But all the produce of the vineyards was not appropriated to the making of wine, great quantities of grapes[1597] being preserved for the table, or converted into raisins.[1598] The latter were sometimes made by being carefully gathered after the full moon, and put out to dry in the sun, about ten o’clock in the morning, when all the dew was evaporated. For this purpose, there was in every vineyard, garden, and orchard, a place called Theilopedon,[1599] which would seem to have been a smooth raised terrace, where not grapes only, but myrtle-berries, and every other kind of fruit, were exposed to the sun on fine hurdles. Here, likewise, the berries of the Palma Christi[1600] were prepared for the making of castor oil. Another method was to twist the stem of the cluster[1601] and allow the grapes to dry on the vine. They were then laid up in vessels among vine leaves, dried also in the sun, covered close with a stopper, and deposited in a cold room free from smoke. ----- Footnote 1597: Geop. iv. 15. Cato, 7. Colum. xii. 39. Pallad. 11. 22. Footnote 1598: In the warm climate of Asia Minor grapes were sometimes turned into raisins, on the stalk, by the sun.—Chandler, i. 77. Footnote 1599: Eustath. ad Odyss. η. p. 276. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 51. κρεμάθρα. fruit-baskets, 219. Footnote 1600: Dioscor. i. 38. Footnote 1601: Geop. v. 52. This we find is still the practice in the islands of the Archipelago, for the purpose of making sweet wine. M. l’ Abbé della Rocca, who mentions it, enumerates at the same time the most delicious sorts of grapes now cultivated in Greece—“On peut juger si les vins y sont exquis, et si les anciens eurent raison d’appeller Naxie l’île de Bacchus. Les raisins y sont monstrueux, et il arrive souvent que dans un repas, on n’en sert qu’un seul pour le fruit; mais aussi couvre-t-il toute la profondeur d’un grand bassin: les grains en sont gros comme nos damas noirs. Il y a dans les îles des raisins de plus de vingt sortes: les muscats de Ténédos et de Samos l’emportent sur tous les autres; ceux de Ténédos sont plus ambrés; ceux de Samos, plus délicats. Les Sentorinois, pour donner une saveur plus exquise à leurs raisins, leur tordent la queue lorsqu’ils commencent à mûrir; après quelques jours d’un soleil ardent, les raisins deviennent à demi flétris, ce qui fait un vin dont ceux de la Cieutat et de Saint-Laurent n’approchent pas. Les autres sortes de raisins sont _l’aïdhoni_, petit raisin blanc qu’on mange vers la mi-juillet; le _samia,_ gros raisin blanc qu’on fait sécher; le siriqui, ainsi nommé parce qu’il a le goût de la cerise; _l’ætonychi_, qui a la figure de l’ongle d’un aigle, et qui est très savoureux; le malvoisie, le muscat violet, le corinthe, et plusieurs autres dont les noms me sont échappés.” Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 6, seq. Speaking of the prodigious productiveness of vines, Columella mentions one which bore