for sherbets, and are considered valuable on account of their portability. In Mesopotamia, the usual drinks are iced milk and lebben; iced sherbet made of honey, cinnamon-water, and spices, besides the juice of pomegranates diluted with water of roses. The foregoing enumeration comprises the chief sherbets in requisition, though frequently they have drinks under this name, which consist merely of lemon-juice, mixed with cinnamon-water and sugar, with an infusion of violets, raisins, and oranges.

Were beer, such as we have in Great Britain, brewed in the principal cities of Turkey, there is little doubt that the brewers would raise rapid fortunes from its sale; for, as the Mahometans at present regard the letter more than the spirit of their law, they would not be very scrupulous in drinking a liquor which is not prohibited by name. Aaron Hill, in his account of the Ottoman Empire, first published in 1709, recommends a speculation of this nature; his observations being much in point, I shall not abridge them:

"The love of brandy, wine, and other strong liquors, so much evinced throughout the Ottoman empire, proceeds," says he, "from nothing else but their ignorance in brewing other beverages; for I frequently observed, that when an English ship had brought some bottles of our country beer, or ale, to Turkey, and presented them to such as would afterwards compliment the noted Turks of their acquaintance with a share in drinking them, they constantly express a wonderful esteem and eager inclination to obtain a quantity, assuring us repeatedly, that could they make such drink themselves, they never should be tempted to commit a sin, by breaking through the prophet's order to forbear the use of wine and brandy.

"Nothing can be possibly more easily accomplished than the universal wish of Turks and Grecians upon this occasion, would some English brewer, skilled in his profession, make a voyage to Turkey, purposely to use his best endeavours for the introducing of beer or ale into common use instead of water.

"For first, I have sufficiently explained my reasons, to believe that the natives of that country would, with pleasure, drink it, and the price by no means could retard the practice, for so cheap is malt throughout their empire, that they feed their poorest horses with the best of barley; and with so much ease might he expect to thrive therein, that though he sold the liquor he should brew at no greater price than a penny per quart, he must soon grow rich by more than cent, per cent, of clear profit. But so far beyond this lowest compu

Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia.

tation may he reckon his advantage, that I can experimentally assure him he might sell it (and be never thought too dear,) at full the price it bears in London; nor would the Turks think more too much, or if they should, the very factory itself, excluding all the other Christians there residing, would enrich him speedily, provided he took care to manage well the brewing of all his liquors.

“If any timorous man," continues our author," objects to the inconvenience of so long a voyage, his being altogether unacquainted with the country and its language, and his want of friends to help on his design, those difficulties will soon vanish, when I tell him that he may bargain for his passage in an English ship, and be supplied with all provisions, even to Constantinople, for considerably less than £20; that he will land within a few stones' throw of the ambassador's house, to whom the captain must, of course, present him, if designed to settle there; that he is bound to grant him his protection and encouragement; that he may have a dragoman, or an interpreter, to wait upon him for a little charge, and still conversing with his countrymen, maintain a trade almost as free and uncontrolled as if in England."*

Doctor Clarke was witness to the partiality which the Turks shewed towards our porter, as he saw them give thirty shillings for a dozen of it; and it was purchased with the greatest avidity, as they seemed quite satisfied that it did not come within the forbidding mandates of the Koran. A late traveller observes, that it has often been matter of surprise to him, that among the trading speculations of his countrymen, no man has ever thought of trying a project of this nature. I have at times, says he, questioned merchants on the subject, who have urged, as an objection, the difficulty of preserving it in such a climate ; yet beer is made in England for exportation to the East Indies.fThe only plausible objection which appears to such a speculation, is certainly the heat of the climate. It is, however, probable, that by brewing at particular seasons of the year, or conducting the process in cool cellars, or by means of good coolers exposed to the breezes of the night, or by approved refrigerators, beer or porter might be made of tolerably good quality, at any season or in any climate.

Certainly a liquor of this kind would not only be vastly superior in point of flavour, but more wholesome than bouza, a description of drink very common in the Turkish empire, and in great estimation. Bouza is generally made from barley, much after the manner of brewing beer, but it is of too inspissated a nature, and so badly fermented

See Aaron Hill's Account of the Ottoman Empire, 4to. p. 90, 91. †Turner's Journal of a Tour in the Levant, 3 vols., vol. iii. p. 488.

as to render it unpalatable to Europeans. Wine circulates more freely through the dominions of the Grand Seignior, than is publicly known. That of the Dardanelles is sent to Constantinople, to Smyrna, Aleppo, and even to England. This wine will keep to a great age, and, if the vintage be favourable, is preferable to that of Tenedos. Both sorts are of a red colour; that of the Dardanelles, after being kept for 20 or 30 years, loses its colour, but not its strength. Jews are the chief manufacturers of this wine, which is called in Italian, (the language principally spoken throughout the Levant,) vino della Legge, because it is pretended that the Jews, by their law, are prohibited the adulteration of wine. Its price, when of a prime quality, brings eight paras* the oke, or about four-pence the bottle. Doctor Clarke tells us, that the Pacha of the Dardanelles was much addicted to this wine; and when he wished to indulge freely, he retired to his villa in the umbrageous recesses of Mount Ida, where he gave full scope to his love of inebriating pleasures, amidst his concubines, musicians, and dancers.

In many parts of Asia Minor, the farmers, although Mahometans, plant vineyards, and cultivate the grape, but do not make wine. The grapes are consumed as ripe fruit, or made up by drying into raisins. From these, a sirup, called petmez, is preserved, and used in their sherbets as sugar. In other places, particularly in Mesopotamia and the adjoining provinces, this sirup is employed as an indispensable ingredient in all their beverages.

