ful flavour; and the lupin, the skirret*, and the root of an Assyrian plant, were used by them for that purpose.t The vicinity of Pelusium appears to have been the most noted for its beer, and the Pelusiac zythus is mentioned by more than one author. The account given by Athenæus of Egyptian beer is that it was very strong, and had so exhilarating an effect that they danced, and sang, and committed the same excesses, as those who were intoxicated with the strongest wines: an observation confirmed by the authority of Aristotle, whose opinion on the subject has at least the merit of being amusing. For we must smile at the philosopher's method of distinguishing persons suffering under the influence of wine and beer, however disposed he would have been to accuse us of ignorance, in not having yet discovered how invariably the former in that state "lie upon their face, and the latter on their backs." + Though beer was common to many countries, that of Egypt was of a peculiar kind, and, as Strabo S observes, different methods of preparing it were adopted by different people. Nor can we doubt that it varied as much in quality as at the present day; in the same manner that English and Dutch Siser; the Sium sisarum of Linn. pellat." Theoph. de caus. Plant. vi. 10. "Quod zythum Ægyptus ap "Jam siser, Assyrioque venit quæ semine radix, Ut Pelusiaci proritet pocula zythi." Columella, l. x. 114. Athen. loc. cit. quoting Aristotle. beer is a very different beverage from that of France, or from the booza of modern Egypt. In this last, indeed, it is impossible to recognise any resemblance, and no attempt is made to give it the flavour common to beer, or to obtain for it any other recommendation than its intoxicating properties. The secret of preparing it from barley has. remained from old times, but indolence having banished the trouble of adding other ingredients, they are contented with the results of simple fermentation; and bread, and all similar substances, which are found to undergo that process, are now employed by the Egyptians, almost indifferently, for making booza. Besides beer, the Egyptians had what Pliny calls factitious, or artificial, wine*, extracted from various fruits, each sort, no doubt, known by some peculiar name, which pointed out its nature and quality. The Greeks and Latins comprehended every kind of beverage made by the process of fermentation under the same general name, and beer was designated as barley-wine; but, by the use of the name zythos, they show that the Egyptians distinguished it by a totally different appellation. It is equally probable that those made from other fruits were, in like manner, known by their respective * Plin. xiv. 16. " de vinis factitiis." If no wine was made from grapes (as Herodotus states) in the "corn country," these might have been there styled "home-made wines," a name applied to similar mixtures in other vineless districts. But it is not likely that they were included by the Egyptians under the head of wines. Conf. Theophr. de causis Plant. vi. 10. “Alios succos exprimimus "nonnulli fructus à naturâ suâ alienant atque aliquatenus putrefaci denominations, as distinctly specified, as the perry and cider of the present day; and, indeed, we may expect to find them mentioned in the hieroglyphic legends accompanying the offerings in the tombs and temples of Egypt, where the contents of each vase are evidently indicated, and where, as I have already observed, several wines of the country are distinctly pointed out. Palm wine, says Pliny, was common throughout the east, and one sort is noticed by Herodotus as having been used by the Egyptians in the process of embalming; but it is uncertain whether this last was made in the manner described by Pliny t, which required a modius, or peck and a half, of the ripe fruit to be macerated and squeezed into three congii, or about twenty-two pints, of water. The palm wine made at the present day is simply from an incision in the heart of the treet, immediately below the base of the upper branches, and a jar is attached to the part to catch the juice which exudes from it. But a palm thus tapped is rendered perfectly useless as a fruit-bearing tree, and generally dies in consequence§; and it is reasonable to suppose that so great a sacrifice is seldom made except when date trees are to be felled, or when they grow in great abundance, as in the Oases *Herodot. ii. 86. + Plin. xiv. 16. Called by Pliny the " medulla," or 66 cerebrum," " and in Arabic qulb, "the heart," or jummár. It is sold at Cairo, and considered as a delicacy; in taste, it resembles a sweet turnip. § Hence Pliny observes of one species, dulcis medulla earum in cacumine quod cerebrum appellant, exempta que vivunt, quod non alis." Conf. Athen. Deip. lib. ii. ad fin., and Xenoph. Exped. Cyr. ii. “ ὁ δε φοινιξ, όθεν εξαιρεθείη δ εγκεφαλος, όλος αναίνετο. and some other districts. The modern name of this beverage in Egypt is lowbgeh: in flavour it resembles a very new light wine, and may be drunk in great quantity when taken from the tree; but, as soon as the fermentation has commenced, its intoxicating qualities have a powerful and speedy effect. It is not confined to Egypt and the Oases: the inhabitants of other parts of Africa and many palm-bearing countries are in the habit of making it in the same manner; nor do scruples of religion prevent the Moslems from indulging in its use. Nubia a wine is extracted from the dates themselves; but this is now less common than the more potent brandy which they distil from the same fruit, and which is a great favourite in the valley of the Nile. In In former times, figs, pomegranates, myxas †, and other fruits were also used in Egypt for making artificial wines, and herbs of different kinds were applied to the same purpose; many of which, it may be presumed, were selected for their medicinal properties.+ FRUIT TREES. Among the various fruit-trees cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, palms, of course, held the first *The blacks are particularly fond of intoxicating drinks. In the valley of the Nile the propensity may be said to augment in proportion to the intensity of colour, and the Nubians surpass the Egyptians in their love of booza and other fermented liquors in about the same ratio as the increased darkness of their hue. + Plin. xiii. 5. “ Ex myxis in Ægypto et vina fiunt." myxa of Linnæus, Arabice Mokhayt. The Cordia Wines were Rue, hellebore, absinthium, and numerous others. rank, as well from their abundance as from their great utility. The fruit constituted a principal part of their food, both in the month of August, when it was gathered fresh from the trees, and at other seasons of the year, when it was used in a preserved state. They had two different modes of keeping the dates; one was by the simple process of drying them, the other was by making them into a conserve, like the agweh* of the present day; and of this, which was eaten either cooked or as a simple sweetmeat, I have found some cakes †, as well as the dried dates, in the sepulchres of Thebes. For though Pliny affirms that the dates of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Arabia were, from the heat and dryness of the soil t, incapable of being preserved, modern experience, and the knowledge we have of the ancient customs of Egypt, prove the reverse of what is stated by that author. Yet he S speaks of dates of the Thebaïd kept in vases, which he supposes to be necessary for their preservation; and it would appear that he alluded to the agweh, did he not also suggest the necessity of drying them in an oven. The same author makes a just remark respecting the localities where the palm prospers, and the * Agweh, or adjweh, is a mass of dates pressed and preserved in baskets, which is commonly sold in all the markets of modern Egypt. One of these is in the British Museum. Plin. Nat. Hist. xiii. 4. "Servantur hi demum qui nascuntur in salsis atque sabulosis, ut in Judæa et Cyrenaica Africa: non item in Ægypto, Cypro, Syria, et Seleucia Assyriæ." § Plin. xiii. 4. "Thebaïdis fructus extemplo in cados conditur, . . ni ita fiat, celeriter expirat." |