At Rome they had an expensive, but, as they thought, effective process of preparing pears, apples, plums, figs, cherries, &c., &c., and which was as follows:-- The fruit was chosen with great care, and put, with the stalks attached, into honey, leaving to each one sufficient space to prevent their touching each other.[XI-19] Our housewives of the 19th century may, perhaps, be curious to try this Roman experiment, if the quantity of honey which it requires does not frighten them. XII. STONE FRUIT. OLIVE TREE. Throughout antiquity we find the olive tree acknowledged as something venerable and holy, and taking precedence of all other trees, even the most useful on account of their nourishing fruits, or the refreshing drink they furnished. The wise Minerva gave it birth;[XII-1] and its foliage, which adorned the brows of the goddess,[XII-2] served, thenceforth, to crown victory,[XII-3] or to give rise to the sweet hopes of peace.[XII-4] A green bough of olive rendered the suppliant inviolable.[XII-5] The deadly arrows of Hercules were made of its wood.[XII-6] From it princes borrowed their sceptre[XII-7] and the shepherd his crook.[XII-8] If, abandoning mythological fictions which surround the olive with a charming but false poetry, we interrogate history for more certain information concerning this revered tree, we shall find that Diodorus, of Sicily, informs us Minerva discovered and made known to the Athenians its useful qualities.[XII-9] And a writer, in whose possession the most ancient records in the world were found--Moses--who has recounted the birth of vegetation,[XII-10] tells us also of a patriarch pouring purified oil on a stone altar,[XII-11] before the olive tree was known in Athens--nay, before Athens existed. Profane historians honour Aristeus, son of Apollo, and King of Arcadia, with the invention of oil mills, and the manner of procuring the precious fluid,[XII-12] the abundance of which was such, in the East, that it was used in lamps,[XII-13] in anointing,[XII-14] in seasoning of dishes,[XII-15] and in numerous other instances too long to enumerate.[XII-16] Thus the most important culture among the Jews was that of the olive tree. There were large plantations of it in all the provinces: Galilea, Samaria, and Judea, were full of them.[XII-17] It must not, however, be thought the Hebrews used olives only to make oil; they knew how to preserve them in brine, to be eaten at table, and for sale to strangers. Pliny particularly extols those of Decapolis, a province of the Holy Land: “They are very small,” he says, “not larger than capers; but are much esteemed.”[XII-18] Among the Greeks, the oil of Samos was considered to be the purest and finest:[XII-19] next to it they gave preference to that of Caria or of Thurium.[XII-20]