[185] Herodotus, i. 133.
[186] Porphyry, op. cit. iv. 6. Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 6.
[187] Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, 6.
[188] Koran, ii. 216.
[189] Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 122.
[190] Burton, Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, ii. 118. Blunt, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, ii. 213. Polak, Persien, ii. 268. Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 298 sq. Pool, Studies in Mohammedanism, p. 283.
The condemnation of drunkenness is, of course, in the first place due to its injurious consequences. The Basutos of South Africa say that “there is blood in the dregs”—that is, intoxication ends in bloody quarrels.[191] The Omaha Indians made drunkenness a crime punishable with flogging and loss of property, because it often led to murders.[192] Sahagun tells us of a Mexican king who severely admonished his people to abstain from intoxication, as being the cause of troubles and disorders in villages and kingdoms, of misery, sorrow, and poverty.[193] Of him who drinks immoderately it is said in one of the Pahlavi texts that infamy comes to his body and wickedness to his soul.[194] According to Ecclesiasticus, “drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till he offend: it diminisheth strength and maketh wounds.”[195] We read in the Talmud, “Drink not, and you will not sin.”[196] Muhammed said that in wine there is both sin and profit, but that the sin is greater than the profit.[197] Buddhism stigmatises drinking as the worst of crimes because it leads to all other sins; from the continued use of intoxicating drink six evil consequences are said to follow—namely, the loss of wealth; the arising of disputes that lead to blows and battles; the production of various diseases, as soreness of the eyes and others; the bringing of disgrace, from the rebuke of parents and superiors; the exposure to shame, from going hither and thither unclothed; the loss of the judgment required for the carrying on of the affairs of the world.[198] That drunkenness, in spite of the evils resulting from it, nevertheless so frequently escapes censure, is due partly to the pleasures connected with it, partly to lack of foresight,[199] and in a large measure to the influence of intemperate habits. Why such habits should have grown up in one country and not in another we are often unable to tell. The climate has no doubt something to do with it, although it is impossible to agree with the statement made by Montesquieu that the prevalence of intoxication in different parts of the earth is proportionate to the coldness and humidity of the air.[200] A gloomy temperament and a cheerless life are apt to induce people to resort to the artificial pleasures produced by drink. The dreariness of the Puritan Sunday has much to answer for; the evidence given by a spirit merchant before the Commission on the Forbes Mackenzie Act was “that there is a great demand for drink on Sunday,” and that “this demand must be supplied.”[201] Ennui was probably a cause of the prevailing inebriety in Europe in former days, when there was difficulty in passing the time not occupied in fighting or hunting;[202] and the monotony of life in the lower ranks of an industrial community still tends to produce a similar effect. Other causes of drunkenness are miserable homes and wretched cooking. Mr. Lecky is of opinion that if the wives of the poor in Great Britain and Ireland could cook as they can cook in France and in Holland, a much smaller proportion of the husbands would seek a refuge in the public-house.[203]
[191] Casalis, Basutos, p. 307.
[192] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 370.
[193] Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, ii. 94 sqq.