to the top was skimmed off.^[1186]

That the milk-women in Greece understood all the arts of their profession may be gathered from the instructions which have been left us on the best methods of detecting the presence of water in milk. If you dip a sharp rush into milk, says Berytios, and it run off easily, there is water in it. And again, if you pour a few drops upon your thumb-nail, the pure milk will maintain its position, while the adulterated will immediately glide away!^[1187]

Their mode of fattening cattle^[1188] was as follows: first they fed them on cabbage chopped small and steeped in vinegar, to which succeeded chaff and gurgions during five days. This diet was then exchanged for barley, of which for nearly a week they were allowed four cotylæ a-day, the quantity being then gradually augmented for six other days. As of necessity the hinds were stirring early, the cattle began even in winter to be fed at cock-crowing; a second quantity of food was given them about dawn, when they were watered, and their remaining allowance towards evening. In summer their first meal commenced at day-break, the second at mid-day, and the third about sunset. They were at this time of the year suffered to drink at noon and night of water rendered somewhat tepid; in winter it was considerably warmer.

About Mossynos, in Thrace, cattle were sometimes fed upon fish, which was likewise given to horses, and even to sheep. Herodotus, who mentions a similar fact, calls food of this description χόρτος, “fodder,”^[1189] though hay or dried straw was, doubtless, its original meaning. The provender of cattle in the district about Ænia appears to have been 290so wholesome, that the herds which fed upon it were never afflicted by the mange.^[1190]

Among the animals domesticated and rendered useful by the Greeks we must, doubtless, reckon bees,^[1191] which, in the heroic ages, had not yet been confined in hives. For, whenever Homer describes them, it is either where they are streaming forth from a rock,^[1192] or settling in bands and clusters on the spring flowers. So, likewise, in Virgil, they

Hunt the golden dew;

In summer time on tops of lilies feed,

And creep within their bells to suck the balmy seed.

In that Bœotian old savage, Hesiod,^[1193] however, we undoubtedly find mention of the hive where he is uncourteously comparing women to drones—

As when within their well-roofed hives the bees

Maintain the mischief-working drones at ease,

Their task pursuing till the golden sun

Down to the western wave his course hath run,

Filling their shining combs, while snug within

Their fragrant cells, the drones, with idle din,

As princes revel o’er their unpaid bowls,

On others’ labours cheer their worthless souls.

As the honey of Attica constantly, in antiquity, enjoyed the reputation of being the finest in the world,^[1194] the management of bees naturally formed in 291that country an important branch of rural economy. The natural history, moreover, of the bee was studied with singlar enthusiam by the Greeks in general. Aristomachos of Soli, devoted to it fifty-eight years, and Philiscos, the Thasian, who passed his life among bees in a desert, obtained on that account the name of the Wild Man. Both wrote on the subject.^[1195]

This branch of rural economy was carried to very great perfection in Attica. The vocabulary^[1196] connected with it was extensive, as every separate operation had its technical term, by the study of which, chiefly, an insight into their practice is obtained. Thus, from certain expressions employed by Aristotle^[1197] and Pollux, it seems clear that bee-managers, whom we may occasionally call melitturgi, constituted a separate division among the industrious classes; and these, instructed by constant experience, probably anticipated most of the improvements imagined in modern times. For example, instead of destroying the valuable and industrious little insects for the purpose of obtaining possession of their spoils, they in some cases compelled them by smoke to retire temporarily from the hive, whence their treasures were to be taken; and in the mining districts about Laureion they understood the art, concerning which, however, no particulars are known, of procuring the virgin honey pure and unsmoked.^[1198]

