“This list of wines is found engraved upon a terra-cotta tablet from the palace of Assur-ba-ni-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, and evidently represents the wines supplied to the royal table. It reads:

Col. I.Wine of the Land of Izalli.
Wine, the Drink of the King (Daniel i. 5).
Wine of the Nazahrie.
Wine of Ra-h-ū (Shepherds’ Wine).
Wine of Khabaru.
Col. II.Wine of Khilbunn or Helbon.
Wine of Arnabani (North Syria).
Wine of Sibzu (Sweet Wine).
Wine of Sa-ta-ba-bi-ru-ri (which I think means Wines which from the Vineyard come not).
Wine of Kharrubi (Wine of the Carrob or Locust bean).”

On Phillips’s Cylinder (col. i. l. 21-26) is a list of wines which Nabuchodorossor is said to have offered: “The wine of the countries of Izalla, Toúimmon, Ssmmini, Helbon, Aranaban, Souha, Bit-Koubati, and Bigati, as the waters of rivers without number.” And among the inscriptions deciphered appear a long list of wines which the Assyrian monarchs are said to have carried into their country as booty, or to have received as tribute.

We see the process of filling the wine cups at a feast. They were dipped into a large vase instead of being filled from a small vessel. Nor were they alone contented with grape wine, they had palm wine, wine made from dates, and beer even as the Egyptians had.

According to the Abodah Zarah, a treatise on false worship, there was a mixed drink used in Babylon called Cuttach, which possessed marvellous properties. “It obstructs the heart, blinds the eyes, and emaciates the body. It obstructs the heart, because it contains whey of milk; it blinds the eyes, because it contains a peculiar salt which has this property; and it emaciates the body, because of the putrefied bread which is mixed with it. If poured upon stones, it breaks them; and of it is a proverb, ‘That it is better to eat a stinking fish than take Cuttach.’” The same treatise also mentions Median beer and Edomite vinegar.

The Hittites had been a powerful and civilized nation when the Jews were in an exceedingly primitive condition, and Abraham found them the rightful possessors of Hebron, in Southern Palestine (Gen. xxiii.), and so far recognised their rights to the soil, as to purchase from them the Cave of Machpelah for “four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.” Their power afterwards waned, as they had left Hebron and taken to the mountains, as was reported by the spies sent by Moses, four hundred years afterwards (Num. xiii.), but they have left behind them carvings which throw some light upon their social customs. For instance, here is one of two ladies partaking of a social glass together. Unfortunately, we do not know at present the true meaning of their inscriptions, for scholars are yet at variance as to the translation of them. That they thoroughly cherished wine may be seen from the accompanying illustration, which represents one of their deities, who appears to be a compound of Bacchus and Ceres, and aptly illustrative of the two good things of those countries, corn and wine, which, with the olive and honey, made an earthly Paradise for the inhabitants thereof. It shows how much they appreciated wine, when they deified it.