BOOK XIV. XXIX. 149-150 



XXIX. Thc nations of the west also have their own lieerin 

 inloxicant, made from grain soaked in water ; there {'^'JlSl, 

 are a number of ways of making it in the various pro- 

 vinces of Gaul and Spain and under different names, 

 although the principle is the same. The Spanish 

 provinces have by this time even taught us that these 

 liquors will bear being kept a long time. Egypt also 

 has devised for itself similar drinks made from grain, 

 and in no part of the world is drunkenness ever out 

 of action, in fact they actually qualf liquors of this 

 kind neat and do not temper their strength by dilut- 

 ing them, as is done with wine ; yet, by Hercules, 

 it used to be thought that the produet of the earth 

 in that country was corn. Alas, what wonderful 

 ingenuity vace possesses ! a method has actually 

 been discovered for making even water intoxicated ! 



There are two liquids that are specially agreeable ou. 

 to the human body, wine inside and oil outside, both 

 of them the most excellent of all the products of the 

 tree class, but oil an absolute necessity, nor has man's 

 Ufe been slothful in expending labour upon it. How 

 much more ingenious, however, man has been in 

 respect of drink will be made clear by the fact that 

 he has devised 185 kinds of beverages (or if varieties 

 be reckoned, almost double that number), and so 

 much less numerous kinds of oil — about which we 

 shall speak in the foUowing volume. 



285 



