rectified, and of a strength equal to West India rum; it is colourless, and has an empyreumatic taste and flavour. The stills employed are much the same as those used by the Jews in Turkey.

It was in this part of Asia, that Tamerlane, or Timour the Tartar, gave, on the marriage of his six grandsons, the celebrated feast of which SO many thousands were partakers, and which conveys to us a knowledge of the liquors then in use. The scene was truly magnificent: a plain, studded with tents and pavilions, displayed all the grandeur of oriental pomp and magnificence; forests were cut down for the supply of fuel, pyramids of meat and vases filled with every description of liquor, such as koumiss, oxymel, hippocras, brandy, sirma, sherbet, and wines of various countries, attracted the attention of the voluptuary, and were presented to the guests, on salvers of gold and silver, in cups of agate, crystal and gold, adorned with pearls and jewels. At this banquet, all the subordinate rulers and chiefs of Tartary, together with ambassadors from European courts and envoys from the conquered countries, were assembled; and the public joy was testified by illuminations and masquerades, a general indulgence was proclaimed, every law was relaxed, every pleasure was allowed, the people were free, and the sovereign presided, a delighted spectator. Pearls and rubies were showered on the heads of the brides and bridegrooms, and left to be collected by their attendants.* At another feast given by a Khan of Tartary, which lasted for seven days, there were consumed daily eight waggon loads of wine, two of brandy, and twenty of koumis, while, during each day, there was a slaughter of three hundred horses, as many cows, and a thousand sheep. But, how are the mighty fallen! those states which were once governed by the gigantic powers of a Tamerlane, are now dwindled into insignificance, and the intellect of their rulers, narrowed by the barbarism which surrounds them, is unable or unwilling to encourage the growth of science, or the progress of arts.

Wherever rice or any other kind of grain is cultivated in Tartary, the fermenting process is not unknown: in the same manner, the virtues of the grape are not allowed to remain unnoticed by the most ignorant of the hordes, since wine is familiar throughout a large portion of this extensive region. The beer to be met with is, for the most part, of indifferent quality; that brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed baksoum, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They admire it, and affirm that it is an invaluable remedy for dysentery: it is of an acid taste without smell, has little of an

Vide Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

intoxicating quality, and keeps but a short time.-Such of the grain as they distil, is put into a vessel carefully covered, and, after being allowed to run into a slight state of acetous fermentation, it is put into the still and drawn off at a good strength, under the usual name of arrack.

The Turkestans have various beverages, among which is an excellent cooling drink obtained from melons. This fruit is of the finest description, and so large as to be from three to four feet in circumference; every part of it, except the rind and seed, is equally good for eating and of a most agreeable flavour. The melons are frequently sent to a great distance, even so far as St. Petersburg: those of Khorassan are sent to Ispahan, the capital of Persia, for the use of the monarch, a journey of thirty days; and melons are conveyed from Agra to Surat, a distance of nearly 700 miles, by pedestrians, in baskets hung at the extremities of a pole carried on the shoulders, at the rate of seven or eight leagues a day. The emperor Babas says, that he shed tears over a melon of Turkestan, which he cut up in India, after his conquest, its flavour having brought his native country and other tender associations to his recollection. The value of this fruit was in such high estimation, that it is related of Aly Sultan, that he caused a soldier, who had taken two melons from the field of a planter, to be hanged on the spot where he committed the theft.

Before quitting the subject of Tartary, it may be proper to observe that the Mantchoos who conquered China, and whose descendants still hold the sovereignty of that empire, prepare a wine of a very peculiar nature from the flesh of lambs, either by fermenting it, reduced to a kind of paste, with the milk of their domestic animals, or bruising it to a pulpy substance with rice. When properly matured, it is put into jars, and then drawn off as occasion requires. It has the character of being strong and nourishing, and it is said that their most voluptuous orgies consist in getting drunk with it. Whatever remains, after the supply of domestic wants, is exported into China or Corea, under the name of lamb wine.* Gerbillon says, 'that the rich Mongols leave mutton to ferment with their sour milk before they distil it. This explains the mystery of the spirit said to be made from the flesh of sheep by the Tartars in China, of which it has been said the emperors have been so fond.

During the sojourn of Michailow among the Kiwenses, he saw them prepare a drink called bursa from a description of berries termed psak, which much resembled dates. This liquor was made

The Natural and Civil Hist. of Tonquin, by the Abbe Rickard.

by boiling the berries, pressing out the kernels, and filtering the juice-the fermentation followed, and was so rapid that it became highly intoxicating, and fit for use the morning after it was made. He says that two cups of it inebriated him as much as if he had drunk an equal quantity of brandy; and that its qualities were so fascinating that the more he drank, the more he was inclined to drinkThe Khirghises and Karakalpaks are fond of it, and, when a supply of berries can be obtained, they frequently indulge to excess. From the strong likeness of these berries to dates, it is not improbable but that the bursa is the ancient date wine mentioned in Scripture and so celebrated along the banks of the Euphrates as well as in other parts of Asia, and is perhaps the same as that which was brought in skins down the Tigris and Euphrates to Babylon. Notwithstanding the prohibition of Mahometanism and the strictness of Budhism, the love for intoxicating liquors is so prevalent in Tartary, that some of the northern tribes not only barter their cattle with foreign merchants, but even part with their children for the trifling consideration of tobacco and spirits. Such is the degradation to which the absence of true religion and the refinements of education has reduced so many of our fellow creatures!

