fountains, rivers, and seas, with divinities, and often confounded in
the same worship those gods, sons of gratitude, with the limpid waters
consecrated to them.
The Persians carried their veneration for this element so far, that they
dared not wash their hands, and would have preferred being consumed to
the very bone rather than dip themselves in a river.[XXV-2]
The Cappadocians were proud of treading in the same path.[XXV-3]
The Egyptians offered prayers and homage to water.[XXV-4] The Nile, in
particular, received their adorations under the name of _Ypeus_, or
_Siris_, and they offered to it--as a sacrifice--barley, wheat, sugar,
and fruit.[XXV-5]
The Scythians honoured the Danube on account of its vast extent; the
Thessalians prostrated themselves before the majestic shores of the
Peneus; the ancient combat of Achelous with Hercules made it sacred to
the Ætolians; by a special law, the Lacedæmonians were compelled to
implore the Eurotas; and a religious precept forced the Athenians to
incense in honour of the Ilissus.[XXV-6]
The Greeks and Romans did not fail to follow such good examples. The
fountains and rivers had their altars. The Rhine was called a god; and
when Æneas arrived in Italy, he prayed it might be favourable to
him.[XXV-7]
However strange such superstition may appear, it is, nevertheless,
conceivable that Paganism, struck with wonder at the flux and reflux of
the sea, and at the phenomena presented by several celebrated springs,
and seduced by the charming fictions of doubtful poesy, should have
deified an element both beneficial and terrible, since it could not cry
out with the prophet king: “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise
of many waters, yea than the mighty waves of the sea.”[XXV-8]
Thence came the innumerable number of tutelary gods to which the Ocean
alone gave an asylum. By Thetis it became the father of the seventy-two
Oceanides, and the fifty Nereides called it their grandfather. Hesiod
numbered three thousand nymphs, and he probably forgot a few of them. We
say nothing of the Naiades, the Napææ, the Limnades, and so many others
whom fable was pleased to recognise, and whom it described as joyfully
disporting in the water.
Greece exhausted the treasures of its poetical imagination to embellish
her fountains, beloved retreats of the timid Naiades. Several were
remarkable for the beauty of their architecture and the extreme delicacy
of their execution.
Megara, in Achaia, possessed one celebrated for its magnificence. That
of Pirene, at Corinth, was surrounded with white marble, in which were
placed grottoes which unceasingly supplied a vast and superb basin.
Another fountain of Corinth, named Lerna, offered to loungers an elegant
portico, under which some very commodious seats allowed them to enjoy,
during summer, the freshness which the water communicated to the
atmosphere.
In the sacred wood of Æsculapius, at Epidaurus, a splendid fountain was
seen whose marvellous beauty attracted all eyes.[XXV-9] Lastly, those of
Messina, known under the names of Arsinoe and of Clepsydra, yielded
nothing in richness of material and finish of details to the most
renowned monuments of Greece.
The Athenians named four officers to keep watch and ward over the
water.[XXV-10] The other Greek towns followed the example. These
officers had to keep the fountains in order and clean the
reservoirs,[XXV-11] so that the water might be preserved pure and
limpid.
The Romans at first contented themselves with water from the Tiber. King
Ancus Martius[XXV-12] was the first[XXV-13] to build aqueducts, destined
to convey the water of the fountain of Piconia from Tibur to Rome, a
distance of about thirty-three thousand paces. Some have honoured the
censor, Appius Claudius, for this magnificent undertaking,[XXV-14] to
whom is certainly due the celebrated Appian Way.[XXV-15] These gigantic
works greatly multiplied in time. Under the reign of Nero, Rome had nine
principal aqueducts[XXV-16] constructed, the pipes of which were of
bricks, baked tiles, stone, lead, or wood.[XXV-17]
According to the calculation of Vigenerus,[XXV-18] 500,000 hogsheads of
water were conveyed into Rome every twenty-four hours, by 10,850 small
channels, the internal circumference of which was one inch. The water
was received in large closed basins, above which were raised splendid
monuments. These basins--or _châteaux d’eau_--_castella
Aquarum_--supplied other subterraneous conduits connected with the
various quarters of the town,[XXV-19] which conveyed water to small
reservoirs--_fontes_--furnished with taps, for the exclusive use of
certain streets.[XXV-20] The water which was not drinkable ran out by
means of large pipes into extensive inclosures, where it served to water
cattle. At these places the people washed their linen, and here, too,
they had a ready resource in case of fire.[XXV-21]
Augustus created water commissaries, who took care that all water coming
into Rome by the aqueducts was fairly distributed in every public place,
and to those of the inhabitants who had obtained the privilege of having
it enter their houses.[XXV-22]
But the “ingenious thirst”[XXV-23] of the conquerors of the world could
not content itself with a delicious water which nature furnished free of
expense. Was it not too much for human endurance, that not only the air
and the sun could not be offered to the highest bidder,[XXV-24] but that
the same spring was to quench the thirst of obscure plebeians on equal
terms with the rich patrician?
