22 2 The Honey-Makers 



writers, who attribute remarkable properties of preserving 

 life to it, and Pliny tells us : " Many persons have attained 

 an extreme old age by taking bread soaked in honied 

 wine, and no other diet — the famous instance of Pollio 

 Romilius, for example. This man was more than one hun- 

 dred years old when the late Emperor Augustus, who was 

 then his host, asked him by what means in particular he 

 had retained such remarkable vigor of mind and body. 

 ' Honied wine within, oil without,' was his answer." 



Honeyed wine is also called CEnomeli and mulsum, and 

 Moffett says : — 



"Aristaeus was the first that brought this into Thrace, 

 being taken with the incredible sweetness of Honey and 

 Wine mingled together." 



Moffett also gives us a recipe for it : — 



" The new writers describe this potion thus, Take one 

 gallon of the best Honey, six gallons of old Wine, Salt two 

 ounces ; it must then be skiinmed as it works, then put in 

 the Salt, and season it with annise-seed and roots of Elecam- 

 pane let down into the vessel with a bag. The Egyptians 

 make it otherwise, namely of Raisins and Honey." 



There seems no end to the varieties of honeyed wine and 

 other drinks made of honey which were used by the 

 ancients, one Greek mulsum containing thirty-six ingredi- 

 ents, and another kind being described as "true nectar" 

 wont to be made about Mount Olympus in Lydia, of " wine, 

 bees-combs, and sweet flowers." 



The Usquebach of the Irish is made of honey, wine, and 

 herbs, which beverage Moffett says is "not unfit for a nation- 

 that feeds on flesh raw, or but half sod." 



One should suppose the following classical drink, called 

 thalassiomeli, might merit similar criticism. It is made of 

 " equal parts of sea-water, rainwater and honey purified 

 and set in the sun in a pitched vessel in the Dog-daies " I 



