Chap. 23.] HOW RESItf IS PREPARED. 363 



CHAP. 23. (12.) HOW THE RESIST CALLED ZOPISSA. IS PREPARED. 



We must not omit, too, that the Greeks call by the name of 

 zopissa 54 the pitch mixed with wax which has been scraped 

 from off the bottoms of sea-going ships ; 55 for there is nothing, 

 in fact, that has been left untried by mankind. This composi- 

 tion is found much more efficient for all those purposes in 

 which pitch and resin are employed, in consequence of the 

 superior hardness which has been imparted to it by the sea- 

 salt. 



The pitch-tree is opened 56 on the side that faces the sun, 

 not by means of an incision, but of a wound made by the re- 

 moval of the bark : this opening being generally two feet in 

 width and one cubit from the ground, at the very least, The 

 body of the tree, too, is not spared in this instance, as in others, 

 for even the very chips from off it are considered as having 

 their use ; those, however, from the lower part of the tree are 

 looked upon as the best, the wood of the higher parts giving 

 the resin a bitter 57 taste. In a short time all the resinous 

 juices of the entire tree come to a point of confluence in the 

 wound so inflicted : the same process is adopted also with the 

 torch-tree. When the liquid ceases to flow, the tree is opened 

 in a similar manner in some other part, and then, again, else- 

 where : after which the whole tree is cut down, and the pith 58 

 of it is used for burning. 59 



So, too, in Syria they take the bark from off the terebinth ; 

 and, indeed, in those parts they do not spare even the root or 

 branches, although in general the resin obtained from those 

 parts is held in disesteem. In Macedonia they subject the 

 whole of the male larch to the action of fire, but of the female 60 



54 Apparently meaning "boiled pitch." 



55 See B. xxiv. c. 26. 



56 This account has been borrowed from Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B ix. 

 c. ii. The modern method of extracting the resin of the pine is very 

 similar. 57 There is no foundation whatever for this statement. 



58 The pith of the pine cannot be separated from the wood, and, indeed, 

 is not easily distinguished from it. Fee says that in some of these trees 

 masses of resin are found in the cavities which run longitudinally with the 

 fibres, and queries whether this may not be the ''marrow" or "pith" of 

 the tree mentioned by Pliny. 59 As a torch or candle, probably. 



60 This division of the larch into sexes, as previously mentioned, is only 

 fanciful, and has no foundation in fact. The result of this operation, Fee 

 says, would be only a sort of tar. 



