is peculiarly agreeable in flavour, white as chalk, has little wax, and is, therefore, easier of digestion: the forests of Kowno in Lithuania, are alone noted for this production. Such is the value set upon lipiec, that a pound of it has been known to sell for two ducats at the very place where it was collected. In the forests about Kowno there are no caps, the bees living in the hollows of trees excavated by the peasantry for that purpose. The hives are protected from the severity of the winter by a coating of clay and straw: every peasant is entitled as a right to that portion of the forest with the hives to which he has paid attention; and any infringement of this right, or a robbery of the honey, is punished by the extraordinary infliction of drawing the intestines of the culprit through the navel, and rolling them round one of the trees which he had despoiled of its treasure. Kosciusko, who was a Lithuanian by birth, was so partial to the mead termed lipiec, from the honey of that name, that, during his exile in Switzerland, he wrote to General Wawrzecki to procure him a supply from the manufactory at Kowno.

The leszny honey is the produce of bees that feed in the pine forests; and the stepowey prasznymird, or the honey procured solely from the field flowers, is considered excellent; and that from the Ukraine is accounted the best. The poor people there reckon more on the produce of bees than on that of grain; and it is not uncommon for some of the farmers to have from four to five hundred ule, or logs of wood in their bee enclosures, which are called parsieka, or beehives, in order to collect the honey. To accomplish this purpose, these logs, which are of birch and about six feet high, are hollowed in the middle and are about five feet in length, and one foot in width. The aperture is covered with boards, leaving only a small opening for the passage of the bees. An idea of the quantity of honey collected may be conceived, when it is known that one of these large cavities is often filled in a favourable season at the beginning of August. From this superabundance of honey in Poland, the common drink may readily be supposed to be mead; and this is manufactured to the utmost perfection. In the process, three parts of water are added to one of honey, and to 163 gallons of this mixture about 50lbs. of hops are added. This amalgamation is termed a waar or brewing. While the water is in a boiling state, the honey and the hops are stirred in it, till they become milk-warm: it is then put into a cask where it ferments for some days. The liquid is then conveyed into a cask in which whiskey had been kept, is bunged closely, and put into a cool cellar, and after lying three years in this state, it is considered to have arrived at a state of excellence and continues to improve by age.

The common mead is manufactured in the same way, except that a quantity of malt is added. In Hungary, ginger is used in the process; in Poland this is not customary, though many think it would make a better stomachic. Wisniak, Dereniak, and Maleniak are other descriptions of mead, with the addition of wild cherries, berries of the cornus mascula, and raspberries; and their spirituous qualities are such that they will keep for many years. The mead drawn from the lipiec honey is purely that obtained from the honey itself, mixed with a certain proportion of water and fermented in the usual way.

According to ancient Polish writers, bees were so superabundant in their time, that they not only filled the hollows of trees, but even the ground was covered with their cells. The Poles at one period, brewed hydromel to such an extent, that the workmen were frequently drowned in the huge vats employed in the manufacture. It was at one time a mark of Polish gallantry to take off a lady's shoe, and pass it round the table, filled with wine or hydromel as a bumper to her health.

A description of honey of an intoxicating nature, is collected in some parts of Poland. This honey is gathered by the bees, from the azalea pontica, chiefly at Oczakow and Potesia; and is solely used for medicinal purposes, no mead being manufactured from it, nor can it be eaten like other honey, as it produces nausea as well as inebriation. Before quitting the subject of honey in this quarter, it may be interesting to know that in the fourth and fifth centuries, it was a common practice to collect bees together by hissing, or whistling, in the same manner as was done by beating on brass; and it is still a practice in Lithuania and Russia, to lead bees to feed and gather them home by the blowing of a whistle, a surprising phenomenon in the history of these insects.

In a country so favoured by the beneficence of Providence, it is lamentable that many of these gifts should be converted to purposes disgraceful to the human character; and if it be true, as reported by a respectable writer, that the ministers of religion desecrate their high office, by vending spirits to the people as a source of emolument, what can be expected from the community when they find their teachers thus lend themselves to pander to their vices?

The Danes, among the other inhabitants of the North who drew from France a vast quantity of her brandies, at present distil from corn to a large extent. In 1800, the distillers of Copenhagen, amounting to 316, formed a corporate body; their consumption of grain in that year was 287,824 tons, which yielded 2,347,850 gallons of spirits. At Flensburg, two hundred stills are employed, the produce of which is

principally sent to Iceland and Norway. In the town and neighbourhood of Husum, in the Duchy of Schleswick, the manufacture of ardent spirits is prosecuted with much vigour. There, as well as in other parts of the Danish territory, the feeding of cattle on the refuse of the stills, forms a very profitable part of the trade. Denmark, Schleswick, and Holstein produce corn in such abundance, that the export in one year frequently amounts to £105,000.*

The average estimate of the spirits exported from Denmark, amounts in value to about 100,000 rix-dollars, or £22,500. The crown draws a large proportion of the national resources from the excise on this article, and from the licenses permitting its manufacture and sale. The wash used in the distilleries is principally made from malted barley and rye, but scarcely any oats are used: considerable quantities of the spirits are converted into cordials, and much drunk in the taverns and retail shops, in the form of drams termed schnaps.†

Besides the ardour with which the Danes prosecute the distillation of spirits, they make very good beer and ale. Beer is of great antiquity amongst them. The Scandinavian word braga (beer), is probably the primitive of our terms brag and braggart, the Scandinavians being great boasters over their cups. The Saxons and Danes were passionately fond of beer; and the drinking of it was considered one of the principal enjoyments of the heroes admitted into the hall of Odin. From the word braga may have been derived the appellation braggot, from brag, malt, and gots, a honey-comb, a species of drink common in Wales, made from malt, honey, and spices; and the word bragwort, the name of a weak kind of mead, may be referred to the same origin.

