But in the honeycomb the graces dwell.
This alludes to a saying which the Turks have, that there lurks a devil in every berry of the vine. So I wish you cordially as to me an auspicious and joyful new year, because you know I am, &c.
Metheglin is no doubt a healthy beverage, containing an admixture of milk. Pallus Romulus, when he was a hundred years old, told Julius Cæsar that he had preserved the vigour of his mind and body by taking metheglin inwardly, and using oil outwardly. Metheglin and mead may be made very strong, and, of course, they both contain some amount of alcohol. In Virgil’s days, metheglin was used to qualify wine when harsh. He writes of
Huge heavy honeycombs, of golden juice,
Not only sweet, but pure, and fit for use;
To allay the strength and hardness of the wine,
And with old Bacchus new metheglin join.
Mead or metheglin was the nectar of the Scandinavian nations, which they expected to drink in heaven, using the skulls of their enemies as goblets. Thus we read in Penrose’s Carousal of Odin:
Fill the honeyed beverage high;
Fill the skulls, ’tis Odin’s cry!