independent of the salt and defrutum. The kind of Greek wine intended to be mimicked, though without the specification of a name, was no doubt sufficiently understood at the time. It was perhaps classable with passum, for much the same directions are given for gathering and drying the clusters; and although the exposure to the sunshine was curtailed to three days, that might have been in just proportion for an early Italian grape, and have had an effect upon a thick-juiced one equal to a four or five days' drying on one of thinner juice. The same caution is given to have all the must produced by 'treading,' none from the press, which was apt to set at liberty the gluten, which, absorbing oxygen, at once commenced its work of fermentation. The careful pouring off the must from the settlings at the earliest practicable stage, is a further precaution. The addition of the salt might be with a view partly to flavor, from the dissolving of a portion of it by the thinner aqueous particles of the wine, which, by that very process of saturation, were protected from fermentation. If that did not sufficiently answer, for a wet or dry season, or other circumstances, might affect the quality of the vintage,—it was a matter of taste to add the defrutum, to give a fuller body. Even if slightly fermented, this wine could not be intoxicating. The Greeks and Romans also made from grapes another class of articles distinguished amongst the latter by the plural adjective dulcia, emphatically the sweets' (that being the chief characteristic without regard to the mode of preparation), since the word comprised boiled-wines' as well as musts. Some kinds may have been of a thicker consistency than others, and used for the adulteration of honey, either in seasons of scarcity, or to meet the necessities of an increasing population, where the art of extracting sugar from the cane had not been discovered. The two most notable musts, were the aigleuces (always sweet) and the protropum (before trodden) the Greek names of which denote their origin.* All of them are enumerated by Pliny (xiv. 9):-De dulcium generibus quatuordecem-"Of fourteen kinds of dulcia [sweets]." The chapter is worth analysis. The first four are, Psithium and Melampsithium, both of them kinds of passum, having, he says, its flavor, and not that of wine; Cybilites, a true Galatian Mulsum; and Aluntium, from Sicily, having the flavor of must; these four being dependent upon the particular grape and soil. The fifth is "Siræum, by some called Hepsema, but by us (Romans) Sapa, of which Defrutum was a variety;" to which he adds, Omnia in adulterium mellis excogitata. “All [these latter] were contrived for the adulteration of honey." The next were two kinds of passum differently prepared, and two sorts of second-rate passum. The tenth, Aigleuces, is thus described: Medium inter dulcia vinumque, est quod Græci agleucos vocant, hoc est semper mustum. Id evenit cura, quoniam fervere prohibetur-sic appellant musti in vina transitum-"There is an intermediate [article]† between dulcia [sweets] and [what is technically] wine, which the Greeks call aigleucos, that is, 'always-must.' It is the result of care, owing to fermentation being prevented, for so they call the passage of musts into [common] wines." The means of achieving it was this: Ergo mergunt e lacu protinus in aqua cados, donec bruma transeat et consuetudo fiat algendi—“To that end they sink the casks (immediately [after filling] from the lake) into water [of a pond], until the midwinter has passed and a habit of being cold shall have been created." The eleventh is a kind of passum from the province of Narbonne, to which, he says, some add the Diachyton, the difference only arising from various modes of drying the grapes. The thirteenth sort of sweets is Melitites, different from mulsum, the composition of which is explained. Lastly, Protropum, of which he says: Ita appellatur a quibusdam mustum sponte defluens, antequam calcentur uva. Hoc protinus diffusum in lagonis suis defervere passi, postea in sole xl. diebus torrent astatis secuta ipso canis ortu-" By this name some people call the must which flows out of its own accord before the grapes are trodden. This immediately racked off into flagons [kept] for it, is allowed to cool down; afterward they roast it in the sunshine for forty days, from the rising of the dog-star [in July] in the ensuing summer." The old Roman law of the twelve tables prohibited intoxicating wine to women, who, by inference, were permitted any other kind. Pliny's book (xiv. 13) on the use of wine among the ancients, commences: Non licebat id feminis Roma bibere— "It was not lawful to women at Rome to drink that”—he means intoxicating wine, and relates some instances of the law being enforced, the