392 APPENDIX B. 



for fine tables, an extravagance with, which women reproach the 

 men when they complain of their vast outlay upon pearls. He 

 attributes the knots from which the tables are made to a disease 

 or excrescence of the roots, of which the most esteemed are 

 entirely concealed under ground, these being much more rare 

 than those which are produced above ground, and that are to be 

 found on the branches also. 



The principal merits of the tables were to have veins 

 arranged in waving lines, or forming spirals like whirlpools. 

 The former they called ' tiger ' and the latter ' panther ' tables ; 

 whilst others, which are highly esteemed, have markings re- 

 sembling the eyes on a peacock's tail. In others, again, called 

 ' apiatse,' the wood appears as if covered with dense masses 

 of grain. The most esteemed colour was that of wine mixed 

 with honey. 



In respect of their size, Pliny gives a little over 4 ft. as the 

 average maximum, though one that belonged to Ptolemseus, 

 King of Mauritania, was 4^ ft. in diameter and |^ of a foot in 

 thickness. It was formed of two semi-diameters so skilfully 

 united that the joining was concealed. Another, made of a 

 single piece, was named after Nonius, a freedman of Tiberius 

 Csesar, and was 4 ft. less | in. in diameter, and 5| inches in 

 thickness. And with regard to the price, Cicero paid a million 

 sesterces (9,000?.) for one; two belonging to King Juba were 

 sold by auction, one for one million two hundred thousand 

 sesterces, and the other for somewhat less. Some of Pliny's 

 statements are probably fabulous; as that the barbarians 

 bury the wood when green, first giving it a coating of wax, and 

 that the workmen, when it comes into their hands, put it for 

 seven days beneath a heap of corn, and then take it out for as 

 many more, after which it is surprising to find how much it has 

 lost in weight. More apocryphal still is his statement that it 

 is dried by the action of sea- water, and thereby acquires a 

 hardness and density that render it proof against corruption ; 

 also that, as if created for the behoof of wine, it receives no 

 injury from it.* 



In Marocco, where no ornament or article of luxury is 

 known, it need hardly be said that the Alerce wood is employed 

 only for building purposes and fire-wood ; though the resin 



' See Bosiock's translation of Pliny, vol. iii. p. 194, &c. 



