e
parts, and sticks so firmly to them that it is not easily washed off.
We find by experience, that a garment wet with water is presently dried
again; but it is no easy matter to wash out the spots and stain of oil,
for it enters deep, because of its most subtile and humid nature.
Hence it is that Aristotle says, that the drops of diluted wine are the
hardest to be got out of clothes, because they are most subtile, and run
farther into the pores of the cloth.

QUESTION X. WHAT IS THE REASON THAT FLESH OF SACRIFICED BEASTS, AFTER
BEING HUNG A WHILE UPON A FIG-TREE IS MORE TENDER THAN BEFORE?

ARISTIO, PLUTARCH, AND OTHERS.

At supper we were commanding Aristio's cook, who, amongst other dishes
that he had dressed very curiously, brought a cock to table just killed
as a sacrifice to Hercules, as tender as though it had been killed a
day or two before. When Aristio told us that this was no wonder,--seeing
such a thing might very easily be done, if the cock, as soon as he was
killed, was hung upon a fig-tree,--we began to inquire into the reason
of what he asserted. Indeed, I must confess, our eye assures us that
a fig-tree sends out a fierce and strong spirit; which is yet more
evident, from what we have heard said of bulls. That is, a bull, after
he is tied to a fig-tree, though never so mad before, grows presently
tame, and will suffer you to touch him, and on a sudden all his rage and
fury cool and die. But the chiefest cause that works this change is the
sharp acrimonious quality of the tree. For this tree is the fullest of
sap, and so are its figs, wood, and bark; and hence it comes to pass,
that the smoke of fig-wood is most offensive to the eyes; and when it
is burned, its ashes make the best lye to scour withal. But all these
effects proceed from heat. Now there are some that say, when the sap
of this tree thrown into milk curds it, that this effect does not arise
from the irregular figures of the parts of the milk, which the sap joins
and (as it were) sticks together, the smooth and globose parts being
squeezed out, but that by its heat it loosens the unstable and watery
parts of the liquid body. And we may use as a proof the unprofitableness
of the sap of this tree, which, though it is very sweet, yet makes the
worst liquor in the world. For it is not the inequality in the parts
that affects the smooth part, but what is cold and raw is stopped by
heat. And salt help to do this; for it is hot, and works cont