The Wines of the Ancient Orien:. 



29 



virtues of balsam and camphire, in Part II, p. 68. I have read 

 in an ancient pilgrims book that some pilgrims to the Holy 

 Land once wandered over these mountains searching carefully, 

 and that in one place they found shoots of balsam, but no 

 shrubs. Beside balsam there once grew on this mountain an 

 excellent wine, wherev\"ith it is beheved that Lot's daughters 

 made their father drunk, as we read in Gen. 19". Burchard 

 of Mount Sion^ (1280 A. D.) praises particularly the wine of 

 Bezek, west of Bethlehem. He writes "Half a league west of 

 Bethlehem is a village called Bezek, which abounds with ex- 

 cellent wine, so that there is no better to be found in the 

 land'". The same author mentions also the i,\-ines in the Valley 

 of Rephaim, of Sidon, of the Lebanon, of Antaradus and of 

 Margat. Regarding the \4neyards of Samaria and Moab see 

 Jud. 9. 1213. Judging from the name of the city of Gath 

 (n3, Assyr. Gi-im-tu = Gi-in-tu) it appears that viticulture and 

 the making of wine must have been very prominent here as 

 well as in "^r^Ti r5 and l^is-! r5. According to Babyl. Tal- 

 mud, Meg 6a the countn,- of Naphtali was ever}' where covered 

 with fruitful fields and xnneyards. In Galilee little wine was 

 produced, and for this reason, it was more greatly esteemed 

 than oil (^azLr, 31b: S-T-"^ T'^ X-*:""; "3 S; s'":"'-52V 

 Josephus, Wars, B III, c X, 8 states that Gennesaret "supplies 

 men with the principal fruits, with grapes and hgs continually, 

 during the months in the year". 



The Talmud mentions certain wines which were prohibited 

 at a certain period, on account of the fact that these wines 

 were grown in places which were situated near settlements 

 inhabited by Samaritans. Thus Abod. zar, 4: "The wine of 

 Ogdor is forbidden to be drunk on account of the neighbor- 

 hood of Kefar Pagesh; that of Borgatha on account of the 

 neighborhood of Birath Sariqah; that of *Ain-Kushith on ac- 

 count of the neighborhood of Kefar Sha'em", :j'X br "I"' 



err "Sr -rsr ttt rr. In Abod. zar. 31 a the reading is: 



M^^O ^^^wM UkMN ^iM MM _ ^*<^0 ^MMm * Vaw* * mA^ 



"y* ^^^, *^'^^ ^^^%T ^^* ^^BMi^p* ^r'"*^ **^ 



i) PaL Pilgr. T. S.. Vol. XII. pp. S9 ff. 