Intemperance and luxury very soon contrived to find excellent means of
remedying a state of things so intolerable. The custom of preserving
snow in cellars, to obtain cool beverages, is very old. Aristotle
pointed out the method of boiling water, and putting the vessel
afterwards in snow, in order to obtain ice. Rome had recourse to this
expedient, which was afterwards replaced with advantage, under Nero, by
constructing ice houses for the use of opulent epicureans.[XXV-25]
This even was not enough for voluptuous Romans, slaves to their strange
caprices; their beverages did not appear to them as yet sufficiently
cool,[XXV-26] and the summit of the Alps was put under contribution to
furnish ice for the fashionable tables of the imperial city.[XXV-27]
The Romans were also frequently supplied with snow water,[XXV-28]
clarified by being passed through the _colum nivarium_, or snow
cullender,[XXV-29] a charming little utensil of silver, pierced with a
great number of holes, through which the iced beverage passed into a
recipient beneath. This drink was sometimes mortal, but always
exquisite.[XXV-30] From this vessel, it was poured into an _ampula_, or
a sort of crystal bottle of rotund form, which was often enormously dear
on account of the elaborate chasing with which it was
embellished.[XXV-31] This water bottle, with its long and narrow neck,
was the principal ornament of the sideboards and tables, when it bore
the name of some skilful artist from Campania or the Island of
Samos.[XXV-32][O]
Iced beverage lost all its charm at the end of the fine season, and hot
water took its place during winter.[XXV-33] The same custom existed in
Greece in the best classes of society.[XXV-34] At Rome, it was much more
general, for there were a great number of taverns, where the middle
classes and citizens of the lowest order gorged themselves copiously
with pork and warm water. The Emperor Claudius caused them to be closed,
and severely punished the proprietors of those houses who opposed his
ordinance.[XXV-35]
At the commencement of the repast, a copper vessel was placed on the
table purposely to boil water. It was much like a French _bouilloire_
(which nearly resembles a tankard), and contained a cylinder of about
four inches in diameter, covered with a moving lid, and pierced with
holes for the ashes to pass through. They fell into the lower part of
the cylinder. The space around was filled with water by means of a small
funnel soldered to the boiler. The taps of these vases were always
slightly above the bottom, so that the sediment of the water should not
pass into the cups.[XXV-36]
Ancient medicine attributed to water a singular curative virtue, which
it has also been supposed to possess in our days. This system, so much
talked about now by some persons, is, therefore, not new. Hippocrates
carefully distinguished the difference between good and bad
water.[XXV-37] The best, according to him, ought to be clear, light,
inodorous, without any flavour, and drawn from springs exposed to the
east.[XXV-38] He interdicts all those which proceed from melted
snow.[XXV-39]
Asclepiades made his patients drink plentifully of water, and frequently
ordered them cold baths.[XXV-40]
[Illustration: _Pl. 17._]
The physician, Musa, prescribed to Augustus the same regimen, and the
Emperor found himself much benefited by it.[XXV-41]
Under the reign of Nero, Charmis acquired a great vogue by extolling
cold baths,[XXV-42] even in the depth of winter. This dexterous native
of Marseilles knew so well how to persuade people, that he could hardly
attend to his immense connection; and as he sometimes required as much
as £800 from his patients,[XXV-43] he soon became as celebrated for his
riches as for his pretended medical genius. Who will say, after this,
that the water-cure system is good for nothing?
