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DRINKS.
347
usually
considered
non-intoxicant
;
but
under
both
these
widely
extended
categories
a
large
number
of
drinks
must
enter
of
which
no
mention
whatever
has
been
made
in
the
preceding
pages.
It
remains
for
us,
therefore,
to
consider
in
the
present
chapter
the
most
interesting
and
important
of
these
drinks
which
have
been
hitherto
excluded.
Of
the
curious
and,
in
many
cases,
repulsive
liquids
which
have
from
time
to
time
been
taken,
either
to
assuage
the
pangs
of
human
thirst,
or
to
gratify
the
taste
of the
human
palate
in
health
or
in
disease,
the
reader
who
has
not
devoted
some
little
time
and
attention
to
the
investigation
of
this
subject
will
probably
have
but
a
very
faint
conception
To
go
no
farther
back
on
the
pathway
of
time
than
to
the
age
of
John
Taylor,
the
water
poet,
we
find
so
strange
a drink
as
women's
tears.
But
at
a
date
far
earlier
than
that
of
the
water
poet,
the
date
of
the
Babylonian
Talmud,
in
Machshiriuy
vl.
64,
there
are
seven
liquids
comprehended
under
the
generic
term
drink
(Lev.
xi.
34,
and
therefore
liable
to
ceremonial
defilement),
dew,
water,
wine,
oil,
blood,
milk,
and
honey.
Upon
every
one
of
these
seven
liquids
something
curious
and
interesting
might
be
written.
About
these
drinks
a
question
arises
in
the
Talmud,
whether
under
water
are
included
such
beverages
as
mulberry
water,
pomegranate
water,
and
other
waters
of
fruits
which
have
a
shem
livozu,
or
compound
name.
Rambam
the great
Eagle,
more
commonly
known
as
Maimonides,
seems
to
exclude
these
drinks
from
the
general
category.
By
honey
is
to
be
understood
the