CHAP. 20. (1 7.)—HYDROMELI, OR MELICRATON.

There is a wine also made solely of honey and water.[1] For this purpose it is recommended that rain-water[2] 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[3] 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.[4]

1. Mead, or metheglin, See B. xxii. c. 51.

2. There is no ground, Fée says, for this recommendation.

3. Stoves are now used for this purpose.

4. "Hydrome¯lum," on the other hand, made of water and apples, was the same as our modern cider.