The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1883-08-30
drinks o. ALI Nations.

Ancient Egypt had q species Of wine
and also a liquor called zythos, drawn
from bar:ey by fermentation, resem-
bling beer. That the people did not
escape from into sication is shown by
drawings which have been preserved
of slaves carrying their 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 so to excess. But the
statement that they were fond of pour
ing salt water into it to improve the
flavor raises a.gentle suspicion that it
differed from modernwinp. The like
in ference is srggeatSGk reading that
among the Ro nansa the low-priced
grades of wine sold at threepence for
ten gallons, and that the magnates
drank it by the gallon. But both the
Grecians and Romans imported wine
from Egypt. Who knows but this
may have been the chief cause OF in
temperance among them?
Julius Casar's troops seem to have
carried, perhaps not the original idea
OF wine and malt liquor, utimprove1
ways of making them, to Gaul and
Britain; and grape culture and wine
making throve in France because
natural to the sill and climate, While
ale an beer were so suited to English
cond tons, and were so easily made by
a people raising an abundance OF
grain, that they soon became the ma
tional beverages in preference to the
mead and cider with which the ancient
Britons had been wont to regale them
selves. Barley is the basis Of several
drinks made in different parts of the
world by processes analogous to mod
ern brewing, but they are totally diff
ferent in their intoxicating effects.
The discoverers Of America found
maize in use among the native tribes
in making species OF beer called
chica; and history indicates that the
natives would have suffered less from
int-mperance if they had chung to
their own drink than they have since
adopting the strong liquors introduced
by the whites. There are some unex-
pecteds, 'es of these beverages. In
England, ,ruce, fir, birch, maple and
ash trees have in former years been
tapped and the sap fermented for a
drink. The willow,poplar, sycamore and
walnut are said to yield palatable bev-
trages. Koumiss. of which descrip-
tiuns were published during Presid mt
Garlield's illness, is fermented milk,
anu is the basis of what may be called
the koumiss cure, administered to in
dividuais ut establishments maintained
among the Tartars; bat doctors differ
as to whether the treatment when tried
by Americans or Englishmen effects a
radical cure or only causes a temporary
fatness. The drink is favOrite one
among the Tartars and Circa:sians,
and they have Il legend that the angel
who succored Hagar in the desert
showed le. how to make it, and the
rscipe has been handed down from that
time. The Chinese maxi liquors, and
mischievous one'-to indulge them
f eclv in their native drinks woald not
be a hopeful experimentation rice,
from palm and even from mutton.
Sake is Il beer which has been long and
widely used in Japan, and, though
strong. is called wholesome; and the
Japanese make other drinks from
plums, from the juice of the plum or
b'r Ii, and from the flowers of the
motherwort and the peach. The Rus
slams delight in a quass made from bar
Icy AMI rye -four. Several varieties of
grass, herbs or flowers, roots Of sundry
plants, the juices of the sugarcane. the
aloe or the cavassa. and even of the
potato and beet are used among varl-
Gus tribes or nations rs the basis of
some favorite drink.