In the capital of Syria, the distillation of an ardent spirit from raisins, with a mixture of aniseed is carried on extensively. The privilege of this manufacture, on payment of a certain duty, is alone granted to the Christian and Jewish subjects of the Grand Seignior. According to Baumgarten and others,† large quantities of beer, or zythum, are brewed by the Syrians from the grain of the country; and we have the testimony of Brown, a late traveller, that wine is produced in great abundance throughout Syria; a revenue is raised from it, the vineyards being charged according to the number of vines they contain. Each vine, if of good quality, is considered worth one piastre:—the miri, or land tax, of every hundred vines, is ten paras. On the mountains, the vine is now cultivated to some extent, and it is pleasing to see with what neatness and industry its growth is effected, where it might be thought impossible to preserve it from the torrents. The wine, to improve its quality, is prepared by boiling it immediately after the juice

A para is about the value of an English half-penny.

† In Churchill's Collection.

is expressed from the grape; and to preserve it for use, it is put into jars or large glass bottles. This mode of boiling wine is not peculiar to the inhabitants of that country; it was in general use among the ancients. The Lacedæmonians were famous for it, and it is still practised in some parts of Provence, in France, where it is called the vin cuit, or cooked wine; but there the method is to lodge the wine in a large room, receiving all the smoke arising from several fires on the ground floors; an operation more slow, but answering the same purpose. The Spanish Vino Tinto, or tent wine, is prepared in the same way. The most valued wine, in this quarter, is the Vino de Oro, or golden wine of Mount Libanus; this, however, is not boiled, but left to purify itself by keeping.‡ The wines of Lebanon (of which there are upwards of a dozen species) are equally luscious with those of Cyprus, they are very cheap, and might be worth exportation to other parts of the world.§ Jerusalem draws its supplies from the neighbouring villages. In the valleys that lie adjacent to that city, there are good crops of different kinds of grain and fruit. The vine is in a thriving state, and its produce has a rich flavour, not unlike that of Muscadell-its strength is considerable, as was evident from the effect it produced on some of the superstitious devotees who shew the holy places in and about the city. Chateaubriand says, the wine of Jerusalem is excellent, it has the colour and taste of the wines of Roussillon, and is still furnished by the hills of Engaddi.

In Damascus, wine is scarcely to be found. The monks in the convent there have good white wine, and to them a traveller must be indebted for a supply. The sherbet shops are numerous, clean, and neat, each having two or three large vessels constantly full of this beverage, with ice to cool it: the retailers fill a vase with the sherbet, colour it with some fruit, cast a piece of ice or snow into it, and directly present it to your lips :-this is a grateful draught in sultry weather. Nearchus relates that Damascus received the richest manufactures of Tyre in exchange for wine of Helbon, which was the same as the Chalybon of the Greeks, formerly so highly prized that the ancient Persian monarchs drank no other. At Smyrna, a common coarse wine, called Crassi, is in current use, which at first is rather

Archæologia Græca, vol. ii. p. 366.

†The Romans, as appears from Columella, were in the habit of giving to some of their wines a rich and precocious maturity by a particular effect of smoke. Vide Columella. L. i. c. 6.

Brown's Travels in Africa, Syria, &c. passim.

§ Light's Travels, 8vo. p. 214.

Bramsen's Letters of a Prussian Traveller.

Carne's Letters from the East. p. 379.

disagreeable from its having a strong pitchy or resinous flavour. The higher classes in Syria often indulge in the luxury of wines, particularly the Jews and the Christians; and, according to Russel, it is a practice to drink a small cup of brandy before sitting down to dinner. The wandering hordes of Turcomans, Curdes, and Bedouins, who occupy the mountainous tracts of Syria, are too poor to merit attention; and since nature is easily satisfied where temptations to enjoyment are few, what could be expected from those who shelter themselves under the frail tent, in the cavities of rocks, or beneath the shade of trees, delighting only in the simple repast which their flocks afford. The Druzes, or Derouz, another of the tribes that inhabit this part of Asiatic Turkey and profess Islamism, cultivate vineyards, and freely use wine without regard to the dictates of the Koran. Their manners in this respect are very loose, they curse Mahomet, eat food that he has forbidden, and break the fast of the Ramadan. Warm-hearted and philanthropic amidst their unfrequented mountains and valleys, they share their humble fare with the suppliant or distressed passenger, entertaining him with lodging and every other comfort they can afford, in the most unaffected manner; bestowing the reviving juice of the vine with the same generosity that they part with the least morsel of their bread, in conformity with their own sublime adage,—“ God is liberal and great, and all men are brethren." At a remote period, and long before Islamism was known in that region, Syria was remarkable for its wine and the size of its grapes. Paul Lucas speaks of bunches that weighed 45lbs.; and the grapes of Hebron, (mentioned in Numbers xiii. 23) were so large that one bunch had to be borne on a staff by two men. It was with a grape grown in this region, that a favourite lady of the Caliph Jezid was choked; he having presented her with a specimen of the fruit, she let it slip down her throat, and, from its great size, it stopped her breath and stifled her in an instant.

In different parts of Syria, as well as among the Druzes, it is a practice to extract from grapes a saccharine substance, called debs, which is used as a substitute for sugar. It is manufactured in the manner of wine, with the exception of being boiled and cooled twice in succession. When the grapes are trodden on, a white earth-like gypsum is thrown on them, from time to time, to make them adhere together; the juice is then caused to flow into a stone receiver, from whence it is carried to a boiler and from that to a second vessel, where it is cooled and skimmed. After this it again undergoes the same process, and is then put into large earthen jars, in which it becomes a sirup. Perhaps this is the debash of Scripture, which our translators