husband taking upon himself the office of both judge and executioner. He says (15):-Lautissima apud priscos vina errant, murræ odore condita, ut adparet in Plauti fabula quæ Persa inscribitur quamquam in ea et calamum addi jubet. Ideo quidam aromatite delectates maxume credunt. "The ancients had sumptuous wines seasoned with the scent of myrrh, as appears from the play of Plautus, entitled Persa; notwithstanding he orders calamus to be added. For this reason some persons think that they [the ancients] were very much delighted with aromatics." Pliny further says: “Kinsfolk kissed the women when they met them, to find whether their breath smelled of Temetum. Hoc tum nomen vina erat, unde et temulentia appellata." In the same chapter, he quotes the verses of F. Dossennus "Mittebam vinum pulchrum, Murrinam " I sent fair wine, yclept Myrrhine. From the comedy of Acharistione, also— "Panem et Polentam, vinum Murrinam." Quibus adparet non inter VINA modo murrinam, sed inter DULCIA quoque nominatum. "From which, it is evident, Myrrhina was classed not only among WINES, but among DULCIA also." Henderson, in his 'History of Wines,' commenting on the boiled wine of the Roman women referred to by Virgil, truly says "The use of this inspissated juice became general."* But he errs when he infers, that, because unfermented wine was distinguished from fermented, it was “never called WINE, nor used as WINE" (p. 44). We have given many illustrations to the contrary. Pliny, who attempts this technical distinction, cannot adhere to it; and he has testified that an article may come under both classes. Moreover, Pliny is not the Atlas of Criticism and the infallible Arbiter of Language. Dr W. H. Rule, in his 'Brief Inquiry,' confesses that unfermented grape-juice "was the prótropos or prodromos OINOS, of the Greeks " (p. 7). Dr Rule contends, rightly enough, The reference is to Virgil's Georgics, i. 293-295, which describes the occupation of a Farmer's wife thus: Interea longum cantu soluta laborem, The Rev. E. Cobbold thus versifies the passage: "The industrious dame anon Sings to the whizzing wheel she urges on, Boils the sweet must, slow simmering by her side, And skims with leaves the cauldron's bubbling tide." The original, however, is not fully expressed for (1) pecten, refers to the slay of the weaver; (2) aheni has a peculiar propriety as referring to the brass cauldron, which is the metal best adapted for the purpose of avoiding a burnt flavor; (3) tepidis better consorts with simmering than boiling: (4) decoquit expresses more than boiling-namely, inspissating, 'boiling down.' The last two lines may be thus rendered:-"And is boiling-down over the fire the luscious liquor MUST, and taking off with leaves the wavy spume of the tepid brazen cauldron.” that both mustum in Latin and gleukos in Greek, included an intoxicating liquor in its applications; and the fact is undeniable that fermentation alone converts grape-juice into an intoxicating drink. He allows too, that tirosh (translated new-wine) “is also spoken of as in the unfermented state." Of the word ahsis, too, translated oinos neos, he concedes that "it means the simple pure juice of the grape;" that the equivalent Greek word is gleukos, sweet-must. The most ancient (Syriac) version does not translate the word of 'wine,' but by must. The Ethiopic has 'drink fresh-made, made from the juice of ripe-fruits.' (Ludolf. Lex. Eth.) The Chaldee Targum too (Esther i. 7) supposes that Ahasuerus and his lords were drunken with khamar-ahsis, fresh grape juice; a LUXURY quite in place on the table of the King of Babylon. Hence two facts appear (1) that to ‘distinguish' one wine from another, does not exclude the common property by which they are entitled to a common name; and (2) that even specific names were much more vague and general than is often supposed. When Dr Rule asserts that "grapejuice is not wine, any more than chaff is bread," he tries to overrule the plainest facts in language, and he confounds a contrast with a comparison. Chaff is the husk of corn, not the material of bread; but 'grape-juice' is the very substance of wine, -as Thomas Aquinas has it, of the specific nature of wine.' II. THE PRODUCE OF THE VINEYARD IN THE EAST. By Rev. HENRY HOMES, American Missionary at Constantinople. "In a country where wine, as in America, is known as a great promoter of the crime of drunkenness, and where the vintage is supposed to be gathered chiefly for the purpose of making wine, it is difficult for the mind to do justice to the common language of scripture which extols the vine and its products as one of the staffs of life. Along with corn and oil [yitzhar], wine [tirosh] is almost always combined as the third representative of the three chief blessings of the year." (Deut. vii. 