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20

HISTORY

Lady

Sale,

in

her

memoirs

from

Afghanistan,

speaks

of

grapes

of

which

a

single

berry

weighed

one

hundred

and

twenty-nine

grains.

The

mythology

of

the

Greeks

mentions

the

birth

of

Dionysos,

or

Bacchus

or

what

is

identical

to

both,

the

home

of

the

vine

as

taking

place

upon

the

mountain

Nysa,

a

peak

of

the

Hindoo

Koosh,

an

Indian

chain

of

the

gigantic

Himalaya

system.

This

god

was

brought

up

by

mountain-nymphs,

and

educated

by

the

muses,

fauns,

the

old

Silen,

and

the

satyrs;

in

harmony

with

this

education

his

worshipers

represented

him

as

a

bewitching

youth,

with

forms

re-

sembling

woman,

and

with

gladness

on

his

brow,

or

as

adorned

with

vine-wreaths,

resting

among

beautiful

women,

who,

singing

and

dancing,

give

us

the

prettiest

and

oldest

allegory

of

"Wine,

Wife,

and

Song."

He

is

also

represented

as

rambling

over

wide

fields,

drawn

by

panthers.

In

a

different

light

appears

the

vine

in

the

history

of

the

Jews,

but

also

here,

in

closest

connection

with

their

elder

father;

Noah's

wine

soon

became

a

favorite

bev-

erage

among

the

Hebrews,

who

were

anything

but

teetotalers.

When

the

Israelites

left

Egypt

to

return

to

their

old

country,

Canaan,

explorers,

sent

out,

brought

back

a

huge

bunch

of

grapes,

the

best

proof

for

the

wine-cul-

ture

in

Palestine

at

this

early

time,

1250

B.

C.

The

travels

of

Bacchus

allegorically

allude

to

the

spreading

of

the

wine-culture

from

east

to

west.