88 Lutz, Viticulture and Brtwinor, 



some of these names must remain doubtful. This is due to 



the fact that Babylonian likarn, Arabic r^^, Hebrew iplij (as 



loanword in Eg\'ptian ta-ki-ra ^^ i? Piehl, K., Ir- 



script. Hierogl. 12) is one of the most ambiguous words in the 

 Semitic languages. It may mean any intoxicating beverage 

 prepared from grains, grapes, fresh or dried dates 1, pomegra- 

 nates, apples, hone}' etc. But even though some of the names 

 mentioned may ultimately be recognized as words for arti- 

 ficial wines, there still must remain a great variety of beers, 

 which is surprising. 



The cheapest beer of the oldest time was seemingly the 

 "black beer", kas-^ig, which was prepared of barley only 2. 

 An exception is a text^ which enumerates an addition of spelt. 

 A brewer furnishes 8 nigin (= 80 qd) of black beer. For its 

 brewing he needs 18 qa of spelt, \^ qa of ninda-tam-ma- 

 loaves, 24 qa of beer loaves and 36 qa of germinated grain^. 

 The materials used for the "good black beer", kas-s-is'-dusr-s'a, 



o / 0000' 



differ little from the common "black beer". In order to brew 



Of '' 



i) Compare for instance the Arabic JU*j called S~^i which was pre- 

 pared from dried dates (so in the Koran). JLvo was also" made from 



dried dates and from dj^J^i> a species of cuscuta, or dodder. K^Jy^^ 

 is growing profusely in Babylonia, and was probably used already in ancient 

 times by the Babylonians, for the purpose of mixing it with their beverages. 

 Whenever the cuscuta, '^013, was not sufficiently cleansed from other herbs, 

 on which it grows, the date- wine lost in quality according to Sar Shalom 

 Gaon. For the occurence of the cuscuta in Babylonia see Pliny, XIII, 46. 



2) de Genouillac, No. 34, Obv. IV, 5 ff. 



3) de Genouillac, No. 45, Obv. II, i ff. ; see Hrozny, Das Getreide iiii 

 a I ten Babylonien, p. 154. 



4) The translation of bulug , by Hrozny, = btiqlii as "malt", does ni't 

 seem to me to be correct. Malt is out of place in the Babylonian method 

 of brewing. Since the Babylonian method was similar to that of the Egyp- 

 tian, where the process of boiling was unknown, it is difficult to understand 

 what purpose malt could have served. We. can get along very well with the 



common meaning of J>ii.>, "to appear, to break forth", Ethiopia H^A "to 

 germinate". Bulug. then, seems to refer to a certain kind of grain, seemingly 

 always barley (notice se-bttlug besides bulug) that was dug into the ground 

 and left there until it had commenced to germinate. It is still the custom in 

 modern Egypt to use germinated grain for purposes of brewing. 