“In Egypt, rich people have the water brought to them from the Nile in
leather pouches. Large and porous earthen pots of an oval shape, kept up
by supporters, are filled with it. The water at the end of a few hours
has deposited the slime it contained. It is afterwards distributed in
small vases of terra cotta, called _bardaks_, of the size of our
water-jugs. These vases are taken in the most showy part of the
habitation. In a short time the clay of the _bardaks_ is impregnated;
their surface is covered with water, which, after borrowing from the
liquid within the caloric it requires for evaporation, reduces this to a
temperature of six or seven degrees under that which it had
before.”--PARMENTIER.
More than five centuries ago the Sieur de Joinville described the same
process. “The water of the Nile,” he said, “is of such a nature, that
when we hung it in white earthen pots, made in the country, to the
rigging of our ships, the water became in the heat of the day as cold as
spring-water.”[XXV-44]
Sea-water is not potable, but it has long since been remarked that the
vapours which rise from the sea are soft, and it was thence concluded
that, by collecting and condensing them, it would be possible to obtain
a potable liquid fit for domestic purposes. This phenomenon was known in
the time of Pliny, who informs us that, “fleece spread about the ship,
after having received the exhalations from the sea, becomes damp, and
that fresh water may be extracted from it.”[XXV-45]
About the middle of the last century means were found to remove
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XVII.
No. 1. Pail, of bronze, with movable handle, covered with
hieroglyphics, to carry water from the Nile for the Feast of Isis.
No. 2. Pail, with two handles, same metal, placed on a small tripod
to stand upon, owing to the convexity of the bottom.--ST. NON,
“_Herculaneum_.”
the saline substances from sea-water. Boyle, Leibnitz, the Count of
Marsigli--all had made a great number of fruitless experiments. Mr.
Poissonnier invented a very simple distillating machine, with which, and
an absorbing powder, he succeeded in depriving sea-water of its
insufferable bitterness, and rendering it perfectly salubrious. About
1784, a successful experiment was made at York with a machine which
produced the same result.
Some travellers have related, that, at the Iron Island, the only soft
water was that which was collected from a large tree, in the centre of
the island, and which was incessantly covered with clouds. The water ran
continually from the leaves, and fell into two large cisterns,
constructed at the foot of the tree, which, according to Jackson,
furnished enough for 8,000 souls, and 100,000 cattle. “Let us see,” says
Bory de Saint-Vincent, “what amount of credit is due to the marvellous
tree of the Iron Island.” Abreu Galindo, in his manuscript treatise on
the Canary Islands, preserved in the archives of the country, says that
he wished to see with his own eyes what the tree was. He embarked,
arrived, took a guide to conduct him to a place called Tigulahe, which
is separated from the sea by a valley, and there, at the extreme
boundary, under a large cliff, was the holy tree, which in the country
is called Garoë. Its trunk is twelve spans in circumference, four feet
in diameter, and nearly forty feet in height. The branches are wide
apart and tufted; its fruit resembles an acorn, and the kernel is, in
colour and taste, like the little aromatic almonds which pine nuts
contain. It never loses its leaves, that is to say, the old ones do not
fall until the young ones are formed. On the north side, are two large
stone pillars, of twenty square feet, hollowed out to a depth of twenty
spans. These pillars are so placed that the water falls into one, and is
preserved in the other. Vapours and mists rise almost every day from the
sea, particularly in the morning, and at no great distance in the
offing; these vapours are carried by the east wind against the cliffs,
which block their passage, so that they cover the tree, become condensed
on its smooth leaves, and run off drop by drop. The more the east wind
reigns, the more abundant is the supply of water. It is distributed by a
man who guards the tree. A whirlwind tore up the Garoë in 1625.[XXV-46]
XXVI.
BEVERAGES, OF WHICH WATER IS THE FOUNDATION.
Water is certainly the most ancient beverage, the most simple, natural,
and the most common, which nature has given to mankind. But it is
necessary to be really thirsty in order to drink water, and as soon as
this craving is satisfied it becomes insipid and nauseous. What is then
to be done? Cyrus would have said: “Drink no more;” so would a
teetotaler of the present day. In the first ages of the world, the human
race, bound by no oath of temperance, succeeded, by sheer application of
their ingenuity, in finding something better, or perhaps worse,
according to the ideas of certain moralists, whose wise teaching,
however, commands respect. Certain it is that water, continuing to be
regarded with peculiar favour, was called to play a principal part in
various combinations by which it lost its insipidity and inoffensive
properties, and acquired the wonderful power of provoking a sort of
madness, known by the name of drunkenness.
