Chap. 25.] PITCH AX3 EESIN. 265 



All the above juices are liquid and of a resinous nature only, 

 but that of the cedar 19 is comparatively thick, and of a proper 

 consistency for making pitch. The Arabian resin » is of a 

 pale colour, has an acrid smell, and its fumes are stifling to 

 those employed in boiling it. That of Judaea is of a harder 

 nature, and has a stronger smell than that from the terebinth- 1 

 even. The Syrian 22 resin has all the appearance of Attic 

 honey, but that of Cyprus is superior to any other ; it is the^ 

 colour of honey, and is of a soft, fleshy nature. The resin of 

 Colophon 23 is yellower than the other varieties, but when 

 pounded it turns white; it has a stifling smell, for which 

 reason the perfumers do not employ it. That prepared in 

 Asia from the produce of the pitch-tree is very white, and is 

 known by the name of " spagas." 



All the resins are soluble in oil ; 25 some persons are of opi- 

 nion also that potters' chalk may be so dissolved : 26 I feel 

 ashamed 27 to avow that the principal esteem in which the 

 resins are held among us is as depilatories for taking the hair 

 off men's bodies. 



The method used for seasoning wines is to sprinkle pitch 

 in the must during the first fermentation, which never lasts 

 beyond nine days at the most, so that a bouquet is imparted 

 to the wine, 28 with, in some degree, its own peculiar piquancy 

 of flavour. It is generally considered, that this is done most 

 effectually by the use of raw flower 29 of resin, which imparts 

 a considerable degree of briskness to wine : while, on the 

 other hand, it is thought that crapula 30 itself, if mixed, tends 



19 See B. xiii. c.'ll, and B. xvi. c. 21. Not the cedar of Lebanon, 

 probably, which only gives a very small quantity of resin, but one of the 

 junipers. 



20 Fee suggests that this may have been the resin of the Arabian tere- 

 binth. 



21 See B. xxiv. c. 22. 



22 Perhaps from the Pistacia terebinthus of Linnaeus. 



23 This was made from the terebinth : but the modern resin of Colophon 

 is extracted from varieties of the coniferae. 



25 See B. xxiv. c. 22. 



26 Earths are not soluble in oils. 



27 As being a mark of extreme effeminacy. 



2S The greater the quantity of alcohol, the more resin the wine would 

 be able to hold in solution. 



» See B. xvi. c. 22. 



30 " Crapula" properly means head-ache, and what is not uncommonly 

 known as " seedness." Besined wine was thought to be productive of 