13; 'fruit of the land'; Neh. x. 39.) Wine is supposed to be the chief thing obtained from the vine, and there is no substance now called 'wine't by any one that is not intoxicating; therefore the mind asks that the propriety and consistency should be shown, of making such a natural source of evil an emblem of the staff of life along with corn and oil. The source of embarrassment seems to arise from the supposition that the chief produce of the vineyard is, and was, that which we at this day universally call 'wine,' and that the vineyard was cultivated chiefly for its yielding such wine, Now, as a resident in the East, we believe sufficient facts can be adduced to render it extremely probable that this supposition is erroneous, and that the fabrication of an intoxicating liquor was never the chief object for which the grape was cultivated among the Jews. Joined with bread, fruits, and the olive tree, the three might well, under the comprehensive words of corn (dagan), wine (tirosh), and oil [orchard-fruit], be representatives of the productions most essential to them, at the same time most abundantly provided for the support of life. Abridged from an article in the Bibliotheca Sacra, of May, 1848. We retain the precise words of the author; any of our own are inclosed in brackets []. All the notes are editorial. It is a significant fact that while Dr Laurie cites garbled extracts from Eli Smith, who confesses to no first rate knowledge, he cautiously avoids the adverse testimony of Messieurs Homes and Robson, who made special observations on this subject. That is, kumr. Of course not, because this word has been in modern times appropriated to intoxicating wine exclusively. A statement, therefore, of this fact, urged as an argument, is a puerile quibble. In Asia Minor and Syria, the largest part of the produce of the vine is used for other purposes than making intoxicating liquor—whether the vineyards are owned by Moslems, or by the Greek, Armenian, and other Christians. Eli Smith writes in reference to Syria:-"Wine is not the most important, but the least so, of all the objects for which the vine is cultivated.”—(Bib. Sacra, Nov. 1846.) The amount made increases near commercial cities. Still, in the vine-growing districts of Turkey, the grape stands as prominent among the productions of the country, as a source of comfort and prosperity, as the Bible makes it to have been among the productions of Judea. Our practical moralists, in treating on the use of wine, have had no complete information on the existing varieties of 'liquor of grapes.' 1. The first produce of the vineyard is the Green Grape (Num. vi. 4). It is used for its verjuice, to give a tart taste to all articles of food that need it, and for making refreshing drinks. The manner of using it is various, either by putting the fresh green grapes into the food, or by drying the same in the sun and putting them up in bags like raisins, or by pressing out the juice, partially evaporating it in the sun, and carefully preserving it in bottles; or, lastly, after having thoroughly dried the green grape, it is ground to powder in a mill, and the powder bottled. These various preparations give thus a fresh tart vegetable juice for all seasons of the year, for cooking meat and vegetables for the table; and in regions where they are never accustomed to see a lemon, they supply the place of lemonade. A drink made from the juice of the green grape is most reviving to the weary traveler. 2. The FRESH RIPE GRAPE in the regions where it is cultivated may be had from three to five months in succession (Lev. xxvi. 5), owing to the difference of vines, soil, and climate of a particular district. During these months, and indeed for many following months, combined with bread it is the main reliance of the people for food to eat, for theirs is a 'land of bread and vineyards' (2 Kings, xviii. 32). Grapes are not sold in the interior towns at two or three shillings a pound, but at the astonishingly low price of from one quarter of a cent to one cent [1⁄21⁄2d.] a pound; and even in Constantinople, with all the causes of dearness, the common sorts of grapes can be had for two or three cents a pound. They are so innocuous that, in general, one may eat of them with greater freedom than any other kind of fruit, even to satiety. It is not to be wondered at that so luscious a fruit, which can be obtained at a cheaper rate than potatoes by the poor in Ireland, should form in some districts, with oil and bread, the chief nourishment of the people; and that the vine should be extensively cultivated for the sake of its solid fruit merely. 