The bunches of grapes often attained a weight of twelve pounds. Walnuts were plentiful. Oranges were introduced at a later date. Among the vegetables grown were lentils (which were boiled and eaten with butter oil or fat and pepper), leeks, onions, beans, barley, lettuce, endive, purslane and other herbs. Vegetables were usually boiled as potage. The spices most in favor were cummin, dill, coriander, mint, mustard and salt. Cummin was threshed with a rod and with salt served as a sauce. Pistachio nuts and almonds were popular as whets. Salads were extensively known. Honey was used in some cakes as a substitute for sugar. It was also eaten raw or with other articles of food, even fish. Various artificial productions made from fruits and the exudations of trees and shrubs bore the title of honey, the best known of which was the boiled down juice of the grape, then called "d'bash," known to modern Arabs as "dibs." "Butter and honey" and "milk and honey" are in Biblical language synonyms of the diet of prosperity. The butter then used differed from our own product inasmuch as the hot sun to which the cream was exposed when being churned rendered the completed article more liquid. Even to-day in some parts of the Orient the butter served to visiting Europeans has to be manufactured especially for them from cold cream. Cheese consisted of coagulated buttermilk, dried until hard and then ground. Oil was made from various vegetables, but that of the olive was most esteemed. Wine and water were carried in vessels made of the skins of goats, kids or other clean animals. After the animal had been killed, the head, feet and tail were cut off and the body was drawn out of the skin, which was then tanned (acacia bark being sometimes called into service). The hairy part of the skin formed the exterior of the vessel, the legs and the end of the tail being sewn up. When filled, the neck was tied up. An ox skin was used to make a "gerba" which formed a storage chamber for large quantities of liquor. One of average size contained sixty gallons. The milk of cows, sheep, camels and goats was drank. When fresh it was known as "khalab," when sour as "khema." The latter was used in the composition of salads and for cooking meats, etc. A strengthening beverage was made by heating milk over a slow fire and then adding a small piece of old khema or other acid to make it coagulate. Much of this was bottled and kept for future use. It was the universal refreshment offered strangers and the ancient Jew, like the modern Arab, refused to accept payment for it. The other drinks of the people were barley water; sherbet (made by partially dissolving fig cake in water); pomegranate wine; beer made from barley with herbs such as the lupin and skirret; honey, date, fig, millet and grape wines and a drink made by placing raisins in jars of water and burying them until fermentation had taken place. Water was imbibed in large quantities after meals.