BOT 



BOT 





nothing, as it signified originally, and still 

 signifies, vessels of clay or metal, and 

 particularly of leather. Such vessels fill- 

 ed with wine, which travellers were ac- 

 customed to suspend from their saddles, 

 might be stopped with a piece of wood, 

 or closed by means of wooden or metal 

 tops screwed on them ; and such are still 

 used for earthen pitchers. We shall here 

 add, that stoppers of cork must have 

 been introduced after the invention of 

 glass bottles. In 1553, they were little 

 known ; and their introduction into the 

 shops of the apothecaries in Germany took 

 place about the end of the 17th century. 

 Before that period, they used stoppers of 

 wax, which were more troublesome and 

 more expensive. The ancient Jewish bot- 

 tles were kegs made of goats' or other 

 wild beasts' skins, with the hair on the 

 inside, well sewed and pitched together ; 

 an aperture in one of the animal s paws 

 serving for the mouth of the vessel. Calmet. 

 Bottles of this kind are mentioned in 

 scripture, and they were used for carry- 

 ing water through the deserts of Arabia 

 and other countries, where springs and 

 streams are scarce. Such bottles, in- 

 deed, have been in common use both in 

 ancient and modern times. The word 

 used by Job (ch. xxxii. 19.) signifies, in 

 the original, to swell or distend; it is 

 properly used to express a skin bottle, 

 which would be made to swell by the li- 

 quor poured into it, and which would be 

 more distended and enlarged, till they 

 would at last burst, if they had no vent 

 for the fermentation of the liquor as it ad- 

 vanced towards ripeness. Hence we per- 

 ceive the propriety of putting new wine 

 into new bottles, &c. according to the ap- 

 propriate allusion in the gospels, which, 

 being moist and strong, would resist the 

 expansion, and preserve the wine to due 

 maturity ; whereas old bottles of this 

 kind, being dry and more brittle, would 

 be in danger of bursting, and were best 

 adapted to receive old wine, the fermen- 

 tation of which had ceased. 



These leather bottles are supposed, by 

 a sacred historian, not only to be frequent- 

 ly rent, when grown old and much used, 

 but also to be capable of being repaired 

 (Josh. ix. 4.) Modern travellers, as well 

 as ancient authors, frequently take notice 

 of these leathern bottles. The Arabs, 

 says Sir John Chardin, and all those who 

 lead a wandering life, keep their water, 

 milk, and other liquors, in these bottles, 

 the manner of repairing which he also 

 describes. They serve, according to this 

 writer, to preserve their contents more 



fresh than in any other way. They sue 

 made, he says, of goat-skins : when the 

 animal is killed, they cut off its feet and 

 its head, and in this manner they draw it 

 out of the skin without opening the belly. 

 They afterwards sew up the places where 

 the legs were cut off, and the tail, and 

 when it is filled, they tie it about the 

 neck. These nations, and the country 

 people of Persiit, never go a journey with- 

 out a small leathern bottle of water hang- 

 ing by their side like a scrip. The great 

 leathern bottles are made of the skin of 

 an he-goat, and the small ones, that serve 

 instead of a bottle of water on the road, 

 are made of a kid's skin. In speaking of 

 the Persians, the same traveller says, 

 that they use leathern bottles, and find 

 them useful in keeping water fresh, 

 especially if people, when they travel, 

 take care to moisten them, wherever they 

 find water. The evaporation thus fur- 

 nished, serves also to keep the water 

 cool. He says that the disagreeable taste 

 of the leather is taken off, by causing it 

 to imbibe rose water when it is new, and 

 before it be applied to use. 



Formerly, it is said, the Persians per- 

 fumed these leathern vessels with mastic, 

 or with incense. From him also we learn, 

 that they put into these goat-skin and kid- 

 skin vessels every thing which they want 

 to carry to a distance in the East, whether 

 dry or liquid ; they are thus preserved 

 fresher than if they were conveyed in 

 boxes or pots : the ants and other insects 

 are prevented from getting among them, 

 and they are thus kept free from dust ; 

 and for these reasons butter, honey, 

 cheese, and other such aliments, are in- 

 closed in vessels made of the skins of 

 these animals. Accordingly the things, 

 particularly the balm and honey, which 

 were somewhat liquid, that were carried 

 to Joseph as a present, were probably 

 inclosed in little vessels made of kid- 

 skins. Homer also refers to this mode of 

 preserving various kinds of provision in 

 leathern vessels. Glass bottles are better 

 for cider than those of stone. Foul glass 

 bottles are cured by rolling sand or small 

 shot in them ; mus'ty bottles by boiling 

 them. Bottles ai-e chiefly made of thick 

 coarse erlass ; though there are likewise 

 bottles of boiled leather made and sold 

 by the case-makers. Fine glass bottles, 

 covered with straw or wicket, are called 

 flasks. The quality of the glass has been 

 sometimes found to affect the liquor in 

 the bottle. 



BOTTOM, in navigation, is used to de- 

 note as well the channel of rivers and 



