Muhammadans.—The use of wine is forbidden in the Koran under the word Khamar, which liter ally means anything intoxicating. Persian shiahs, however, have always been less strict in regard to indulgence in wine. Pietro della Valle mentions two ordinances of Shah Abbas, the one foibidding its use, showing that the religious precePt had failed in effect ; and the second annulling the prohibition, upon finding that the people, espeeially the soldiers, had substituted for wine a liquid pre paration of opium, by which their health was injured. Wines, by the Persians, are valued for their intoxicating qualities, and not at all for their flavour. Mazanderan, bordering the south of the Caspian, and Khorasan, the eastern continuation of the former province, are the Lesbos and Chios of the subjects of the Shah, but the characteristics and reputation of their produce have become blended in the wine of Shiraz. An old Persian proverb declares that he who would live merrily should take his wine from Shiraz, his bread from Yesdecast, and a rosy wife from Yest.' Shiraz is famed for itsvineyards and pomegranate orchards, the former bending under the weight of the largest grape of any Persian vine, although the smaller imperial fruit of Tauris is most juicy and delicate. The principal gardens are situated at the foot of the Zagros mountain, having a fine exposure. Apertos Bacchus amat colles.' The vines are grown low, and sometimes trained over stone walls. At Kasvin the growers irrigate their gardens only once a year, about the middle of April, and there is a tradition that the clayey soil thus treated retains sufficient moisture for the season. The vines cultivated in the rising ground of Zagros may be divided into twelve varieties.. First there is Kishmish, bearing a beautiful large bunch of white gapes, the berries being oval and without seed. This species serves both for wine making and the production of raisins. Damns gives a black grape, from which the finest red wine, rich and of great durability, is made. The vines called after Samarcand differ; some yield bunches 12 lbs. in weight. Then there are the Rischbaba, Askeri, and Tauris varieties, supple mented by a vast nuinber of white, green, yellow, violet, red, brown, blue, and black grapes. The juice is fermented'in glazed earthenware vases, which are buried in cool cellars. The wine is bottled in glass flasks containing about five imperial pints, and sold by weight. Its taste to a foreigner is at first harsh, but after a few trials there are few. who would not appreciate its good qualities. A German connoisseur highly praises the Shiraz produce, comparing it, indeed, to the best growths of Burgundy. Next to Shiraz, Teheran, Yezd, Kasvin, Tabreez, and Isfahan are the most important wine-producing places. They are all situated on the southern slopes of mountain ranges, and thus possess the chief requirement in viticulture. The modern Persian purchases his wine from the Parsee, Jewish, or Arnienian growers, who mix it with arrack, saffron, or the extract of hemp.
Wine of a red colour is made by the Siah-posh, who export it in leather skins. The nobles of Kabul each has his own wine-press. The juice is trodden out into a large earthen vessel or masonry reservoir, from which the juice flows through a small hole into a narrow-mouthed earthenware receptacle, and the mouth closed for forty days, when a fla,gon of fine porous clay is poured in, and the mouth closed air-tight, with a luting of dough, and placed aside to ripen. In Afghanistan and in the British districts on the N.W. of India, the vine grows in wild luxtuiance, and in Kaslunir wine is made from the grapes of that favoured climate.
A -wine called Kishmishi is made in Sind from dried grapes, and that called Anguri is made of the Sind grape at Hyderabad, Sehwan, and Shikar pur. They are sold pure, or strengthened with spirit made from raw sugar.
The Chinese in the cold .weather drink a fair quantity of wine, bat are geldom addicted to drunkenness. Their wines are crude spirituous liquors, almost altogether unrefined, distilled from rice, millet, barley, and other fermented grains, and the process of distilling seems to have been perfected during the Mongol dynasty. Grape witio was originally brought from certain volcanic, districts in Turfan, which has prejudiced the Chinese egainst it, as they consider it heating. A wino flavoured with sandal-wood, brought from Siam, was formerly in great repute in China. The celebrated Cheh-kiang wine,ealled Shau-hing tsiu, is wholesome and in great repute throughout China ; it has a yellowish colour and sour flavour. The Yuen-liwa-tsiu is a weak white wine or spirit, flavoured with the flowers of the Passerine chanuedaphne, and reputed to be tonic. The Kwei-yuen-tsiu is a red wine. The Pih-lult-tain is a greenish coloured wine or spirit, reaembling a cordial, made at Peh-ehi-li and Hu-peh. Tho Feu-tsiu is a kind of strong whisky, originally distilled in Fu-chau-fu in Shan-si. Tho wines of China are taken warm, very soon redden the face, and culminate in evanescent stimulation.
The wines known to Europeans in S.E. Asia are almost exclusively the product of Europe; little of the wines from the Cape of Good lIope, or from Australia, is used. The palnz wines, the fermented sap of the several species. of palms, are very extensively used by all classes of natives, but by Europeans they are untested.
The wines best known in India aro sherries of kinds, clarets, champagne, hock ; the Sicilian marsala is scarcely ever seen under that name. The Rhenish wines are often put on the tables of tlie more wealthy, and the Hungarian, Italian, and Greek wines are rapidly gaining ground. Port or Lisbon are very rarely seen, and the famed wine of Shiraz or Kerzerum is wholly unknown, though Ahmed of Andabul sang,— `Bring the bowl and pass it round, Lightly tune the sportive lay; Let the festal hour be erown'd, Ere 'tis lost like yesterday.'