Adam Fabroni, an Italian writer of celebrity, informs us that 'the palm-trees, which particu larly abounded in the vicinity of Jericho and Engaddi, also served to 'make a very sweet wine, which is made all over the East, being called palm wine by the Latins, and syra in India, from the Persian stir, which means luscious liquor or drink' (On the Husbandry of the Ancient Jews).
Dr. Shaw thus describes the unfermented palm wine: This liquor, which has a more luscious sweetness than honey, is of the consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly grows tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality' (Travels, 1: 262). Sir G. T. Temple says: "We were daily supplied with the sap of the date-tree, which is a delicious and wholesome beverage when drunk quite fresh; but if allowed to remain for some hours, it acquires a sharp taste, not unlike cider. It is called teghma, and, poetically, 'the tears of the datc,'—/eghma being a corruption of lachryma. The Landers inform us that 'Polio wine is the common and favorite drink of the natives' of Africa—that 'the juice is called wine,' and that 'it is either used in this state, or preserved till it acquires rather a bitter flavor.' (Expedition to the Niger, hi:307-8). With these facts before us, the language employed by the prophet in the sub lime chapter from which we quoted above, be comes beautifully apposite. His prediction is that 'the land shall be utterly spoiled,' that the light of joy shall be turned into the gloom of sorrow, even as the sweet drink which corrupts, grows sour and bitter to those who drink it. The pas sage clearly indicates the nature of the drink to have been sweet in what the Jews esteems(' its most valuable condition, but bitter in its fer mented state. lIence the drunkard is represented in Is. V :20-22, as one who 'puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.' This palm wine, like the honey of dates and sugar, was much valued as a medicine and cordial.
(3) .S'haykozer also denotes fermented or intox icating palm wine. Various forms of the noun in process of time became applied to other kinds of intoxicating drink, whether made front fruit or from grain. Arrack has been commonly, but erroneously, derived from sakar, and some, in chiding Dr. Paxton (Illustrations of Scripture; Nat. Hist., p. 51), have confounded the arrack s ith the palm wine, forgetting that the original wine existed long prior to the discovery of arrack distillation. The true palm wine, also the shay kawr of the Bible, is exclusively the juice of the palm-tree or fruit, whereas arrock is applied to the spirit obtained from fermented rice and other things, and is, as Dr. Shaw remarks, 'the general name for all hot liquors extracted by the alembic' (Travels, i :262). Such liquors furnish more powerful means of intoxication than the ancients possessed, and derive their name, we apprehend, from a poisonous species of the palm-tribe, the oreca, or 'drunken date-tree; the mils of which are mixed with betel-leaf, datum, and other drugs, and made into a confect or preserve, which the Indians chew, or put into their drink to make it intoxicating (Pomet On Drugs).
l'hc paten wine of the East, as we have ex plained. is made intoxicating either by allowing it to corrupt and ferment, thereby losing the sweet luscious character for which the Orientals esteem it, and becoming ropy, tart, and bitter; or, in its fresh or boiled state, by an admixture of stimulating or stupefying ingredients, of which theme is an abundance (see Olearins. Mandel slob, Linschoten, and others). Such a practice seems to have existed amongst the ancient Jews, and to have called down severe reprobation (comp. Prot-. xxiii :3o; Is: i 2 ; V :I I, 22, and see Lowth in foe).