BOOK X. XV. 38-42 



must and olive oil — it is called honey-vinegar — is the 

 most commendable. All summer honey is reddish, 

 as it has been made in a comparatively dry period. 

 White honey is not made where there is thyme, but 

 honey made from thyme is thought most suitable for 

 the eyes and for ulcers — it is of a gold colour and has 

 an extremely agreeable taste. The fat honey from 

 violets and the thick kind from rosemary can be seen 

 to condense, but honey that thickens is least 

 praised. Honey from thyme does not condense, and 

 when touched sends out very thin threads, which is 

 the first proof of goodness ; it is considered a mark 

 of poor quaUty for the drops to break off at once and 

 fall back. The next test is for it to have a fragrant 

 scent and a sweet taste leaving a tang, and to be 

 sticky and transparent. Cassius Dionysius holds that 

 a tenth part of the summer honey-crop should be left 

 to the bees, if the hives were full, and that if they 

 were not, a proportionate amount should be left, 

 or if they were enipty, they should not be touched 

 at all. The population of Attica have given the 

 first ripening of the wild fig " as the signal for this 

 vintage, but others say Vulcan's holy day.* 



A third, very little valued, kind of honey is wild wmhoney 

 honey, called heath-honey. It is collected after "-^ "'""'""• 

 the first autmnn rains, when only the heath is in 

 fiower in the woods, and consequently it resembles 

 sandy honey. It is produced mostly by the rise of 

 Arcturus after September 12. Some people advance 

 the summer honey-making to the rise of Ai'cturus, 

 since that leaves foui-teen days to the autumnal 

 equinox, and in the forty-eight days from the 

 equinox to the setting of the Pleiads heath is most 

 plentiful. The Athenian name for it is teiralice, and 



