Jemaleddin. Maured Allatafet, p. 7. All these vines it will be remembered were cut down by order of the Caliph Beamrillah, even in the province of the Fayoum. Some vestiges, however, of vineyards were here discovered by Pococke. “I observed,” says he, “about this lake (Mœris) several roots in the ground, that seemed to me to be the remains of vines, for which the country about the lake was formerly famous. Where there is little moisture in the air, and it rains so seldom, wood may remain sound a great while, though it is not known how long these vineyards have been destroyed.” Vol. i. p. 65. Footnote 1501: Though with regard to the nature of the wine itself we are told, that it was so light as to be given to persons in fevers,—ὁ δὲ κατὰ τὴν Θηβαΐδα, καὶ μάλιστα ὁ κατὰ τὴν Κόπτον πόλιν, οὕτως ἐστὶ λεπτὸς, καὶ εὐανάδοτος, καὶ ταχέως πεπτικὸς, ὡς τοῖς πυρεταίνουσι διδόμενος μὴ βλάπτειν. Athen. i. 60. Footnote 1502: Athen. i. 60. Horat. Od. i. 37. 14. Strab. xvii. 1. t. iii. p. 425. Footnote 1503: Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 5. Varro, i. 7. Footnote 1504: Geop. v. 1. 15. Cf. Geop. iii. 2. “The shifting of ground is a means to better the tree and fruit, but with this caution, that all things do prosper best when they are advanced to the better.” Bacon, “Sylva Sylvarum,” 439. ----- Much judgment was thought to be required in selecting the site of a vineyard, though almost everything depended on the climate and general configuration of the district in which it was situated. Thus in warm countries, as in the Pentapolis of Cyrene, the vineyards sloped towards the north; in Laconia, they occupied the eastern face of Mount Taygetos, while in Attica and the islands, the hills often appear to have been encircled with vines. Upon the whole, however, those were most esteemed which looked towards the rising sun and enjoyed, without obstruction, the first rays of the morning.[1505] And this also is the case in the Côte d’Or, where the best wines, as the Chambertin, the Vin de Beaune, and that of the Clos Vougeot, are grown on eastern declivities. In some parts of Greece, the vine was strongly affected by the prevalence of certain winds, as those of the east and the west in Thessaly, which in the forty cold days of winter were attended by frost that killed its upper extremities, and sometimes the whole trunk. At Chalcis, in Eubœa likewise, the Olympias, a western wind, parched and shrivelled, or, as the Greeks express it, burnt up the leaves, sometimes completely destroying the shrub itself.[1506] In such situations it was accordingly found necessary to protect it by a covering[1507] during the prevalence of cold winds. At Methana, in Argolis, when the south-east in spring blew up the Saronic gulf,[1508] the inhabitants, to defend them from it, spread over their vines the invisible teguments of a spell; which was effected in the following manner: taking a milk-white cock, and cutting