Mead 221 



" The preparation is this : 



" Take Barley torrefied after due steeping in water, what 

 you please, boyl it long in five quarts of fountain water, till 

 it taste well of the malt : one pound of this boyled with 

 eight pounds of honey, and twenty pounds of water, makes 

 a drink that tastes most sweet, and is most healthful for 

 use." 



Oxymeli, a drink made from vinegar and honey, is de- 

 scribed but not approved by Pliny. 



" Vinegar even has been mixed with honey ; nothing, in 

 fact, has been left untried by man. 



" This mixture is compounded of ten pounds of honey, 

 five semi-sextarii of old vinegar, one pound of sea-salt, and 

 five sextarii of rain-water. This is boiled gently till the 

 mixture has bubbled in the pot some ten times, after which 

 it is drawn off and kept till it is old ; all these wines, how- 

 ever, are condemned by Themison (as drinks no doubt ; 

 and with good reason as to most of them !), an author of 

 high authority. And really, by Hercules ! the use of them 

 does appear to be somewhat forced, unless indeed we are 

 ready to maintain that these aromatic wines are so many 

 compounds taught us by Nature, as well as those that are 

 manufactured of perfumes, or that shrubs and plants have 

 been generated only for the purpose of being swallowed in 

 drink." 



Galen, however, did not despise honeyed vinegar, but 

 gives a simple recipe for making- it, unflavored by severe 

 remarks : — 



" Let the best honey be clarified, then add so much wine- 

 vinegar to it, that it may please the sick man's palate, boyl 

 them till they are well mingled ; and when you will use it, 

 mingle as much water as you please : it is boyled enough 

 when it sends forth no more scum." 



" Honied wine " is frequently referred to by the ancient 



