This branch of rural economy was carried to very great perfection in Attica. The vocabulary[1196] connected with it was extensive, as every separate operation had its technical term, by the study of which, chiefly, an insight into their practice is obtained. Thus, from certain expressions employed by Aristotle[1197] and Pollux, it seems clear that bee-managers, whom we may occasionally call melitturgi, constituted a separate division among the industrious classes; and these, instructed by constant experience, probably anticipated most of the improvements imagined in modern times. For example, instead of destroying the valuable and industrious little insects for the purpose of obtaining possession of their spoils, they in some cases compelled them by smoke to retire temporarily from the hive, whence their treasures were to be taken; and in the mining districts about Laureion they understood the art, concerning which, however, no particulars are known, of procuring the virgin honey pure and unsmoked.[1198] ----- Footnote 1196: Poll. i. 254. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 22. p. 109. Footnote 1197: Hist. Anim. v. 22. ix. 40. Etym. Mag. 458. 44. Footnote 1198: Τοῦ δὲ μέλιτος, ἀρίστου ὄντος τῶν πάντων τοῦ Ἀττικοῦ, πολὺ βέλτιστὸν φάσι τὸ ἐν τοῖς ἀργυρέοις, ὁ καὶ ἀκαπνίστον καλοῦσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ τρόποῦ τῆς σκευασίας. Strab. ix. 2. t. ii. p. 246.—Wheler describes the modern method observed by the Athenians in taking honey without destroying the bee, but in a style so lengthy and uncouth, that I must content myself with a reference to his travels. Book vi. p. 412, seq. -----