And Hermippus, in his Cercopes, calls water drawn from wells φρεατιαῖον ὕδωρ. Moreover, that men used to drink melted snow too, is shown by Alexis, in his Woman eating Mandragora—

Sure is not man a most superfluous plant,
Constantly using wondrous contradictions.
Strangers we love, and our own kin neglect;
Though having nothing, still we give to strangers.
We bear our share in picnics, though we grudge it,
And show our grudging by our sordidness.
And as to what concerns our daily food,
We wish our barley-cakes should white appear,
And yet we make for them a dark black sauce,
And stain pure colour with a deeper dye.
Then we prepare to drink down melted snow;
Yet if our fish be cold, we storm and rave.
Sour or acid wine we scorn and loathe,
Yet are delighted with sharp caper sauce.
And so, as many wiser men have said,
Not to be born at all is best for man;
The next best thing, to die as soon as possible.

And Dexicrates, in the play entitled The Men deceived by Themselves, says—

But when I'm drunk I take a draught of snow,
And Egypt gives me ointment for my head.

[[205]] And Euthycles, in his Prodigal Men, or The Letter, says—

He first perceived that snow was worth a price;
He ought to be the first to eat the honeycombs.

And that excellent writer Xenophon, in his Memorabilia, shows that he was acquainted with the fashion of drinking snow. But Chares of Mitylene, in his History of Alexander, has told us how we are to proceed in order to keep snow, when he is relating the siege of the Indian city Petra. For he says that Alexander dug thirty large trenches close to one another, and filled them with snow, and then he heaped on the snow branches of oak; for that in that way snow would last a long time.

98. And that they used to cool wine, for the sake of drinking it in a colder state, is asserted by Strattis, in his Psychastæ, or Cold Hunters—

For no one ever would endure warm wine,
But on the contrary, we use our wells
To cool it in, and then we mix with snow.

And Lysippus says, in his Bacchæ—