Chap. 21.] 
OXTMELI. 
261 
CHAP. 20. (17.) HYDEOMELI, OE MELICEATO^-. 
There is a wine also made solely of honey and water. ^'^ Por 
this purpose it is recommended that rain-water^^ should be 
kept for a period of five years. Those who shew greater skill, 
content themselves with taking the water just after it has 
fallen, and boiling it down to one third, to which they then 
add one third in quantity of old honey, and keep the mixture 
exposed to the rays of a hot sun for forty days after the 
rising of the Dog-star ; others, however, rack it off in the 
course of ten days, and tightly cork the vessels in which it is 
kept. This beverage is known as hydromeli," and with age 
acquires the flavour of wine. It is nowhere more highly 
esteemed than in Phrygia.^^ 
CHAP. 21. OXYMELI. 
Yinegar^^ even has been mixed with honey; nothing, in 
fact, has been left untried by man. To this mixture the name 
of oxymeli has been given ; it 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 ofi", and kept till it is old ; all these wines, how- 
ever, are condemned^* by Themison, an author of high autho- 
rity. And really, by Hercules ! the use of them does ap- 
pear to be somewhat forced, unless, indeed, we are ready to 
maintain that these aromatic wines are so many compounds 
taught us by JS'ature, 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. However, all 
these particulars, when known, are curious and interesting, 
and show how successfully the human intellect has pried into 
every secret. 
Mead, or metheglin-. See B. xxii. c. 51. 
There is no ground, Fee says, for this recommendation. 
Stoves are now used for this purpose, 
90 u Hydromelun^," on the other hand, made of water and apples, was 
the same as our modern cider. See B. xxiii. c. 9. 
^2 " Subfervefactis." Just come on the boil/* 
The oxymel of modern times contains no salt, and is only used as a 
medicament. 
9^ As drinks, no doubt ; and with good reason, as to most of them. 
Coactus. 
