Wine and Beer in the Daily Life and Religion of the Ancient Orientals. 105 



ideals in good and plenty of food and drinks, until he be- 

 comes so depraved that his presence is offensive even in those 

 circles, which otherw^ise are all but Puritan themselves. The 

 intoxicated husband, who returns home from the banquet, 

 does not meet an enfuriated wife who showers him with re- 

 proaches and moral lectures. She removes the wreaths, the 

 banquet-adornment, when he has retired fPap. Harris, 500, 7, 

 11, 12). The young Egyptian student, it appears from a let- 

 ter written by a teacher to his pupil ', was prone to forget 

 his studies and frequent the taverns of the city in order to 

 get drunk on home-made and imported wines. The teacher 

 writes : 



"I am told that thou forsakest books 



(and) dost abandon thyself to pleasure. 



Thou dost wander from tavern to tavern. 



Every evening the smell of beer, 



the smell of beer frightens men away (from thee). 



It corrupts thy soul, 



(and) thou art like a broken oar. 



Thou canst guide to neither side. 



Thou art like a temple without a god, 



(like) a house without bread. 



Thou art detected as thou climbest up the walls, 



and breakest the plank. 



The people flee from thee, 



and thou dost strike and wound them. 



O, that thou wouldst comprehend that wine is an 



abomination 



and that thou wouldst abjure the pomegranate-drink; 



that thou wouldst not set thy heart on fig-wine, 



and that thou wouldst forget the carob-wine. 



The Egyptian public beer- and wineshops ( ^_^ 8 ^ , 



also dens of prostitution. We see on one monument 

 girls in the company of an intoxicated man. The Egyptian 

 demimondaines embrace him in this condition in which he 



l) Pap. Anast, 1\', 11, 8 AT.; cf. also Sallier, J, 9, 9 ff. 



