_Of their Kinds of Drink, and Fashion of Drinking_.
In winter they make excellent drink of rice, millet, and honey, which is
clear like wine; and they have wine brought to them from distant countries.
In summer they care not for any drink except cosmos, which always stands
within the door, and beside it is a minstrel with his instrument of music.
I saw no citerns, lutes, and viols, such as ours, but they have many other
instruments which we have not. When the lord begins to drink, one of his
servants exclaims aloud Ha! and the minstrel begins to play. When they make
a great feast, all the guests clap their hands and dance to the music, the
men before the lord, and the women before the lady of the house. When the
lord hath drank, the servant calls out as before, and the minstrel ceases;
then all drink round in their turns, both men and women, and they sometimes
carouse on hearing the news of a victory, to a shameful and beastly degree.
When they desire to provoke one to drink, they seize him by the ears,
dragging them strongly, as if to widen his throat, clapping their hands,
and dancing before him. When they mean to do great honour to any person,
one takes a full cup, having one on his right hand, and another on his
left, and these three advance towards him who is to receive the cup,
singing and dancing before him; but when he reaches out his hand to receive
the cup, they suddenly draw back, and come forwards again in the same
manner, and they thus delude him three or four times, till he seems very
eager, when they give him the cup, and keep dancing, singing, and stamping
with their feet, till he has finished his draught.