Those beverages which man imbibes when he is no longer thirsty, which
cloud his weak mind, and render him ill when in good health, are called
fermented liquors.
Beer is one of the most ancient. If we are to believe Diodorus of
Sicily, Bacchus himself invented it.[XXVI-1] However, it is certain that
the absolute injunction not to drink wine, caused the inhabitants of
Egypt to have recourse to a factitious beverage obtained from
barley,[XXVI-2] often mentioned in history under the name of _zythum_
and _curmi_,[XXVI-3] and whose invention has been often attributed to
Osiris--which means, that its precise origin is entirely unknown.
It was a kind of beer composed of barley, and capable of being preserved
for a long time without decomposing;[XXVI-4] for instead of hops,
utterly unknown in that country, a bitter infusion of lupins was
added.[XXVI-5]
The Egyptians also used Assyrian corn in its composition, and probably
other aromatic plants, in which each one followed his peculiar taste.
The method of brewing varied much among them;[XXVI-6] but the one here
mentioned was that most generally in use to procure zythum in Lower
Egypt, where it was converted, like our beer, into vinegar, which the
Greek merchants of Alexandria exported to the European ports.[XXVI-7]
The Egyptians long drank nothing but this fermented liquor, because the
followers of Osiris believed that when Jupiter crushed the Titans with
thunderbolts, their blood, mixing with the earth, produced the vine.
They invented the zythum as a substitute for wine.[XXVI-8]
It is not probable that the Greeks, whose wines were so renowned in
antiquity, thought much of beer. Nevertheless, Aristotle[XXVI-9]
mentions drunkenness being caused by drinking a beverage drawn from
barley. Æschylus[XXVI-10] and Sophocles[XXVI-11] mention a liquor
procured from the same cereal.
The use of beer spread rapidly in Gaul, where wine was but little known
before the time of Probus. The Emperor Julian, governor of this country,
acquaints us of this fact in an epigram.[XXVI-12]
The Spaniards, and the aborigines of Britany and Germany, also
delightfully intoxicated themselves with an “infusion of barley,” called
by the first of these nations, _cœlia_, _ceria_,
_cerevisia_,[XXVI-13] and _curmi_ by the two latter. These various
denominations signify literally, _strong water_,[XXVI-14] and this
fermented drink was common to the nations just indicated.[XXVI-15] All
the people of Western Europe drank a strong liquor made with grain and
water. The manner of preparing it was not the same in Spain, in Gaul,
and elsewhere; but everywhere it possessed the same dangerous
properties.
“Man,” says Pliny, “is so skilful in flattering his vices, that he has
even found means to render water poisonous and intoxicating.”[XXVI-16]
The Danes and Saxons gave themselves up to an enormous consumption of
zythum and curmi, kinds of ale and beer, varying in no other respect
than in the manner of preparing them.[XXVI-17] The warlike piety of
their ingenuous and coarse-minded heroes, desired no greater recompense,
after a life of fatigue and rough combats, than to sing the praises of
Odin amidst eternal banquets, where these exhilarating beverages might
unceasingly maintain the joy and bravery of the warriors.[XXVI-18]
The ancient Britons had many vines, but they esteemed them only as
ornaments to their gardens; and they preferred, says Cæsar, the wine of
grain to that of grapes.[XXVI-19] It is historically demonstrated that
the English, at a very early epoch, applied themselves to the making of
beer.
