The vintners and tavern-keepers, who were tolerably numerous in Greece,[477] appear to have acquired much the same reputation as they enjoy in modern times. It was regarded as a matter of some difficulty to discover a jar of pure wine beneath their roofs; and, indeed, the honest vine-growers of the country are accused of having understood the art of making Bacchos acquainted with the nymphs on his way to the city. In other words they sold from their waggons in the Agora[478] a certain quantity of the Ilissos, mingled with the juice of the grape. The tavern-keepers, however, stood in very little need of their assistance, since they were not merely adepts in watering and doctoring their wines, but were skilful at giving short measure;[479] and yet understood various contrivances for alluring people to their houses. Thus one of them, for example, used to present a club that dined at his tavern with a kid,[480] reckoning upon paying himself by the profits of the wine.[481] However, when an opulent and delicate company honoured them with their presence, they could, doubtless, supply wines of the finest flavour; and to render them still more delicious, they were accustomed in summer to plunge the flagons into snow,[482] or, occasionally, to mingle it with the wine, as is still the fashion at Naples and in Sicily. Taverns, therefore, were furnished with ice-cellars, where snow could be kept during the hottest weather. Alexander[483] found means of carrying along with him a quantity of this article of luxury into India, where he probably treated Taxilos and Poros with iced wines. This achievement was imitated many ages after by the Khalif Mahadi, who on his pilgrimage to Mecca traversed the desert accompanied by a numerous train of camels laden with ice and snow, the first, according to Oriental historians, ever beheld in the Holy Cities. In the island of Cimolos, people made use, as coolers, of deep pits, in which jars of soft and tepid water,[484] and, doubtless, wine also, were refrigerated.[485] ----- Footnote 477: At the doors of these establishments then were probably, as at Pompeii, holes bored through the stones of the foot pavement, raised considerably above the road, to receive the halters of horses or mules. Hamilton, Discov. at Pomp. p. 12. Footnote 478: Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 244, seq. Athen. x. 38. Footnote 479: Cf. Schol. Aristoph. Thesm. 744. Footnote 480: Others defrauded their customers by mixing mutton with kid. Schol. Arist. Eq. 1396. Footnote 481: Athen. xiii. 43. Footnote 482: Athen. iii. 97. Prodic. ap. Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 30. Footnote 483: Athen. iii. 97. Footnote 484: