234 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



down to a thick sirup, or it would have begun to ferment in half 

 an hour. That is the present practice in Syria, and the resulting 

 debs is used to this day as a substitute for honey or sugar for 

 sweetening purposes. And our respect for the wisdom of King 

 David and other great men of Judea hardly permits us to think 

 that their enthusiastic language was used about a sweet, cloying 

 sirup. 



There is no reason at all to doubt that the Greek word otvos, 

 used in the New Testament, refers to the ordinary fermented 

 wine ; and, on the whole, it seems evident that in both Old and 

 New Testament the commendations and denunciations refer to 

 the use and abuse of alcohol, respectively, rather than to any 

 specific differences between the beverages employed. 



The ancient Egyptians at a very early date discovered the art 

 of making barley wine, or, in other words, true beer, as well as 



V,<5i! r-^* *' . ' "^ fW ^trf -^ 0>* 3^- T5J 

 Taking Wine like a Gentleman. (Wilkinson.'* 



grape wine. They have left evidences of this, not only in their 

 writings and in the tales of early travelers like Herodotus, but 

 also in several remarkable series of mural paintings found on 

 their monuments. The most interesting of these are at the tombs 

 of Beni-Hassan, where, some five thousand years ago, the Egyp- 

 tian artists amused themselves by portraying the scenes of every- 

 day life in a most graphic manner. We find there pictures of 

 vineyards, with the vines carefully trained on trellises, and 

 watered from artificial reservoirs. We find several varieties of 

 wine presses some for treading the grapes, some for pressing the 

 grapes by twisting them tight in a bag. We can see how they 

 poured the fresh wine into jars for fermentation and storage. 

 We can watch them drinking their wine like gentlefolk, in the 



