In the preparation of mortar and cement the Greeks exhibited extraordinary ingenuity.[1007] They made use, in the first place, of lime procured by burning coarse marble in the ordinary way, or, secondly, obtained from sea-shells, or stones picked up on the banks of rivers. A superior kind of cement was made from those stones used in the manufacture of gypsum, which was so firm and durable, that it was frequently found to outlast the materials which it had been employed to unite. It was prepared by being reduced to powder, and mixed with water, and afterwards well stirred with a piece of wood, since it was too hot to admit of the hands being used. When removed from old walls it might be burnt and prepared a second and a third time, as originally from the stone.[1008] This, in Syria and Phœnicia, was used in facing the walls of houses, and in Italy for whitening them, as well as in the making of various mouldings and ornaments within.[1009] ----- Footnote 1007: On one occasion, moreover, when they happened to be in lack of hods, they gave proof of no less ingenuity in their mode of carrying mortar. In the hasty construction of the fortress of Pylos, by Demosthenes and his companions, the soldiers took the mud, which was to serve as cement, on their bare backs, stooping forward that it might not fall off, and knotting their hands on their loins beneath their burden: καὶ τὸν πηλὸν, εἴπου δέοι χρῆσθαι, ἀγγείων ἀπορίᾳ, ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου ἔφερον, ἐγκεκυφότες τε, ὡς μάλιστα μέλλοι ἐπιμένειν, καὶ τὼ χεῖρε ἐς τοὐπίσω ξυμπλέκοντες, ὅπως μὴ ἀποπίπτοι. Thucyd. iv. 4. The reader will, doubtless, be struck by the picturesque energy with which the great historian relates this humble fact. Footnote 1008: Theoph. de Lapid. § 65, sqq. The κονία, or stucco, was likewise called ἀσβέστος. A wall covered with this substance was called κεκονιαμένος τοῖχος. Schol. ad Theocrit. i. 31. Footnote 1009: Theoph. de Lapid. § 67. ----- Frequently, also, it appears to have been employed like plaster of Paris in the casting of statues, as was that composed of powdered marble, in repairing such as by accident had been broken. An example of this was observed in the cheek of a sphynx dug up in the island of Capri.[1010] Instead of water, however, a tough glue, composed of the hides and horns of bulls, was employed in mixing it.[1011] ----- Footnote 1010: Winkelm. Hist de l’Art, ii. 81. Footnote 1011: Dioscor. v. 164. ----- In the roofing of houses pantiles were commonly made use of;[1012] instead of which, as they were fragile and easily broken by hailstones, tiles of Pentelic marble, invented by Byzes of Naxos,[1013] were often substituted in the case of temples, as that for example of Zeus at Olympia. It is mentioned incidentally by Dioscorides, that physicians used to reduce acacia-wood to powder by burning it in the tile-kilns.[1014] ----- Footnote 1012: Luc. Contemplant. § 6. Footnote 1013: