mixture from the flesh of lambs, either by fermenting it reduced to a
kind of paste with the milk of their domestic animals, or by bruising it
to a pulp with rice. When properly matured, it is put into jars and drawn
as occasion requires. It is said to be strong and nutritious, and the
most voluptuous orgies of the Tartars are the result of an intoxication
from _lamb wine_. Abbé Rickard, _History of Tonquin_.
The only wine in Sumatra, according to Marco Polo, was derived from
a certain tree, the _sacred wine_-tree as it might be called, in
comparison with the _sacred water_-tree, afterwards known as _Areng
Saccharifera_, from the Javanese name, called by the Malays _Gomuti_ and
by the Portuguese _Saguer_. It has some resemblance to a date palm, to
which Polo compares it, but is much coarser and more ragged, _incompta
et adspectu tristis_, dishevelled and of a melancholy aspect, as it
is described by Rumphius. A branch of this tree was cut, a large pot
attached, and in a day and a night the pot was filled with excellent
wine, both white and red, which, says the Venetian, cures dropsy and
tisick and spleen.
The Chinese _Rice Wine_ and its manufacture is described in Amyot’s
_Memoires_, v., 468. A yeast is employed, with which is often mixed a
flour prepared from fragrant herbs, almonds, pine seeds, dried fruits,
etc. Rubruquis says the liquor is not distinguishable, except by smell,
from the best wine of Auxerre, a wine so famous in the middle ages that
the historian friar Salimbene went to that town for the express purpose
of drinking it. Ysbrand Ides compares it to Rhenish, John Bell to Canary,
and a modern traveller, quoted by Davis, “in colour and a little in taste
to Madeira.” Marco Polo says, “it is a very hot stuff,” making one drunk
sooner than any other beverage.
From the walnut, which is cultivated to great extent in the Crimea, a
sweet clear liquor is extracted in the spring, at the time the sap is
rising in the tree. The trunk of the walnut is pierced and a spigot
placed in the incision. The fluid obtained soon coagulates into a
substance used as sugar. It does not, however, appear that the juice
has been converted to any inebriating purpose. Not only, however, from
the walnut can a good drink be extracted, but also from the birch, the
willow, the poplar and the sycamore.
A sort of birch wine is made in Normandy.
An excellent drink, resembling brandy, has been distilled, it is said,
from water melons in the southern provinces of Russia, where consequently
much attention is paid to the culture of this vegetable, producing in
some cases water melons of thirty pounds in weight.
In the Sandwich Islands a drink is distilled from the root of the
_Dracæna_, something like the beet of this country. The root of the
_Dracæna_ gives a saccharine juice resembling molasses. From this,
with the addition of some ginger, a kind of tea is made, also a spirit
called by the natives _Ywera_. Their manufacture of this drink is
remarkable for its complexity, involving certain mystic operations with
an old pot, a leaky canoe, a calabash, and a rusty gun-barrel. It is
unnecessary to give a detailed account of the process. We yearn in vain
for that absence of entanglement which distinguishes the religion of the
Iroquois, who have no other worship than the annual sacrifice of a dog to
_Taulonghyaawangooa_, which being interpreted is the “supporter of the
Heavens.” At this sacrifice they eat the dog.
_Sbitena_, or Sbetin, is the name of a delightful drink sold in the
streets of _St. Petersburg_ to the populace. In Granville’s _St.
Petersburg_ (ii., 422) a mention is made of this beverage. It is composed
of honey and hot water and pepper and boiling milk.
A drink called _Omeire_ is prepared in the South-West of Africa by the
aid of some dirty gourds and milk vigorously shaken therein at stated
intervals.
In Nubia the crumb of strongly leavened bread made from _dhurra_ is mixed
with water and set on the fire. It is afterwards allowed to ferment for
two days, strained through a cloth, a lady’s garment by choice, and
drunk. It is called _Ombulbul_, or the mother of the nightingale, because
it makes the drinker sing like that bird. _Pulque_ is a vinous beverage
made in Mexico by fermenting the juice of the _agave_. Its distinctive
peculiarity is its odour, which has been compared by an experimentalist
to that of putrid meat.
