38o 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Tartars distilling Koumyss. 



did not have plenty of ways of getting tipsy. They had long 

 been known as ranking next to the Germans and the Dutch for 



their drinking powers. 

 The Saxons and the 

 Danes had both intro- 

 y^ duced into England the 

 intemperate habits of 

 the Northmen, and beer 

 and cider, and mead or 

 metheglin made from 

 honey, were quite as effi- 

 cacious in their way as 

 stronger beverages. The 

 Normans were a more 

 refined and far more 

 temperate race, and it is 

 for this reason, in large 

 part, that they con- 

 quered England so readily. The night before the battle of Hast- 

 ings, so the old chroniclers tell us, was spent by the Saxons in 

 drinking heavily and uproariously around their camp fires. " Next 

 morning, still drunk, they recklessly advance against the enemy," 

 so we read in the old monkish Latin, while the Normans, passing 

 a quiet, peaceful 

 night, were cool 

 and well prepared 

 for the decisive 

 struggle. 



Their habits, 

 however, soon de- 

 teriorated, and 

 they drank almost 

 as heavily as their 

 predecessors. In 

 the reign of Henry 

 I the nation suf- 

 fered a grievous 

 loss, from overin- 

 dulgence in liq- 

 uor, in the sad 



drowning of his eldest son, just married to a princess of France. 

 The wedding party were returning to England on a galley, amid 

 the rejoicing of both nations, and wine flowed freely on board, 

 until even the seamen became intoxicated. As they were nearing 

 the shore, the galley ran upon a sunken rock, and out of the 

 whole company but one person escaped. The young prince, it was 



Ancient Still for Extraction of Essential Oils and 

 Perfumes. 