A considerable portion of the hops employed in the Danish breweries, is of the growth of the islands of Funen, Falster, Bornholm, and the peninsula of Jutland; but the consumption is so great that they annually import hops to the amount of 55,000 rix-dollars. As honey forms an important article in their domestic economy, and in the composition of their liqueurs, great attention is paid by the Danes to the culture of bees, over which the schoolmasters of the country have a peculiar superintendence, and mead is manufactured extensively.

At entertainments, the inhabitants do not usually indulge to excess in drinking; when a sufficient supply of wine or other liquors has been served, the host rises, and thanks his guests for doing him the

For further particulars on the Trade of Denmark, see Addenda. Also Boetticher's Statistical Tables, No. 2.

† Clarke, vol. v. p. 41.

honor of dining or supping with him, or politely bows to them: the company then simultaneously rise, and bowing to the host and to each other, either depart or retire to another apartment to drink coffee.

From the king to the peasant, there is a simplicity and homeliness of manner amongst the Danes, which renders society agreeablé. Their kings have been noted for encouraging this cordiality of feeling. In 1796, a colony of Dutchmen settled in the country, and the king was so pleased with their industrious habits, and so anxious to encourage them, that he, with his court, visited them once a year, dressed in the same style as the Dutch boors, and partook of a feast prepared of the simplest dishes. There the royal visiter, after the example of his ancestor Odin, quaffed the circling goblet of braga or beer, and spent the evening in temperate enjoyment.

The Danes furnish the island of Iceland with beer and ardent spirits, in exchange for dried fish and other commodities of that country. A considerable quantity of their liquors is transported thither, to afford the inhabitants of that chilly region the pleasures arising from those warm and exhilarating beverages. The following return of the imports of Iceland for one year, will serve as a specimen of the inebriating liquors consumed by the inhabitants :-viz. 569 barrels of Danish and 226 barrels of French brandy, 47 barrels of rum, 861 hogsheads of wine, 53 barrels of mead, and 524 barrels of beer.

In Iceland, from the coldness of the climate, neither grain nor fruits are cultivated, except a species of wild corn, which is dried in a sofn, or kiln, afterward ground by hand-mills made of lava, and the meal made either into bread or porridge, which the peasantry account delicious. During the usurpation of Cromwell, the Icelanders brewed their own ale (bjor), and appear to have been very fond of it, as the term drinking-house, given to the place where they congregated to carouse, strongly implies. The English, at that period, exported thither large quantities of strong ale which was highly valued, and drunk with avidity.

According to Henderson, there were numerous mineral springs in Iceland, termed Olkelldar, or Ale-wells, from their taste and their inebriating effects when taken fasting; but which are now seldom used, having fallen into disrepute. In the island of Zealand, the inns have no sign over the door, except that of a ship, but are distinguished only by the proprietors' names. The taverns and inns are in general very good, but coffee-houses, such as those to be met with in France, England, and Germany, are nowhere to be found, the confectioners' shops serving as substitutes. In Copenhagen, which contains a population of above 106,000 inhabitants, industry and activity prevail;

but these virtues are, in some degree, counterbalanced by the propensity of the lower orders for spirituous liquors. The sale is extensive not only there, but also in the neighbouring towns. Elsinore has, on that account, been not unaptly called by sailors, "the Gin-shop": there all the British vessels lay in a stock of spirits, to serve them during their absence from England.*

In Norway, nature has so stinted her gifts as to oblige its inhabitants to depend on others partly for the necessaries, as well as for the luxuries of life. Norway annually imports 300,000 quarters of corn, of which Christiana alone imports from Denmark 100,000 barrels. In the northern districts, the grain for the most part is destroyed by incessant rains; and what remains is preserved in wooden sheds, heated by means of stoves, or dried by the winds on poles, fitted up for that purpose.† A practice somewhat similar is observed in many parts of Sweden, with this difference, that the shocks of corn are spread on wooden frames raised several feet from the ground. The chief beverage known to the primitive inhabitants of Norway, is that which is drawn from the birch tree. The mode of procuring the juice is, by boring a hole in the trunk, and then stopping it with a cork, through which, when a quill open at both ends, is thrust, the juice passes at the rate of a large drop every second. Amidst the immense forests that darken the mountains of Norway, great quantities may be obtained in this way. The inhabitants manufacture it as follows:-To a given quantity of juice is added a proportion of sugar, mostly two pounds to every gallon. These are boiled together, until all the impurities rise to the top and are skimmed off. To the remainder, when properly cooled, is added a little yeast, to promote fermentation. About three or four days complete the whole of the process. In extracting the juice, it is found to run more freely when the tree is moderately shaken by the wind, than in still and warm weather: the tree suffers little, if the hole be stopped with a wooden peg. Not only from the birch tree can a liquor be drawn, which may be converted into a good drink, but also from the willow, the poplar, the sycamore, and the walnut, all of which, when fermented, yield a palatable and strong wine. Some of the better classes in Norway, in making birch-wine, employ several ingredients, such as lemons, sugar, and raisins. The liquor, when boiled, is set to cool, and when brought to a proper temperature, a little yeast is

* Jones's Narrative, vol. i. p. 56.

† Coxe's Travels.

Acerbi's Travels, 2 vols. 4to.