HONEY.
What is sweeter than honey?[XXIII_43] what is more pure,[XXIII_44] or more nourishing?[XXIII_45] It is the milk of the aged, it prolongs their existence,[XXIII_46] and when they descend into the tomb, it still serves to embalm them.[XXIII_47]
Pagan antiquity ascribed the honour of the discovery of this useful substance to the Athenian Aristæus, who taught mankind to feed on it. This valuable service procured him a patent of nobility. He was made a descendant of Bacchus or Apollo.[XXIII_48]
It is not necessary to say that honey was known in the east long before the rise of Athens; it is already mentioned in the first book of the holy writings.[XXIII_49]
It is said that Spain owed its knowledge of this delicious aliment to Gorgor, King of the Curetes, who was polite enough to take some on the occasion of a journey which he made into that country.[XXIII_50] The Peninsula could afterwards furnish this delicacy for the tables of Rome and Italy.
The Greeks esteemed honey most highly;[XXIII_51] they employed it in pastry, and in ragoûts;[XXIII_52] their philosopher, Pythagoras, eat nothing else with his bread, and, as he lived to be ninety years old, he recommended his disciples to follow the same régime.[XXIII_53] They profited by th sage’s counsel, and found themselves all the better for it.[XXIII_54]
A benevolent goddess protected bees, hives, and the honeycomb. She was called Mellona, and a grateful piety offered her honey every new-year’s day.[XXIII_55]
Theophrastus distinguished three kinds of honey: that which the bees extract from flowers, that which comes from the air, and lastly, the honey from reeds.[XXIII_56] We clearly perceive that he means honey, manna, and sugar.
Virgil thought that a gentle dew falls on the flowers, and became immediately the prey of bees, which deposited it in their cells.[XXIII_57] Pliny has adopted the same graceful error,[XXIII_58] and even Galen himself partakes of it.[XXIII_59]
The ancients caused honey to be served at the beginning of a repast;[XXIII_60] it was used in lieu of sugar in the preparation of preserves and some kinds of beverages, which will hereafter claim our attention. They preferred that of Attica,[XXIII_61] and insisted on its being thick, clear, granulated, transparent, fresh, and aromatic, with a somewhat sharp flavour.[XXIII_62] The faculty attributed to it great virtues.[XXIII_63]
Honey served as a basis to the wonderful seasoning of Apicius, which we present to the studious investigation of modern gastronomy:—Put fifteen pounds of honey into a brass vessel, containing two pints of wine. Warm at a very gentle fire, stir, and when it rises, pour over more wine. Let the mixture rise three times, then take it from the fire, and skim it the next day. Then add four ounces of ground pepper, three scruples of gum, a drachm of spikenard, a drachm of saffron, five drachms of dried dates, after softening them in wine; pour on the whole eighteen pints of light wine.[XXIII_64]
The Oxyporon was another seasoning much in vogue two thousand years ago, and in which honey was the principal ingredient. It was composed by mixing two ounces of cummin seed, one ounce of ginger, one ounce of green rue, and six scruples of nitre, with one ounce of pepper, and twelve scruples of fine dates; nine ounces of honey were then poured over the whole.[XXIII_65]
Sometimes they contented themselves with macerating cummin seed in vinegar, which they left to dry, and then pounded it; that done, it was put into honey.[XXIII_66]
“The honey most esteemed is the white, granulated, and of an aromatic flavour. The honey from the French provinces of Narbonne, the Gatinais, or Britanny, is the most esteemed. Honey is next of kin to sugar, having the same properties. It is frequently used in domestic economy, and in medicine as a laxative. It enters into a number of remedies, either as a corrective, or an excipient.”—“Dictio. Encycl.”