It is mentioned in the laws of Ina, Chief, or King, of Wessex; and this
liquor held a distinguished rank among those that appeared at a royal
feast in the reign of Edward the Confessor.[XXVI-20]
Under the Normans, ale acquired a reputation it has ever since
maintained. Two gallons cost only one penny in the cities; in the
country, four gallons might be obtained at the same price. Happy age!
happy ale drinkers! At that period--the golden age for the apostles of
the Britannic Bacchus--the brewers rendered no account of the
preparation of this beloved beverage. The English nation did not yet
purchase the right of intoxicating themselves: it was not till the year
1643 that this authorization was to be bought.[XXVI-21]
The use of hops would appear to be of German invention. They were
employed in the Low Countries at the beginning of the 14th century; but
it was not till the 16th that they were appreciated in England.[XXVI-22]
Can it be true that beer or ale possessed, in certain cases, strange
curative properties? We find the following fact in a statistical account
of Scotland.[XXVI-23]
A poor coal miner of the county of Clackmannan, named William Hunter,
had been long suffering with acute rheumatism, or obstinate gout, which
deprived him of the use of his limbs. The eve of the first Monday of the
year 1758, some of his neighbours came to pass the evening with him. Ale
was drunk, and they got merry. The jolly fellow never failed to empty
his glass at each round. Scotch ale is a seductive drink, and as
perfidious as pleasure: it bewilders the senses, and finally masters the
reason. William Hunter lost his, completely; but his legs were restored,
and he was able to make marvellous use of them for more than twenty
years. After that happy evening, never did his old enemy, the gout, dare
approach him; and the worthy coal miner took care to keep it at a
distance, by reiterating the remedy which had proved so beneficial.
Nobody could blame him. Ale had become so dear to him! Gratitude and
prudence combined to make it a duty to remain unalterably attached, and
he was faithful to it till he breathed his last.
Antecedent to the use of hops beer was made in England as follows:
“_To make a Hogshead of Strong Ale._--It was necessary, first of all, to
make the _grout_, which was thus done:--Nine gallons of water was to be
well boiled, and put into a brewing-vessel; when it was a little cool
there was put therein three pecks of malt, which was left standing for
an hour and a-half, and then it ought to be drawn off into a cooler.
When it was near cold, it was put into a vessel provided for that
purpose, perfectly clean, and having a cover to stop it down close.
Being therein, it was closely covered down, that it might there stand to
sharpen; if the weather should be cold it might require about eighteen
hours, but if it was hot not quite so long. When it was ripe enough,
upon the sudden opening of the vessel, the strength of the fume arising
from the liquour would near, if not entirely, extinguish a lighted
candle, which ought to be provided short on purpose, and holden over for
the proof thereof. When the brewer was satisfied that the grout was
properly ripened, he poured it forth into the copper, and boiled it
moderately upon a slow fire for about an hour, constantly stirring it
all the while, and to know when it was boiled enough he provided a small
ashen stick, which, being alighted at the fire, he thrust suddenly into
the boiling liquor, drawing it forth as quick as possible, when, if the
fire on the stick remained still unextinguished, it was well boiled, but
not if it were otherwise. This being done, the liquor was put into a
vessel of twenty gallons, or thereabouts, and yeast put to it, that it
might work, which when it had sufficiently done, it was ready for the
wort to be put to it. The wort might be brewed of what strength the
brewer should please, so that it did not exceed sixty gallons to the
above proportion of grout. The grout being now properly ripe, and having
worked enough, a quantity of the wort, sufficient to fill up the
twenty-gallon vessel into which the grout is put, must be poured upon
it, and then the whole drawn off into the _yeeling fatt_, and there,
being mixed with the remainder of the wort, is left to work together,
which when it hath sufficiently done, it must be strained off into the
hogshead, through a hair sieve made for that purpose, where it must also
work like other beer or ale.”[XXVI-24]
In the ninth year of Edward II., things being very scarce, a gallon of
ale was sold for twopence, of the better sort for threepence, and of the
best for fourpence; but the Londoners ordained that, in the City, a
gallon of the bettermost sort of ale should be sold for three-halfpence,
and of the small ale for one penny only.[XXVI-25]
Holinshed says[XXVI-26] that every kind of wine could be procured in
England. “Nevertheless,” he adds, “ale and beere beare the greatest
brunt in drincking, which are of so many sortes and ages as it pleaseth
the brewer to make them. The beere that is used at noblemen’s tables is
commonly of a yeare olde (or, peradventure, of twoo yeares’ tunning, or
more, but this is not general); it is also brued in Marche, and is
therefore called Marche beere; but for the household it is usually not
under a monthe’s age, eache one coveting to have the same stale as he
might, so that was not soure, and the breade new as possible, so that be
not hote.”