Theophrastus, in a fragment[[1236]] of one of his lost works, speaks of three different kinds of honey, one collected from flowers, another which, according to his philosophy, descended pure from heaven, and a third produced from canes. This last, which was sometimes denominated Indian honey, is the sugar of modern times. There appear, likewise, to have been other kinds of sugar manufactured from different substances, as Tamarisk and Wheat.[[1237]] The honey-dew, on the production of which the ancients[[1238]] held many extraordinary opinions, was supposed to be superior to the nectar of the bee.
Amyntas, in his Stations of Asia, cited by Athenæus, gives a curious account of this sort of honey which was collected in various parts of the East, particularly in Syria. In some cases they gathered the leaves of the tree, chiefly the linden and the oak, on which the dew was most abundantly[[1239]] found, and pressed them together like those masses of Syrian figs, which were called palathè. Others allowed it to drop from the leaves and harden into globules, which, when desirous of using, they broke, and, having poured water thereon in wooden bowls called tabaitas, drank the mixture. In the districts of Mount Lebanon[[1240]] the honey-dew fell plentifully several times during the year, and was collected by spreading skins under the trees, and shaking into them the liquid honey from the leaves; they then filled therewith numerous vessels, in which it was preserved for use. On these occasions, the peasants used to exclaim, “Zeus has been raining honey!”
[1068]. Demosth. in Ev. et Mnes. § 15.
[1069]. Thucyd. ii. 65.
[1070]. In the neighbourhood of the Isthmus the shepherds of the present day often pass the winter months in mountain caverns.—Chandler, ii. p. 261.
[1071]. Theocrit. i. 143, seq.
[1072]. Cf. Iliad. β. 305, seq.
[1073]. On the wild olive and other trees, of which these groves were composed, the eye of the passenger usually beheld suspended a number of votive offerings.—Sch. Aristoph. Ran. 943.
[1074]. Cf. Plat. Phæd. t. i. p. 9.