There are four drinks in Madagascar: _Toak_, made from honey and water;
_Araffer_, from a tree called _Sater_, resembling a small cocoa-nut;
_Toupare_, from boiled cane, a liquid so corrosive as in a short time to
penetrate an egg shell; and _Vontaca_, from the juice of the so-called
Bengal quince. The last soon produces intoxication, against which another
curious drink is mentioned as a remedy by Ovalle, to wit, the sweat of a
horse infused in wine.
The aborigines of Australia (Dawson’s _Present State of Australia_, p.
60) are inordinately fond of a beverage known by them under the name of
_bull_. The recipe for this, as given by Mr. Dawson, runs thus: Get an
old sugar bag, steal it if you cannot get it by any other means, and cut
it into small pieces. Prepare a large kettle of boiling water, throw into
it as many of these pieces of bag as it will hold, and let it simmer for
half a day. An excellent _bull_ will be the result. This _bull_, says
Dawson, they are extremely fond of, and will drink it till they are blown
out like an ox with clover, and can contain no more.
Poncet speaks of booza as the usual liquor of the Abyssinians, “vastly
thick and very ill tasted,” produced from a day’s soaking of a roasted
berry.
The negroes of Brazil affect a mixture of black sugar and water without
fermentation, called _Garapa_, to which heat is sometimes added by the
leaves of the _Acajou_ tree.
Snow melted and impregnated with the flavour of smoke from the fire upon
which it is placed is the common drink of the Lapp. Occasionally he gets
a decoction of the herb _angelica_ in milk. The maritime Lapp drinks with
gusto the oil squeezed from the entrails of fish. Women, it is said,
will take a pint and a half of this so-called _tran_ at a meal. But the
favourite drink is composed of water and meal flavoured with a quantity
of tallow, and, if circumstances will permit, the blood of the reindeer.
_Taidge_ or _Tedge_ or _Tedj_ is a kind of honey wine or hydromel, said
by Father Poncet[168] to be a delicious liquor, pure, clarified, and
of the colour of Spanish white wine. The process of its manufacture is
simple. Wild honey is mixed with water, and set in a jar, with a little
sprouted barley, some _biccalo_ or _taddoo_ bark, and a few _geso_ or
_guécho_ leaves. A superior kind is made by adding _kuloh_ berries. This
is called _barilla_. The taste of _tedj_ has been described as that of
small beer and musty lemonade. The women commonly strain it through their
shifts.
_Besdon_ is made like _tedj_, with honey, and is highly valued in some
parts of Africa. _Ladakh_ beer has the merit of portability. It is made
of parched barley, rice, and the root of an aromatic plant, and pressed
into a cake. A piece of this is broken off and cast into water. It
resembles in taste sour gruel.
_Pombe_ is a liquid brewed of fruit, furnishing a common sort of cider
known well in Eastern Africa.
In Tonquin[169] on the annual renewal of allegiance, they drink chicken’s
blood mixed with arrack. They make a sort of cider from _miengou_, a
fruit like a pomegranate. An extract of wheat, rye, or millet is mixed
with _peka_, consisting of rice flour, garlic, aniseed, and liquorice.
After fermentation it is distilled and becomes the celebrated _Samchou_.
In Sweden, with the _smör-gås_, or fore taste[170] at a side-table a
glass of _fenkål_, sometimes very good, sometimes very bad, is given
to him who is about to dine. It is made from fennel—a form perhaps of
_fœniculum_—growing wild and abundant, as at Marathon[171] the celebrated
deme on the east coast of Attica, the field of the famous battle.