In extending our views to India, we are led to contemplate an immense portion of our species as existing at a remote period, in a very advanced state of civilisation, successfully cultivating the arts and sciences, and spreading their renown to distant nations. Although some of the wisest philosophers of Greece, viz. Pythagoras, Anaxarchus, Pyrrho, and others, visited that country and returned enriched by the wisdom of its sages, yet the early arts of these nations still remain unknown. Since, however, we are assured, that they were proficients in metallurgy, the manufacture of sugar, indigo, dyeing, embroidery, working in ivory, engraving on precious gems and stones, in the production of the loom and needle, in mechanics, architecture, astronomy, and mathematics,† it is natural to infer that they must have been early acquainted with the composition of some kind of intoxicating beverage; drink being indispensable in tropical climates.

In the Padma Puran, a sacred book of India, there is sufficient evidence that fermented liquors were invented in the days of Noah; and the story of Satyavarman having become intoxicated with mead, and in that state discovered by his three sons, Shema, Charma, and

Iya'peti, is but another version of the relation contained in the 9th chap. of Genesis respecting Noah and his three sons.*

According to the mythology of the Hindoos, their deities are said to have drunk at their feasts a liquor termed amruti, in the same manner as the Grecian deities drank their ambrosia; so that by attributing to their gods a passion for exhilarating drink, they alluded to an origin anterior to any human record.

What the early drinks of the people of India were, there is no correct account, but, as sugar was in extensive use, it is likely that it formed a principal ingredient of their liquors. The raw juice of the cane from its palatable nature, was first made use of; afterwards it was boiled, and, in process of time, its inebriating properties were developed by fermentation.

Sugar is supposed to have been one of the articles forming the presents made by the queen of Sheba to king Solomon; as fine sugar is to this day sent as a present to the Grand Seignior by the Egyptians, in the same manner as Jacob sent honey to a viceroy of Pharaoh. Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander, is said to have been the first who brought any information respecting sugar into Europe; and although the Arabians cultivated the sugar-cane and supplied the city of Rome with its produce, yet it is well known that they were indebted to the orientals for it, as well as for the knowledge of its manufacture. Soukar, or, Sukhir, the Arabic term for sugar, etymologists say, comes from the Hebrew word siker, which signifies an intoxicating liquor; and it is remarkable that this Hebrew term is translated in nineteen instances in our Scriptures as implying strong drink. Some philologists say, that gur, both in the ancient and modern languages of India, signifies raw sugar, and that Sarcara is the term applied to it in its manufactured state.

From the middle syllable of the Sanscrit word ich-sucasa, it is alleged that the Arabic name for sugar is derived, and there seems to be good grounds for this inference, as the Sanscrit suca, the Hebrew siker, the Greek sikera, the Persian shukker, the Indian sukur, the German sucker, the Dutch suiker, the Danish sukker, the Swedish socker, the French sucre, and the English sugar, appear to have one common origin, if we judge from orthography, pronounciation, and acceptation.

But although the Arabians were the first who wrote of sugar extracted from the sugar-cane, which they called honey of cane; yet it is not to be inferred, that to them other nations were indebted for a

Vide Sir William Jones's Works.

knowledge of its uses, or the conversion of it into an intoxicating liquor. Lucan mentions an Eastern nation, in alliance with Pompey, that used this liquor as a common drink. Quintus Curtius, in his life of Alexander the Great, states, that at the time of the invasion of India by that monarch, the natives made use of a sort of wine which is supposed to have been no other than toddy, or the unfermented juice of cocoa-nut. Nearchus in his Periplus* mentions an island called Oigana or Wroct, now Kismis, which was abundant in vines and palm-trees. The latter name it obtained from a grape, called kismis, peculiar to it to this day. Doctor Vincent, the translator of the Periplus, says, that at that time, a great trade was carried on in Arabian and Syrian wines; but the former, he thinks, was palm or toddy wine: of this there can be little doubt, from the great abundance of that wine in use amongst the Arabians, it being an article of commerce with them from a remote period, previous to the era of the Hegira. The people of Hindostan dealt largely in the importations, and their acquaintance with a variety of native drinks shews the extent to which they had arrived in their manufacture.-From the Institutes of Menu,† we learn that the inebriating liquors of the Hindoos may be considered as of three principal sorts; one extracted from dregs of sugar, another from bruised rice, and a third from the flowers of the Madhuca tree. The latter, which is better known by the name of Mahwah, has afforded materials for distillation from time immemorial; and in India, when first visited by Europeans, the inhabitants were found in possession of the art of extracting a spirit from its flowers. Now, it may be asked, how could they have acquired this art from the Arabians, a people prohibited, even before the name of the Saracens became so eminent, from using the mildest intoxicating liquors? Some, however, think that distillation was not known to the inhabitants of India before their intercourse with the Saracens, and that their drinks were mere extracts procured by compression and fermentation; but why the era of the introduction of distillation into India should be settled at the commencement of the Saracen ascendancy, is not only unaccountable, but at variance with the historic records respecting the knowledge and acquirements of the Eastern nations; and is purely attributable to that prejudice which gives the invention to the Saracens. The trade of the East, which had continued long in the hands of the Egyptians, was, in 640, transferred to the Saracens by the Caliph Omar. It is therefore more natural to infer that the Saracens had received, through the Egyptians,

* Periplus, part i. p. 58. † Chap xi. Inst. 95.