2

1

still employed in the East: it consisted of two parts, the one hollowed out like a diminutive mortar, the other resembling a pestle, which was inserted into it, and turned round with extreme velocity until sparks were produced. This necessary piece of furniture was most commonly manufactured of ivy, or laurel, or clematis, and was something of the rhamnus ilex, or linden-tree; in short, of nearly all trees, except the olive. Generally, however, it was thought best to make the two parts of the instrument of different kinds of wood. It was observed that, with these contrivances, fire kindled more readily during the prevalence of the north than the south wind, and on high places than in hollows. At Rome the vestal virgins originated the sacred fire by means of a kind of mirror, and the power of burning-glasses was not unknown. Nay, things resembling our lucifer matches were possessed by certain jugglers, though they do not appear to have passed into general use, either because the inventors refused to divulge their secret, or from the natural slowness of mankind to profit by useful discoveries.*

3

3 Aristoph. Nub. 758. Cf. Orph. Lith. 171. p. 111.

4 Athen. i. 35.

176

CHAPTER V.

INDUSTRY: HOUSE-BUILDERS, CARPENTERS, CABINETMAKERS, TURNERS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENT-MAKERS, POTTERS, GLASS-WORKERS, ETC.

2

ANOTHER flourishing branch of industry was that of quarrying stones for building, carried on whereever marble, or freestone, or tufa, or granite, was found.1 The stones were usually fashioned by the axe, or saw, in the quarry, and drawn thence by ropes. In many cases, however, as where cheapness or despatch was aimed at, bricks were substituted," made, in addition to the materials at present employed, from powdered tufa.*

In the preparation of mortar and cement the Greeks exhibited extraordinary ingenuity. They made use, in the first place, of lime procured by burning coarse marble in the ordinary way, or, se

1 Winkel. Hist. de l'Art. i. 37. 2 Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 299.

3 Plato de Rep. t. vi. p. 15. Winkel. Hist. de l'Art, ii. 544. Goguet. iv. 11. Theoph. de Lapid. 48.

4 Winkelmann, ii. 544.

5 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: kai τὸν πηλὸν, εἴπου δέοι χρῆσθαι, ἀγγείων ἀπορίᾳ, ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου ἔφερον, εγκεκυφότες τε, ὡς μάτ λιστα μέλλοι ἐπιμένειν, καὶ τὰ χεῖρε ἐς τουπίσω 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.

condly, 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. This, in Syria and Phonicia, 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.o

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. Instead of water, however, a tough glue, composed of the hides and horns of bulls, was employed in mixing it.*

5

In the roofing of houses pantiles were commonly made use of; instead of which, as they were fragile and easily broken by hailstones, tiles of Pentelic marble, invented by Byzes of Naxos, were

6

3 Winkelm. Hist. de l'Art, ii. Képaμov.

4 Dioscor. v. 164.

5 Luc. Contemplant. § 6.

6 Of this Byzes, who lived in the age of Alyattes and Astyages, Pausanias gives the following account:-τὸ δὲ εὕρημα (viz. de

VOL. III.

De Situ Græciæ. v. 10. 3. Cf. Poll. i. 12. Another article produced by the same handicraftsmen was the chimney-pots, onaiaι, which appear to have been in almost universal use: οπαίαν οἱ ̓Αττικοὶ τὴν κεραμίδα

N

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.'

Respecting the business of house-painters our information is exceedingly scanty; we may infer, however, that they excelled in the imitation of woods and marbles, since they were employed in imitating on the polished surface of one stone the veins and colours characteristic of another. Some

persons covered the walls of their apartments with historical subjects, or landscapes, or the figures of animals in fresco.* In later ages ceilings were painted, or inlaid with coloured stones,5 or abaculi, so as to imitate the feathers and hues of a peacock's tail.

Timber for house-building, the choice of which was regulated by law, abounded in most parts of Greece, though the best and straightest was ob

ἐκάλουν, ἢ τὴν ἐπὴν εἶχεν. Poll. ii. 54. The nature of the onaia is more exactly explained by the author of the Etymologicon Magnum: κράτης δέ φησιν ἀνοπαῖαν τὴν τὲ τρημένην κεραμίδα τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς ὀροφῆς. iii. 21.

1 Dioscor. i. 133.

2 Winkelmann, ii. 68. Xenoph. Econom. i. 3, seq.

3 Dion Chrysost. i. 261. ii.

459.

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 153.

5 Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 353. Pollux. x. 84.

6 For a knowledge of this fact we are indebted to the elder Pliny In Belgicâ provinciâ candidum lapidem serrâ, qua lignum, faciliusque etiam, secant, ad tegularum et imbricum vicem: vel si libeat, ad quæ vocant pavonacea tegendi genera, xxxvi. 44. On which Dalecampus has the

following note: Docti complures legendum putant, pavita, aut pavimenta, i. e. pavimenti modo facta et constructa. Ego pavonacea interpretor, picturatis lapidum impositorum quadris ad instar pennarum pavonis fulgentia, et splendentia, ut hodie fit in principum ædibus tegulis magnâ colorum varietate nitentibus et conspicuis. See also the note of Hardouin in loc.

7 Among the frailest dwellings of mankind, with the exception perhaps of the paper houses of the Japanese, we may mention those of the Nasamones described by Herodotus, composed of the stems of the asphodel intertwisted with rushes: οἰκήματα δὲ σύμ πηκτα ἐξ ἀνθερίκων ἐνερμένων περὶ σχοίνους ἐστὶ, καὶ ταῦτα περιφο pηrá. iv. 190. Cf. v. 101.

8 Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 55.

3

tained from Macedonia and Arcadia,' particularly from a hollow valley near a place called Crane, never visited by the sun, and fenced round by rocks on all sides from the winds. Very particular rules were laid down respecting the time and manner of felling trees; first, wood cut in spring was most easily barked; second, if this operation was neglected it bred worms, which furrowed its whole surface like written characters; third, such as was cut when the moon was below the horizon was thought harder and less liable to decay. It may here, perhaps, be worth observing, that stones and other substances were often found grown into the trunks of wild olive-trees. This was particularly the case with that which grew in the market-place of Megara. The oracle had foretold, that when this tree should be cut down the city would be sacked and destroyed, which was brought to pass by Demetrius. On this occasion the tree being felled and sawed into planks, greaves and other articles of Athenian workmanship were found in the heart of it. Fragments of the timber remained in the time of Theophrastus.

In cutting hard wood carpenters made use of a blunt axe, which thus became sharper, while soft wood produced the contrary effect." It was customary before timber was committed to the saw to soak it for some time in water; and it is said to

1 Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 2. 1. 2 Id. iv. 1. 2.

3 See a curious figure of the axe, Mus. Chiaramont, pl. 21. Of the time of fruit-bearing in forest trees, see Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 4. 4. The same naturalist remarks, that the ilex, in Arcadia, was perpetually covered with acorns, the old ones not falling off till the new ones appeared. The yew and the pine blossom, he observes, a little before midsummer, and the bright yellow flowers of