Damascenes were kept in must or sweet wine, as were also pears, adding sometimes a little salt and jujubes, with leaves, above and below. The same course was pursued with apples and quinces, which communicated to the liquor additional durability and the most exquisite fragrance. Quinces, whose sharp effluvia prevented their being placed with other fruit, were often put into closely-covered jars, and kept floating in wine to which they imparted a delicious perfume. The same custom was observed with respect to figs, which were cut off on the bearing branch a little before they were ripe, and hung, so as not to touch each other, in a square earthen jar. Upon the same principle apples were preserved in jars hermetically sealed, which, for the sake of coolness, were plunged in cisterns or deep wells.[1618] ----- Footnote 1611: Palladius, iv. 10. Footnote 1612: We find mention in modern times of a species of pomegranate, the kernels of which are without stones, peculiar apparently to the island of Scio. “It is usual to bring them to table, in a plate, sprinkled with rose-water.” Chandler, i. 58. Footnote 1613: Cf. Philost. Icon. t. 31. p. 809. ii. 2. p. 812. Footnote 1614: Ficus virides servari possunt vel in melle ordinatæ, ne se invicem tangant, vel singulæ intra viridem cucurbitam clausæ, locis unicuique cavatis, et item tessera, quæ secatur, inclusis, suspensa ea cucurbita, ubi non sit ignis vel fumus. Pallad. iv. 10. Footnote 1615: Cato, 7. Varro. i. 59. Colum. xii. 14. Footnote 1616: Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 755. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. ii. 61. Footnote 1617: Phot. ap. Brunckh. ad Aristoph. Pac. 574. Footnote 1618: Pallad. iii. 25. ----- It may, perhaps, be worth while to mention, in passing, that, like ourselves, the ancients possessed the art of extracting perry and cider[1619] from their pears and apples; and from pomegranates a species of wine which is said to have been of an extremely delicate flavour. The Egyptians, also, made wine from the fruit of the lotos.[1620] ----- Footnote 1619: Pallad. iii. 25. Colum. xii. 45. Footnote 1620: Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 3. i. ----- CHAPTER IV. STUDIES OF THE FARMER.