The grounds of a melitturgos or bee-keeper were 292chosen and laid out with peculiar care.^[1199] In a sheltered spot, generally on the thymy slope of a hill, the hives were arranged in the midst of flowers and odoriferous shrubs. And if the necessary kinds had not by nature been scattered there, they were planted by the gardener. Experience soon taught them what blossoms and flowers yielded the best honey,^[1200] and were most agreeable to the bees. These, in Attica, were supposed to be the wild pear-tree, the bean, clover, a pale-coloured vetch, the syria, myrtle, wild poppy, wild thyme, and the almond-tree.^[1201] To which may be added the rose, balm gentle, the galingale or odoriferous rush, basil royal, and above all the cytisus,^[1202] which begins to flower about the vernal equinox, and continues in bloom to the end of September.^[1203] Of all the plants, however, affected by the bee, none is so grateful to it as the thyme, which so extensively abounds in Attica and Messenia^[1204] as to perfume the whole atmosphere. In Sicily too, all the slopes and crests of its beautiful hills, from Palermo to Syracuse, are invested with a mantle of thyme,^[1205] and other odoriferous shrubs, which, according to Varro, gives the superior flavour to the Sicilian honey. Box-wood abounded on mount Cytoros, 293in Galatia, and in the island of Corsica, on which account the honey of the latter country was bitter.^[1206]

In selecting a spot for hives, the ancients observed a rule which I do not recollect to have been mentioned by modern bee-keepers, and that was to avoid the neighbourhood of an echo,^[1207] which by repeating their own buzzing and murmuring suggested the idea perhaps of invisible rivals. Place them not, says Virgil,^[1208]

Near hollow rocks that render back the sound,

And doubled images of voice rebound.

Care was taken to conduct near the hives small runnels of the purest water, not exceeding two or three inches in depth with shells or pebbles rising dry above the surface, whereon the bees might alight to drink.^[1209] When of necessity the apiary was situated 294on the margin of lakes or larger streams other contrivances were had recourse to for the convenience of the airy labourers.

Then o’er the running stream or standing lake

A passage for thy weary people make,

With osier floats the standing water strow,

Of massy stones make bridges if it flow,

That basking in the sun thy bees may lie

And resting there their flaggy pinions dry,

When late returning home the laden host

By raging winds is wrecked upon the coast.

Their hives were of various kinds and shapes. Some, like the modern Circassians, they made with fine wicker-work, of a round form and carefully plastered on the inside with clay.^[1210] Other hives were constructed of bark, especially that of the cork-tree, others of fig, oxya, beech, and pine-wood,^[1211] others, as now in Spain, of the trunk of a hollow tree, others of earthenware, as is the practice in Russia; and others again of plaited cane of a square shape, three feet in length and about one in breadth, but so contrived that, should the honey materials prove scanty, they might be contracted, lest the bees should lose courage if surrounded by a large empty space. The wicker-hives were occasionally plastered both inside and outside with cow-dung to fill up the cavities and smooth the surface.^[1212] A more beautiful species of hive was sometimes made with the lapis specularis,^[1213] which, being almost as transparent as glass, enabled the curious owner to contemplate the movements and works of the bees.^[1214] When finished, they were placed on projecting slabs, so as not to touch or be easily shaken. There were generally three 295rows of hives rising above each other like Egyptian tombs on the face of the wall, and there was a prejudice against adding a fourth.

The fences of apiaries were made high and strong to protect the inmates from the inroads of the bears,^[1215] which would otherwise have overthrown the hives and devoured all the combs.^[1216] Another enemy of the bee was the Merops,^[1217] which makes its appearance about Hymettos towards the end of summer.^[1218]

There were, in ancient times, two entrances, one on either hand, and on the top a lid, which the Melitturgos could remove when he desired to take the honey, or inspect the condition of the bees. The best of these lids were made of bark, the worst of earthenware, which were cold in winter, and in summer exceedingly hot.^[1219] It was considered necessary during spring and the succeeding season for the bee-keeper to inspect the hives thrice a month, to fumigate them slightly, and remove all filth and vermin. He was careful, likewise, to destroy the usurpers if there were more than one queen,^[1220] since, in Varro’s^[1221] opinion, they gave rise to 296sedition; but Aristotle thinks there ought to be several, lest one should die, and the hive along with it. Of the queen bees there are three kinds, the black, the ruddy, and the variegated; though Menecrates, who is good authority, speaks only of the black and variegated.^[1222] Aristotle, however, describes the reddish queen bee as the best. Even among the working insects there are two kinds, the smaller, in form round, and variegated in colour, the larger, which is the tame bee, less active and beautiful. The former, or wild bee,^[1223] frequents the mountains, forests, and other solitary places, labours indefatigably, and collects honey in great quantities; the latter, which feeds among gardens, and in man’s neighbourhood, fills its hive more slowly.^[1224] With respect to the drones, or males, which the working bees generally expel at a certain time of the year, the Attic melitturgi got rid of them in a very ingenious manner. It was observed, that these gentlemen though no way inclined to work, would yet occasionally, on very fine days, go abroad for exercise, rushing forth in squadrons, mounting aloft into the air, and there wheeling, and sporting, and manœuvring in the sun.^[1225] Taking advantage of their absence, they spread a fine net over the hive-entrance, the meshes of which, large enough to admit the bee, would exclude the drone. On returning, therefore, they found themselves, according to the old saying, “on the smooth side of the door,” and were compelled to seek fresh lodgings.^[1226]

