BOOK XIV. XXI. 115-XX11. 118 



a year, except those which we have stated to be 

 actually the products of age, and that the larger 

 number of them will not keep even a month, 



XXII. Even wine contains miraculous properties Wineswith 

 One grown in Arcadia is said to produce abihty to ^roperties 

 bear children in women and madness in men ; where- 

 as in Achaia, particularly in the neighbourhood of 

 Carynia, there is a wine that is reported to prevent 

 child-bearing, and this even if women eat the grapes 

 when they are pregnant, although these do not differ 

 in taste from ordinary grapes. It is said that per- 

 sons who drink the wine of Troezen cannot become 

 parents. The people of Thasos are reported to 

 make two difFerent kinds of wine, a wine that brings 

 sleep and another that banishes sleep. The same 

 place has a vine called in Greek the ' wikl-animal 

 vine,'^ the wine made from which and also its 

 grapes cure snake-bites, and another the ' frankin- 

 cense vine,' with a scent Hke that of incense, the 

 wine from which is used for hbations to the gods. 

 That of the vine called * unconsecrated,' ^ on the 

 contrary, is banned from the altars ; also it is said 

 that no bird will touch it. Egypt gives the name of 

 wine of Thasos ' to an extremely sweet native vin- 

 tage which causes diarrhoea ; while Lycia on the 

 contrary has one that has an astringent effect on the 

 bowels. Egypt also possesses a wine called in Greek 

 ' dehvery wine ' which causes abortion. There are 

 certain wines that, while stored in wine-lofts alter in 

 quahty at the rising of the Dog-star and afterwards 

 change back again ; the same is the case with wines 

 shipped over sea, and it is observed that the effect of 

 the motion on vintages that can stand it is merely to 

 double their previous maturity. 



263 



