The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-02-09
National Beverages.

A sketch of intoxicants," in q vol
ume on drinks, by r. V. Rogers, Just
published, gives entertaining informa--
tion of the multitude of sources from
which in various lands the people have
sought stimulants. Ancient Egypt had
species of wine, and also liquor called
zythos, drawn from barley by fermen-
tation, resembling beer. That the
people did not escape drunkenness is
shown by drawings which have been
preserved of slaves carrying drunken
masters home, and the like; but the
effects of the two drinks were noticed
to be different. Grecians used wine
from the earliest period, and history
gives many tokens that they did go to
excess. But the statement that they
were fond of pouring salt water into il
to improve the flavor raises gentle
suspicion that it differed from modern
wine. The like inference is suggested
by reading that among the Romans the
lower priced grades of wine sold at
three pence for ten gallons, and that the
magDates drank it by the gallon
Maximum six gallons per day, Tor
quatus two gallons at a draught
without becoming drunk But both
the Grecians and the Romans imported
wine from Egypt; who knows but this
may have been the chief cause of
drunkenness among them A? julius
Caesars troops seem to have carried, per-
haps not the original idea of wine and
malt liquor, but improved ways of max
ing them, to Gaul and Britain; and
grape culture and wine making throve
in France because natural to the soil
and climate, while ale and beer were so
suited TO English conditions and were
so easily made by people raising
abundance of grain that they soon be-
came the national beverage 10 prefer
ence to the mead and cider with which
the ancient Britons had been wont to
regale themselves Barley is the basis
of several drinks made in different parts
of the world by processes analogous to
modern brewing, but they are totally
different in their intoxicating effects.
The discovereis of America found maize
in use among the native tribes
in making species of beer called chica;
and history indicates that the ma
tives would have suffered less from in
temperance if they had clung to their
own diink than they have since adopt
ing the strong liquors introduced by
the whites. There are some unexpecte
sources of these beverages. In Eng.
land, spruce, fir, birch, maple and ash
trees have in former years been tapped
and the sap fermented for drink. The
willow, poplar, sycamore and walnut
are said to yield palatable beverages.
koumiss, of which descriptions were
published during President Garfeld's
illness, is termenfed milk, and is the
b1sis of what may be called the koumiss
cure, administered to invalids at estab.
hshments maintained among the Tar
tars; but doctors differ as to whether
the treatment when tried by Americans
or Englishmen effects a radical cure or
only causes a Temporary fatteuing.
The driuk is favorite one among
the Tartars and Circassisns, and they
have q legend that the angel who
succored Hagar in the desert
showed her how to make it, and that
the recipe has been handed down from
that time. The Chinese make liquors,
and mischievous ones-to indulge them
freely in their native drinks would not
DO hopeful experimentation rice,
from the palm, and even from mutton.
Sake is a beer which has been long and
widely used in Japan, and, though
strong, is called wholesome; and tho
Japanese make other drinks from
plums, from the juice of the plum or
the birch, and from the flowers of the
motherwort and the peach. The
Russians delight in quass made from
barley and rye -four. Several varieties
of grass, herbs or flowers, roots of
sundryssplants, the juices of the sugar
cane, the aloe or the cavassa, and even
of the potato and beet are used among
various tribes or nations as the basis
of some favorite drink.