In addition to strange compounds known in various parts of this country,
such as Gin and Lime Juice, Whiskey or Rum and Milk, Brandy and Port, a
drink said to have originated in Lancashire, Dog’s Nose, Shandy Gaff,
etc., etc., may be mentioned Ethyl or Methylated Spirits, a beverage
which, like ether in Ireland, has of late years advanced considerably in
public estimation. It has the two advantages of being cheap and heady.
An Act of 1880 imposed penalties on any retail tradesman selling it for
the purpose of drink. A better method perhaps to prevent its being poured
down the throats of Her Majesty’s liege subjects would be to take steps
to ensure its being mixed before sold with a strong emetic. The palate
can be trained, but the stomach is far less docile.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES
[1] These essences and colours are no new thing. Addison spoke of them
nearly two hundred years ago in his “Trial of the Wine Brewers” in the
_Tatler_. Tom Tintoret and Harry Sippet have left a large family behind
them.
[2] See tailpiece, where a servant is coming to the assistance of her
mistress.
[3] Jablonski is our authority for supposing it primarily an Egyptian
drink. A _zythum_ and a _dizythum_ seem to have existed, corresponding,
let us say, to our _Single_ and _Double X_.
This _zythum_ is nearly allied to the _sacera_ of Palestine, the _cesia_
of Spain, the _cervisia_ of Gaul, the _sebaia_ of Dalmatia, and the
_curmi_ or _camum_ of Germany. According to Rabbi Joseph, this beer
was made ⅓ barley, ⅓ _Crocus Sylvestris_, ⅓ salt. He adds, “He that is
bound, it looseth; and he who is loose, it binds; and it is dangerous for
pregnant women.”
[4] Information on this subject is given by Sir Edward Barry,
_Observations on the Wines of the Ancients_; Henderson, _History of
Ancient and Modern Wines_; and Becker’s _Charicles_.
[5] This is probably the murrhina of Plautus (_Pseudol._ ii. 4, 50)
[6] This drink must not be confounded with ὑδρόμελι, honey and water, our
mead, or ὑδρόμήλον, our cider.
[7] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xiv. 19, etc.
[8] Line 964, etc.
[9] Line 4044, etc.
[10] Line 1387, etc.
[11] Line 1432, etc.
[12] Line 135, etc.
[13] _Hist. Account of the Cathedral Church of York_, Lond., 1715, p. 7.
[14] That division of the ancient kingdom of Northumberland, which was
bounded by the river Humber southwards, and to the north by the Tyne.
[15] A liquor made of honey, wine, and spice.
[16] Honey, diluted with the juice of mulberries.
[17] In this sense it is apparently used in Gen. ix. 24: “Noah awoke from
his _wine_.”
[18] From an Arabic word for antimony, applied to the eyes, the name
is said to have been transferred to rectified spirits (C₂H₆O). It is a
liquid formed by fermentation of aqueous sugar solutions. _Spirit of
Wine_ contains about 90 per cent. of alcohol. 55 parts of alcohol and
45 of water form _proof spirit_. Of alcohol, spirits contain 40-50 per
cent.; wines, 7-25; ale and porter, 6-8; small beer, 1-2.
[19] Who would believe this from the specimens tasted in England? Yet we
are assured the statement is perfectly true.
[20] Patterson’s _Travels in Caffraria_, p. 92.
[21] One of these inspired Longfellow, who thinks (poetically) the
richest wine is that of the West, which grows by the beautiful river,
whose sweet perfume fills the apartment, with a benison on the giver:—
“Very good in its way is the Verzenay,
Or the Sillery, soft and creamy;
But Catawba wine has a taste more divine,
More dulcet, delicious, and dreamy.”
A dreamy taste is something startling even in poetical description.
[22] Chili has lately taken Paris medals for its wines; it also produces
a light and wholesome beer.
[23] The _rébêche_ is principally sold to people manufacturing cheap
Champagnes; by mixing with other wines of very light complexion, they
give them body, and make a stuff which can be produced at a very low
price.
