Wine of Corn.
Drink is made of Corn. Dioscorides teacheth to make Beer of Barley, also a drink is made of Barley called Curmi, they use that drink oft-times for wine; the like drinks are wont to be made of Wheat. In Hiberia toward the west and in Britany; whence Pliny, of Corn drink is made: Beer in Egypt, called Zythum, in Spain Cae∣lia and Ceria, Beer in France and other Provinces. In Aristotles book of drun∣kenness, those that drink wine made of Barley till they be drunk fall upon their backs, they call that wine 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but those that are drunk with any other kind of drinks fall any way, on the right, or left hand, forward or backward, but those that drink Pinum, fall onely upon their backs. Wine made of Barley they call Brytum. Sophocles in Triptolemo, and Aeschylus in Lycurgo. But Hellanicus saith, that Bry∣tum is made in Farms out of roots. Hecateus saith, that the Egyptians grinde Bar∣ley to make drink, and that the Macedonians drink Brytum made of Barley, and Parabia made of Millet, and Rice, saith Athenaeus. Also wine is made of Rice; for saith Aelianus, when an Elephant fights in war, they give him not onely wine of grapes, but of Rice also. Now the same drink is made in the Northern Climates of Corn, and they call it Biera, but they put hops to it, for it cannot be made without; Barley and Wheat are infused in the decoction of it. We see that of Bar∣ley and Wheat steeped in water a drink is made that tastes like wine, and of them I have made the best aqua vitae. But these drinks of old were Physical, rather then to use as wine. But I shall shew how some drinks that are so like wine in taste, that you would think they were wine indeed. And first