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.