[214] I have mentioned the antique picture before, that proves that the ancient Italians _horsed_ the boys and used the rod, just as was done ten years ago in England (and may be still in remote counties), as the best way of improving the memory. I have the authority of Pausanias, that boys used strings to set off their tops, and that young ladies played at what Scotch children call chuckie stanes, in Old Greece. [215] Pantænus, the brother of Phidias, used a plaster or stucco in the Temple of Minerva at Elis, mixed with milk. This should be something like the beautiful marble-like stucco or _chunam_-work of India. I once saw a floor laid at Madras, among the materials of which were jaggree, or coarse sugar water and milk. Ram Raz, in his treatise on Hindu Architecture, says: “_Chunam_, intended for fine plastering and ornamental works, is ground by women on an oblong granite stone, and a cylindrical upper stone about four inches in diameter; the mixture is sometimes ground two, three, and four times, to bring it to the required fineness and purity. In all the operations of _chunam_-work, _jaggery_ water, i. e. a solution of molasses or coarse sugar, is invariably added by the builders, and its use appears to have prevailed from the remotest ages. There are various opinions among the modern practitioners regarding its usefulness, but those who have had the most extensive practice in building hold it as an indispensable ingredient in the formation of a durable and hard cement; and it is stated that the operator evidently perceives the dissolvent property of the _jaggery_ water, on its being tempered with the prepared mortar.” [216] I must make an undignified, though I believe an intelligible, comparison--the plaster is very like that applied to wooden dolls of the old school, and which children used to call _alabaster_. I believe it was made of finely pounded marble, and was largely used in the manufacture of Saints for Roman Catholic churches. [217] Our sycamore is a maple, and its fruit is not eatable. [218] Book xiii. ch. 7. [219] Book xvi. ch. 39. [220] Theophrastus died B.C. 208 years, at the age of 107. [221] Cennino Cennini trattato della Pittura, ch. 6. [222] In the 13th book and 12th chapter of Pliny’s Natural History, he tells us the size or paste used by bookbinders was made with fine wheaten flour, boiling water, and a little vinegar, which is our common shoemaker’s paste. And in book xi., chapter 39, we learn that the stronger glue was made, as now, of the hides of cattle boiled down. He says _bull’s_ hide makes the strongest glue. The ancients seem to take some strange things for granted. A bull is stronger than a cow--therefore--his hide makes stronger glue. An English mechanic would have tried the experiment. [223] This tallies with Erasmus’ description of English houses at nearly the same period, in one of his letters. [224] This white is phosphate of lime.