Chap. 24.] 
HOW MUST IS PUEPAIIED. 
263 
laxative qualities. On the other hand, there is in Lycia a 
certain grape which proves astringent to the stomach when 
relaxed. Egj^pt has a wine, too, known as ^^ecbolas,"* which 
is productive*^ of abortion. There are some wines, which at 
the rising of the Dog-star change their nature in the wine- 
lofts^ where they are kept, and afterwards recover^ their 
original quality. The same is the case, too, with wines when 
carried across the seas : those that are able to withstand the 
motion of the Waves, appear afterwards to be twice as old as 
they really are. 
CHAP. 23, (19.) WHAT WINES IT IS NOT LAWFUL TO USE IN THE 
SACEED EITES. 
As religion is the great basis of the ordinary usages of life, 
I shall here remark that it is considered improper to offer 
libations to the gods with any Avines which are the produce of 
an unpruned vine, or of one that has been struck by lightning, 
or near to which a dead man has been hung, or of grapes that 
have been trodden out by sore feet, or made of must from 
husks that have been cut,^ or from grapes that have been 
polluted by the fall of any unclean thing upon them. The 
Greek wines are excluded also from the sacred ministrations, 
because they contain a portion of water. 
The vine itself is sometimes eaten; the tops of the shoots^ 
are taken off and boiled, and are then pickled in vinegar 
and brine. 
CHAP. 24. HOW MUST IS USUALLY PEEPAEEI). 
It will be as well now to make some mention of the methods 
^ From licpdXXo), to eject." ^ Apothecis. 
^ He alludes to the working of wines in periods of extreme heat ; also 
in the spring. 
' Of our modern wines, Madeira and Bourdeaux improve by being carried 
across sea. Burgundy, if any thing, deteriorates, by the diminution of its 
bouquet. 
^ After the grapes had been trodden and pressed, the husks were taken 
out and their edges cut, and then again subjected to pressure : the result 
was known as " tortivum," or " circumcisivum," a wine of very inferior 
quality. 
He alludes to the young shoots, w^hich have an agreeable acidity, 
owing to acetic and tartaric acids. 
^0 Acetic acid ; the result, no doubt, of the faulty mode of manufacture 
universally prevalent ; their wines contained evidently but little alcohol. 