3. FRESH GRAPEs are hung up IN DRY PLACES in the shade and preserved on the cluster, with a little wilting, to eat in the winter; so that the time of fresh grapes is protracted for at least two months longer. Mr Schneider, of Broosa, remarks that this kind of grapes is sold there as late as February and March; the price is nearly as low as freshly gathered grapes." 4. RAISINS. In the villages the grapes are hung in clusters on the side of the houses, or strewed on blankets on the tops of the houses to dry, and thus they prolong the fruits of the vintage for the months when the hung grapes are gone. Of their use for all kinds of cakes in cookery, as also for an accompaniment to bread, we need not speak, though it should be kept in mind to aid our estimate of the value of the whole gathering from the vine, when used in the form of solid-fruit. Hence the inconsequence of the objection that at the Passover no grapes were to be had for making Mast wine. 5. PRESERVES made with fresh grape-juice." One of the very common uses of the grape is, to boil the freshly expressed MUST before it is twenty-four hours old, after having removed the acidity and checked the tendency to ferment by throwing in calcareous earth, and then to boil with it various kinds of fruits and vegetables for sauces and preserves for the whole year. The most usual fruits employed are apples, quinces, plums, and peaches; and of vegetables, green tomatoes, egg plants, pumpkins, squashes, and watermelon rinds. Mr Schneider says, “an enormous quantity of Retchel (the name in Turkish for this kind of preserves) is made in Broosa," 6. JELLIES and confectionery from grape-juice. Other common but singular modes of using grape-juice consist in throwing into the juice various preparations, as of the ground or broken grains of millet, wheat, barley, rice, or almonds and nuts, and especially the starch of wheat. (1) Starch or flour is thrown into the boiling juice, and when sufficiently boiled, the syrup is poured out upon cloths to dry in the sun, Broken pistachios, almonds, or walnuts, are strewed upon the sheet while the material is yet soft, which is then doubled, dried, and ready for use. (2) Wheat, and similar grains, soaked in water, are pounded to a pulp or mash, and left sufficient time to ferment. When this is boiled with the grapejuice, the mess in the cauldron is made into cakes, which, when dried, have a sour-sweet taste. (3) Pistachios, almonds, filberts, and the like, having been strung on strings, are dipt in the boiling mixture of starch and juice, and hung up to dry, covered with the soft sweet paste of the cauldron. There are many other similar manufactures, known each by its peculiar name, which are brought to the large cities for sale. The emigrants from the country to the city, speak with glowing animation and yearnings for home, when they allude to these luxuries of their native regions, 7. Pickled grapes. Clusters of good ripe grapes are carefully placed in wooden or earthen vessels, so as to two-thirds fill them. Fresh must, boiled down to onehalf, is then poured in, so as to fill the vessels, which are then carefully closed, and left to stand from fifteen to twenty days. When ready for use, the grapes and juice are offered together, to be eaten or drunk. 8. Grape Syrup or Molasses* is made of must that has not been pressed [out] more than twenty-four hours. Upon the grapes before pressing, or upon the expressed juice, calcareous earth is often thrown, to neutralize the acid and purify the juice. The juice is boiled from five to seven hours, and reduced to one-fifth or one-fourth of the original quantity. The syrup differs in consistency in different countries, according to the amount of time employed in boiling, being boiled in Syria so hard that it does not easily run, while in Turkey it is more liquid than sugar cane molasses. It is called in Turkish pekmez, in Arabic dibs, in Persian and Armenian rob [probably syrob abbreviated], in Greek hepsema, and some say, in Hebrew debash. (So Gesenius.) It is never regarded as a boiled wine or vin cuit, but as a sweetening-syrup, although in the Persian the word pekmez appears still to signify wine. † (See Lexicon of Meninski.) It may sour, but never becomes wine [in the modern sense]. In cooking various kinds of vegetables with meat for the table, making all kinds of cakes, etc., it is in most frequent and constant use with families of every rank. By some method, a process I have not seen, fresh grape molasses may be made a solid substance like cake or pudding, without The Hebrew SHEMARIM, 'preserves,' may correspond to this (Is. xxv. 6), or SOBHE, 'boiled wine' (Is. i. 22). Syrup or Sherap, is still one of the Eastern names for Wine, like Pekmez. So formerly, Herbert, A. D. 1638, in his Persian vocabulary, has 'sherap, wine.' And Olearius (1637) says-"They (the Ambassadors) received a bottle of scherab, or Persian Wine" (p. 175). |