[24] _De Proprietatibus Rerum._ Argent. 1485, lib. xix. cap. 56.
[25] Blount’s _Fragmenta Antiquitatis_. Sec. “Grand Serjeantry,” No. IV.
[26] _The Wines of the World, Characterized and Classed_, 1875, pp. 16,
17.
[27] This wine is said to profit much by a quiescent state of the air
afforded by the town wall.
[28] A wine at Homburg, called _Erlacher_, at about one mark a bottle,
is, says Dr. Charnock, frequently superior to the ordinary _Niersteiner_.
[29] “Hock,” says one of those wine circulars, which weary alike the
postman and the public, “is the English name for the noble vintages of
the Rhine, which afford models of what wine ought to be. Their purity is
attested by their durability. They are almost imperishable. They increase
appetite, they exhilarate without producing languor, and they purify
the blood. The Germans say good Hock keeps off the doctor. Southey says
it deserves to be called the Liquor of Life. And so Pindar would have
called it, if he had ever tasted it.” Nothing surely can be added to this
description of its virtues.
[30] Thus unfortunately translated, “Rhine wine is good, Neckar pleasant,
Frankfort bad, Moselle innocent.” But Moselle, we have been told, is very
far from “innocent.” _Unnosel_ is without bouquet. _Tranken_ means not
bad but drinkable, and _lecker_ is rather lickerish than good. A sample
of the same carelessness occurs on the next page, where _ein weinfask
von anderhalb ahm ein pipe_ is intended to express _ein Weinfass von
anderthalb Ohm, eine Pipe_. It is a pity that an excellent work, to which
we, as many writers on wine like ourselves, have been deeply indebted,
should be marred by these irregularities.
[31] Colonel Leake described the ordinary country wine as a villainous
compound of lime, resin, spirits of wine, and grapes, without body or
flavour. Nor were things better in the days of old. Dugald Dalgetty, a
German Ensign, writing from Athens in 1687, says, “Would that I could
exchange a cask of Athenian wine for a cask of German beer!” The _vin du
pays_ is impregnated with resin or turpentine now as formerly, whence,
according to Plutarch, the Thyrsus of Bacchus is adorned with a pine
cone. Pliny says it favours the preservation of the drink.
[32] The island owes this name to its patron saint Irene, martyred here
A.D. 304.
[33] The value attached to this wine is one example among many of the
caprice of fashion. The _Muscadine_ of Syracuse or the _Lagrima_ of
Malaga is equal to it in richness, and few people would prefer it to
other wines, did they dare to contradict the decision of fashion in its
favour, and to have a taste of their own.
[34] So called from its green colour. It is said to have been a favourite
wine of Frederick the Great. It is held now in slighter esteem.
[35] Called _Est Est_ from the writing under the bust of the valet of the
bibulous German bishop Defoucris, who drank himself to death, upon which
his valet composed his epitaph.
_‘Est est,’ propter minium ‘est,’._
_Dominus meus mortuus est._
Reverence for antiquity is our sole excuse for the reproduction of these
wretched lines. _Monte Pulciano_ has also the credit of having killed a
Churchman. Other wines doubtless have had the same honour.
[36] “Let no man,” says the Talmud, “send his neighbour wine with oil
upon its surface.”—_Chulin_, fol. 94, col. 1.
[37] Malmsey wine is also a product of Funchal, in Madeira. The first
so-called wine was shipped for Francis I. of France. The word is probably
a corruption of _Malvasia_ or _Monemvasia_ (μόνη ἐμβασία, or single
entrance), a Greek island from which the grape may have been brought by
the Florentine Acciajoli in 1515.
[38] Rota wines are mostly coloured, or _Tintos_, whence our English
sacramental drink. They are all simmered—at their best in youth, and
their worst in age.
[39] Supposed by some to be the old English Sack. The reader interested
may consult Hakluyt, Nicols, Hewell’s Dictionary, and Venner’s _Via
Recta_.
