BOOK XV. viT. 31-V11T. 34 



The most apppoved kind comes from the Bruttian 

 land ; the pitch there is very rich and full of resin. 

 The colour of pitch-oil is reddish yellow. There is an 

 oil that grows of its own accord in thc coastal parts 

 of Syria called elaeomeli." It is a rich oil that trickles 

 from trees, of a substance thicker than honey but 

 thinner than resin, and having a sweet flavour ; this 

 also is used by the doctors. There is also a use of 

 old olive-oil for certain kinds of diseases, and it is 

 also deemed to be serviceable for preserving ivory 

 from decay : at all events, the inside of the statue of 

 Saturn at Rome has been filled with oil. 



Vm. But it is above all to the lees of oHve-oil that ^'«^ 0/ 

 Cato has devoted his praises : he tells how vats and S.^^cxxx, 

 casks to hold oil are steeped in lees to prevent their xt;i-ff- 

 soaking up the oil ; how threshing-floors are given a 

 dressing of lees to keep away ants and to prevent 

 cracks ; and moreover how the clay of the walls and 

 the plaster and flooring of granaries, and even cup- 

 boards for clothes, are sprinkled with lees, and how 

 seed-corn is steeped in them, as a protection 

 against wood-worms and injurious insects. He speaks 

 of its use as a remedy for diseases of animals and also 

 of trees, and also as a specific against ulceration of 

 the mouth in human beings. He says that reins and 

 all leather articles, and shoes and the axles of wheels 

 are greased with boiled lees, and so are copper 

 vessels to keep off verdigris and to give them a 

 more attractive colour, and all wooden utensils and 

 earthenware jars used for keeping dried figs in, or 

 it may be sprays of myrtle with their leaves and 

 berries on them or anything else of a similar kind. 

 Finally he states that logs of wood steeped in olive- 

 lees will burn without any annoying smoke. 