In late springs, or when there is a drought or blight, the bees breed very little, but make a great deal of honey, whereas in wet seasons they keep more at home, and attend to breeding. Swarms in Greece^[1227] appeared about the ripening of the olive. 297Aristotle is of opinion, that honey is not manufactured by the bee, but falls perfectly formed from the atmosphere, more especially at the heliacal rising or setting of certain stars, and when the rainbow appears. He observes, too, that no honey is found before the rising of the Pleiades,^[1228] which happens about the thirteenth of May.^[1229] This opinion is in exact conformity with the fact, that at certain seasons of the year what is called the honey dew descends, covering thick the leaves of the oak, and several other trees, which at such times literally drop with honey. On these occasions the bees find little to do beyond the labour of conveying it to their cells, and, accordingly, have been known to fill the hive in one or two days. It has been observed, moreover, that autumn flowers, which yield very little fragrance, yield, also, little or no honey. In the kingdom of Pontos there was a race of white bees which made honey twice a month; and at Themiscyra there were those which built their combs both in hives and in the earth, producing very little wax, but a great deal of honey.^[1230]

298When the time of year arrived for robbing the bee, some hives were found to produce five, others ten, others fifteen quarts of honey, still leaving sufficient for winter consumption.^[1231] And in determining what quantity would suffice great judgment was required; for if too much remained the labourers grew indolent, if too little they lost their spirits. However, in this latter case the bee-keepers, having ascertained that they were in need of food, introduced a number of sweet figs, and other similar fruit into the hive, as now we do moist sugar in a split cane. Elsewhere the practice was to boil a number of rich figs in water^[1232] till they were reduced to a jelly, which was then formed into cakes and set near the hive. Together with this, some bee-keepers placed honey-water, wherein they threw locks of purple wool, on which the bees might stand to drink.^[1233] Certain melitturgi, desirous of distinguishing their own bees^[1234] when spread over the meadows, sprinkled them with fine flour. Mention is made of a person 299who obtained five thousand pounds’ weight of honey annually; and Varro^[1235] speaks of two soldiers who, with a small country house, and an acre of ground left them by their father, realised an independent fortune.

Theophrastus, in a fragment^[1236] of one of his lost works, speaks of three different kinds of honey, one collected from flowers, another which, according to his philosophy, descended pure from heaven, and a third produced from canes. This last, which was sometimes denominated Indian honey, is the sugar of modern times. There appear, likewise, to have been other kinds of sugar manufactured from different substances, as Tamarisk and Wheat.^[1237] The honey-dew, on the production of which the ancients^[1238] held many extraordinary opinions, was supposed to be superior to the nectar of the bee.

Amyntas, in his Stations of Asia, cited by Athenæus, gives a curious account of this sort of honey which was collected in various parts of the East, particularly in Syria. In some cases they gathered the leaves of the tree, chiefly the linden and the oak, on which the dew was most abundantly^[1239] found, and pressed them together like those masses of Syrian figs, which were called palathè. Others allowed it to drop from the leaves and harden into globules, which, when desirous of using, they broke, and, having poured water thereon in wooden bowls called tabaitas, drank the mixture. In the districts of Mount Lebanon^[1240] the honey-dew fell plentifully 300several times during the year, and was collected by spreading skins under the trees, and shaking into them the liquid honey from the leaves; they then filled therewith numerous vessels, in which it was preserved for use. On these occasions, the peasants used to exclaim, “Zeus has been raining honey!”

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