THE HISTORY OF ALCOHOL. 



2 35 



AFTER A SUPPER. ("Wilkinson.) 



bosom of their family, with wife by the side and children on the 

 knee. And, finally, we find pictures of them using wine like 

 beasts men being 

 carried home from 

 supper on the backs 

 of slaves ; women 

 staggering round, 

 hopelessly and in- 

 decently intoxicat- 

 ed. Verily "there 

 is nothing new un- 

 der the sun." 



The ancient Persian writings, the Zend Avesta, dating back to 

 the period of Zoroaster, possibly 4000 to 6000 B. c., contain like 

 the Rig- Veda many references to a sacred drink, homa, and a 

 popular drink, hura. Wine seems to have been of somewhat later 

 discovery, but, once introduced, proved extremely popular. The 

 lowlanders, living in the rich, warm plains of Asia Minor, were 

 especially addicted to its use, and the temperate young prince 

 Cyrus, coming down from the mountains with his Persian war- 

 riors, found little difficulty in routing the effeminate Medes. But 

 the attractions of luxury proved too strong for them, and, in a 

 few generations, both rulers and people had badly degenerated. 

 The famous Xerxes, the Great King, the descendant of Cyrus 

 and monarch of Asia Minor, left as his epitaph no great record of 

 valiant deeds, but the sole fact that " he was able to drink more 

 wine than any man in his dominions." Small wonder, then, that 

 his forces were so easily routed by the Greeks. 



For, of all races that have yet appeared, the Greeks have 

 been best able to use alcoholic beverages freely and yet with tem- 

 perance. Their land was 

 fertile and their crops 

 varied, and they early 

 learned how to prepare 

 intoxicating drinks from 

 barley, figs, the palm, and 

 other sources. And their 

 wines, especially' those 

 from the Greek islands, 

 have retained their rep- 

 utation, not for hun- 

 dreds but for thousands 

 of years. The vine was 

 widely cultivated, and valued as one of the greatest gifts of the 

 gods to man ; and yet, such was their respect for the human 

 body and such their dread of injuring it by excesses, that we 



A WOMAN INTOXICATED. (Wilkinson.) 



