i. let. 9.]

[Footnote 6: Chevreana, t. ii. p. 188.]

[Footnote 7: AEneid, lib. i. v. 723.] [[i.e. 723-724.]]

[Footnote 8: Ed. viii. p. 411.]

[Footnote 9: Voyag. de Rouvier, p. 89.]

[Footnote 10: De admir. Holland.]

[Footnote 11: Ed. fol. 1567, p. 29.]

CHAP. XVIII.

OF NATIONS THAT GET DRUNK WITH CERTAIN LIQUORS.

As every country does not produce wine, but, according to the poet[1],

"Hic segetes, illic veniunt faelicius uvae."

_Here_ wheat, more happily _there_ grows the grape.

Those nations, with whom there are no vines, have invented other drinks
to make themselves merry. Pliny[2] tells us, That the western people got
drunk with certain liquors made with fruits; and that these liquors have
different names in Gaul and Spain, though they produce the same effect.

Ammianus Marcellinus reports, That the Gauls having no wine in their
country, though they are very fond of it, contrive a great many sorts of
liquors, which produce the same effect as wine. _Vini avidum genus
adfectans ad vini similitum dinem multiplices potus._

The Scythians had no wine, as appears by the answer of Anacharsis, the
philosopher, who being asked, If they had none that played on the flute
in Scythia, replied, That they had not so much as any wine there.
However, for all that, they got drunk with certain liquors which had the
force and strength of wine. This also we learn from these words of
Virgil:--

"Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura subalta
Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora tolasque
Advolvere focis ulmos, ignique dedere.
Hic noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti
Fermento, atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis."[2a]

Secure, in quiet ease, they dwell in caves
Deep dug in earth, and to their chimneys roll
Whole oaks and elms entire, which flames devour.
Here all the night, in sport and merry glee,
They pass and imitate, with acid service,
By fermentation vinous made, the grape.

The Thracians intoxicate themselves by swallowing the fumes of certain
herbs, which they cast into the fire.

The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, used likewise to get drunk,
by swallowing the fumes of certain herbs that they burned.

Strabo reports, That the Indians made a certain drink with sugar canes,
which made them merry; very probably not unlike what we now call rum.

Benso, in his History of America, says the same of the inhabitants of
the island of Hisp