Smyrna times., 1906-05-16
THE FIRST BOTTLES
THEY WERE UNDOUBTEDLY MADE OF
HIDES OF ANIMALS.

The most ancient receptacles of wine
were formed of animal hides These
must be almost as old as wine itself,
for there certainly would have been
very little use in expressing the juice
of the grape and allowing it to ferment
unless there had been vessels of some
sort to contain it. Even if stored in !
underground cisterns, as is still done |
in southern Europe, bottles would be |
required for carrying the liquid on
Journeys or even for consuming it at |
home Frequent mention is made of |
such bottles in ancient literature. At a
feast in the liquid in the "Iliad' the
servants are described as bearing wine
upon their shoulders in a bottle of goat
skin. from which the goblets of the
guests were filled.
Throughout the interior of Spain
wine is still conveyed from place to
place in bottles made of goat or pig
skin identical in every respect with the
description given by HerOdOtus, says
the Chicago Chronicle. 1t will doubtless
be remembered that in the venta on
was hung around with these cueros
and that the doughty knight, mistaking
them for the myrmidOns of a wicked
enchanter, valiantly attacked them
with his sword until the room was
inch deep in red wine flowing from the
gashes made in the skins.
In Portugal and Greece these skin
L.. e..
of wine, as they are much more porta-
BILE than any other sort of vessel, eS-
pecially in a mountainous district,
where they have to be borne by mules.
These leathern bottles have a peculiar
interest, for in make and material they
connect the viniculture of today with
its origin in the unknown past. They
are survivals which have floated down
to us on the stream of time unaffected
by centuries of age.
A leathern bottle capable of holding
an armed man would seem today too
unwieldy for practical purposes, but
| there is evidence that many of those
used by the Romans were of still great
er dimensions. Among the ruins of
the ancient city of Pompeii mural
! picture has been discovered represent
ing an enormous skin bag on wine
cart which is being borne along by
a machine shaped like Il boat. Two
men were drawing the wine off into
amphorae In order to gain populari.
ty Roman politician would occasion
ally dole out wine wholesale to the
clients whose favor he courted, and
this picture probably pOrtrays the con
veyance on which the wine skin was
borne through the streets and the mel
engaged in circulating it.
The coronation ceremony of Ptolemy
philadelphus eXcelled in pOmp and pag
eantry every procession recorded il
history. not even excepting the trium
phant progress with which AleXandel
the Great celebrated his escape from
the deserts of Gedrosia. Perhaps the
object of Philadelphus was so to daz
zle his subjects that they should forge
the domestic crimes with which he in
augurated his ascent to the throne
The cost of the procession is estimated
at over $5O0,OOO 81 American money
, 1t lasted the whole day, being opene'
by the figure of the morning star dl'
closed with that of Hesperus.
Eighty thousand troops, cavalry an,
infantry, clad in gorgeous uniforms
marched past. Although the festiva
l was held in winter owing to the del
I cious Egyptian climate. abundance o
r fresh grapes were provided on one O
the vehicles of the procession and
vintage scene faithfully represented
10 the sound of the flute and song sly
ty satyrs under the superintendent {
+ Silenus. bearing his symbolic canth;
+ rus, trod out the grapes and flooded til
J. streets with foaming must.
j. Perhaps not the least appreciate
:. part of the show was a car thirty-se'
d en- feet long by twenty-one feet broa
bearing Il gigantic utter made of leo
ard hides and containing 1900 amph
= rae of wine. AS the Greek amphOra
), equivalent 10 eight imperial gallon
,t the liquid contained in the utter wOu
l. have equaled the enormous quantity
1. $4,000 gallons.
The sides must have been strengt
ened with some material stronger tn;
leather to enable the skins to resist Il
~ pressure of such a weight of liquid. !
70 the car moved along in the stately pr
m cession the wine was allowed slowly
n flow from it so that the thirsty mul
is tude could fill their drinking vessels
m it passed.
40 The scholastic Latin term for wi
90 skin is utter. but the colloquial wo
q. used was butts, and thus a small sk
Il was the diminutive buticula. Fro
n this buticula is derived the word SD
~ tle," and, with slight linguistic mod
ba cation. the same has been adopted
~ all modern languages.
ba Although skins were never used
,,s wine in England. even when gra
ar juice was fomented there, the leatl
- bottle or blackjack was one of
earliest drinking vessels. 1t is Rt
brated in many old English balli
"a and is not an uncommon alehouse c
,ei blem at the present day. Some
ch these leather bottles were silver lii
We and were ornamented with silver b,
ou ito ring peals of drunkenness"