The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1906-04-17
THE FIRST BOTTLES
ThGy WERE UNDOUBTEDLY MADE OF
HIDES OF ANIMALS.

LIE IlhDl DUI LES
THEY WERE UNDOUBTEDLY MADE OF
HIDES OF ANIMALS.
psns Of These Ancient ReceptscIes
For Wine Were of Gigantic Size.
Skin Bags Are still Used In Spain,
Portugal and Greece.
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 1t to ferment
unless there had been vessels of some
sort to contain It. Even IL 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 1t 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 bottle Of goat
skin, from which the goblets of the
guests were filed.
Throughout the interior of Spain
wine Is still conveyed from place to
place In bottles made of goat or pig
akin Identical In every respect with the
description given by Herodotus, says
the Chicago Chronicle 1t will doubtless
BE- remembered that In the venta on
the Sierra Moreno Don Quixote's room
was hung around with these cueros
and that the doughty knight, mistaking
them for the myrmidons Of 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
bags are also used for the conveyance
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
ita origin In the unknown past. They
are survivals which have fioated 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 I
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 a wine
cart which is being borne along by
. machine shaped like a boat. Two
men were drawing the wine of 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 men
engaged In circulating it.
The coronation ceremony of Ptolemy
Philadelphus excelled in pomp and pag-
eantry every procession recorded In
history, not even excepting the trium-
plant progress with which Alexander
the Great celebrated his escape from
the deserts of Gedrosia. Perhaps the
object of Philadelphus was SO to daz-
xle his subjects that they should forget
the domestic crimes with which he In
augurated his ascent to the throne.
The cost Of the procession Is estimated
at over $4,000 of American money.
1t lasted the whole day. being opened
by the figure of the morning star and
closed with that of Hesperus.
Eighty thousand troops. cavalry and
infantry, clad in gorgeous uniforms.
marched past Although the festival |
was held In winter owing to the deli
cious Egyptian climate, abundance of |
fresh grapes were provided on one of |
the vehicles of the procession and a !
vintage scene faithfully represented. |
To the sound of the flute and song six |
~ satyrs under the superintendent of |
Silenus, bearing his symbolic cantha-
rus, trod out the grapes and flooded the |
streets with foaming must
Perhaps not the least appreciated |
part of the show was car thirty sew
en- feet long by twenty-one feet broad, |
bearing a gigantic utter made of leop-
ard hides and containing 5000 ampho-
rae of wine. AS the Greek amphora Is
equivalent to eight imperial gallons,
the liquid contained in the utter would |
have equaled the enormous quantity of |
24.000 gallons.
The sides must have been strength |
ened with some material stronger than
leather to enable the skins to resist the |
pressure of such weight OF liquid AS |
the car moved along in the stately pro- |
cession the wine was allowed slowly to |
dow from 1t so that the thirsty multi |
tude could I'LL their drinking vessels as
It passed.
The scholastic Latin term for wine
skin is utter, but the colloquial word |
used was butts, and thus a small skin
was the diminutive buticula From
this buticula is derived the word dot
tle," and. with slight linguistic modifi-
cation. the same has been adopted In
all modern languages.
Although skins were never used for
wine in England. even when grape
JuASC WIS ioiueuteu luert, Ine iSAIner
bottle or blackjack was one of the
earliest drinking vessels. It is cele-
brated In many old English ballads
and Is not an uncommon alehouse en-
blem at the present day Some of
these leather bottles were silver lined
and were ornamented with silver bells
ito ring peals Of drunkenness" as
Becker says in his English Villainies
Seven Times Pressed to Death" When
so ornamented they are called "gyngle
boyes."
Many Of those in ordinary use were
made in the shape of a boot. which oc-
casioned the French prisoners to report
ON their return to France that 'the
Engiishmen used to drink out Of their
bootes"
They evidently took the fancy, how
ever. Of some Of the French nobility,
tor in the expenses of John. king o.
France, when prisoner In England aft
er the battle OF Poitiers there is the
following entry: Pour deux bouteilles
de CUR achetees a London pour Mon
seigneur Philippe. 9s 3d." no incon-
siderable price In those days. A. d.