CĔRĔVĪSĬA

CERVĪSĬA ( ζύθος ), ale or beer, was almost or altogether unknown to the Greeks and Romans; but it was used very generally by the surrounding nations, whose soil and climate were le favourable to the growth of vines. According to Hero dot us, the Egyptians commonly drank “barley wine;” and Diodorus Siculus says that the Egyptian beer was nearly equal to wine in strength and flavour. The Iberians and Thracians, and the people in the north of Asia Minor, instead of drinking their beer out of cups, placed it before them in a large bowl or vase, which was sometimes of gold or silver. This being full to the brim with the grains, as well as the fermented liquor, the guests, when they pledged one another, drank together out of the same bowl by stooping down to it, although, when this token of friendship was not intended, they adopted the more refined method of sucking up the fluid through tubes of cane. The Suevi and other northern nations offered to their gods libations of beer, and expected that to drink it in the presence of Odin would be among the delights of Valhalla.