[40] The etymology is uncertain. Some derive it from the town near
Seville, others from the Spanish word for an apple, and others again from
that for a camomile flower.
[41] _Valley of Rocks_, indicating the soil on which it is grown.
[42] It is frequently damaged by the carelessness of the _vinatero_, or
wine-seller, to such an extent that the proverb _Pregonar vino y vender
vinagre_ becomes, like wisdom, justified of her children.
[43] So called from the grape common in most parts of Spain.
[44] The fine old Amoroso, of which a small stock is still remaining.
[45] So called from the battle of Birs, in the reign of Louis XI., in
which 1,600 Swiss opposed 30,000 French, and only sixteen of the former
survived. The fallen succumbed, we are told, less to the power of the foe
than to the fatigue of the fighting.
[46] It is supposed by the erudite divine, Adam Clarke, to be probably
borrowed from the Hebrew word שֵׁכָר, Greek σίκερα, which, according to
St. Jerome (_Epist. ad Nepotianum de vita Clericorum, et in Isai. xxvii.
1_), means any intoxicating liquor, whether of honey, corn, apples,
dates, or other fruits.
[47] In a treatise of the Talmud, _Abodah Zarah_, fol. 40, col. 2, cider
is called “wine of apples.”
[48] Walker: _Hist. Essay on Gardening_, p. 166. _Anthologia Hibernica_,
i. 194.
[49] The extra dry old lauded or pale cremant, or the extra reserve
Cuvée, 1884 vintage.
[50] For further information, see Crocker, Marshall, Knight, and
especially Stopes.
[51] The French name, _Eau de Vie_, having the same meaning.
[52] “The Vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the Waters of all maner of
Herbes, with the fygures of the styllatoryes, Fyrst made and compyled by
the thyrte yeres study and labour of the most con̅ynge and famous master
of phisyke, Master Iherom bruynswyke. And now newly Translated out of
Duyche into Englysshe,” etc. Lond., 1572.
[53] Lethargy.
[54] Belching.
[55] Pleurisy.
[56] A Spanish Wine.
[57] ? Orrice.
[58] Stir.
[59] Phial.
[60] _Adam and Eve stript of their furbelows_, 1710 (?)
[61] Act III., s. 3.
[62] _My Life and Recollections_, Vol. I., p. 59.
[63] Now called Athol brose.
[64] Of the word gill-house a recent editor of Pope observes that it is
doubtful whether it is to be understood as a house where gill, or beer
impregnated with ground-ivy, was sold, or whether as an inferior tavern,
where beer was sold by the measure known as a gill.
[65] There are two other prints connected with this event, all published
at the same time. One is “The Funeral Procession of Madame Geneva, Sept.
29, 1736.” The other is a Memorial, “To the Mortal Memory of Madame
Geneva, who died Sept. 29, 1736. Her weeping Servants and loving Friends,
consecrate this Tomb.”
[66] Whose premises were burnt down during the Lord George Gordon riots.
Dickens immortalized Langdale in _Barnaby Rudge_. The distillery is still
in existence at the same place.
[67] A whistling shop was a sly grog-shop. No spirits were allowed in
the Fleet prison, but of course they were introduced, and could be got
at some places. The method of telling who could be trusted, was for the
customers to whistle—hence the term.
[68] _Alcoholic Drinks_, 1884, p. 67.
[69] Scott’s _Ivanhoe_, cap. iii.
[70] _Morat_ is a composition of honey and mulberries, from which latter
its name is derived.
[71] According to their first institution the Jesuits were not priests.
This was conceded to them afterwards by Paul V. Their primitive principal
occupation was the assistance of the sick and the distillation of
salutiferous waters, whence they were known as “_padri dell’ acquavite_,”
or Fathers of brandies.
[72] A liqueur made with the flower of citron.
[73] _Ad majorem Dei gloriam._
[74] Roret’s “_Manuel du distillateur-liquoriste_.”
[75] _Gui-Patin Lettres_, ii. 425.
[76] One of the most important liqueur manufactories is that of Marie
Brizard and Roger of Bordeaux. In 1755 Marie Brizard, in the Quartier
S. Pierre, a lady of much devotion and charity, devoted a large portion
of her time, in imitation of the monks, to the concoction of medicinal
cordials. Of these, her _Anisette_, so called from its chief ingredient,
soon attained a wide reputation. Roger married the niece of this lady,
and the firm is now known under their joint names. They manufacture
many other liqueurs, but are still chiefly famous for the old medicinal
cordial.
[77] الاكسير, _alacsir_, from ξηρόν, dry.
[78] Here is the etymological process for the linguistic student:
_Ligusticum_; Lat., _levisticum_; Fr., _luvesche_, _leveshe_, _livèche_;
O. Eng., _livish_, _lovage_. The Italian has the form _libistico_, and
the Portuguese _levistico_.
[79] A technical term.
[80] So called because said to be prepared from the maidenhair fern,
_Adiantum capillus Veneris_; “but,” says Pereira, (_Materia Medica_),
“the liqueur sold in the shops under this name is nothing but clarified
syrup flavoured with orange-flower water.”
[81] These colours by which _soi-disant_ connoisseurs profess to
determine the excellence of the liqueur, are in most cases merely
adscititious. Rules are given for their manufacture. Rose, for instance,
is the outcome of cochineal or sanders wood steeped for a fortnight in
spirits of wine. Blue, of indigo and sulphuric acid. Yellow, of saffron.
Pink, of cudbear, a corruption of the name of the chemist, Dr. _Cuthbert_
Gordon, who first employed this lichen; and green, of blue and yellow
mixed.
[82] A pharmaceutical term for volatile oil of orange flowers. Said to be
derived from an Italian princess, Néroli, who invented it.
[83] From Arabic خلنج _Khulanj_, “a tree from which wooden bowls are
made,” Richardson. A dried rhizome brought from China, an aromatic
stimulant of the nature of ginger. The drug is mostly produced by
_Alpinia officinarum_.
[84] Also called Luft-Wasser.
[85] Only an Italian, we are told, can make this liqueur. The composition
is a dark secret, but, we are also told, it originated in Austria, and is
a mixture of tea, wine and milk in unknown quantities.
[86] Said, on account of its carminative properties, to be derived from
the three words _vesse_, _pet_, and _rot_, which it is not incumbent upon
us to translate.
[87] Merely a corruption of _Usquebaugh_.
[88] So called from the inventor. Said to be useful in stomachic
affections.
[89] _Sic_, aimable (?)
[90] So called because made with _guignes_, Sp. _guindas_; dark red, very
sweet cherries, smaller than the _bigarreaux_. The _Guignolet d’Angers_
is especially famous.
[91] This is composed of fennel, celery, coriander, and angelica.
[92] Sometimes written _Karoy_. _Carum carve_, L., from the Greek κάρον,
an umbelliferous plant of which the root by culture becomes edible. The
fruit is analogous to that of anise.
[93] Also written more correctly _d’Hendaye_; white, yellow, and green,
according to its alcoholic strength.
[94] _Cassis_ would appear to be the name of a _ville_
(_Bouches-du-Rhone_) which has a commerce of wine and fruit.
[95] _Stolberg’s Travels_, i., 146.
[96] Germ. _Wermuth_, absinthe or wormwood, plant of genus
_Artemisia_—perhaps originally connected with _warm_, on account of the
warmth it produces in the stomach. This bitter, though commonly quoted
under liqueurs, should be classed with _Quinine Wine_, _Angostura_,
_Khoosh_, etc., _Juglandine_, made in France from the walnut, _Malakoff_
made in Silesia, the _Shaddock_ and _Quassia_ bitters of the West Indies,
and the _Schapps_ bitter of Switzerland.