1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

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to those of the murex. Stolberg {Travels^ ix. 280) says he saw in a collection at Catania a little blue vase, believed to be a vas murrhinum. The modern jars in any of the wine districts of Italy, such as Asti Montepulciano or Montefiascone, thin earthen two-handled vessels holding some twenty quarts, are almost identical with the ancient amphorcB, Suetonius speaks of a candidate for the quaestorship who drank the contents of a whole amphora at a dinner given by Tiberius. This amphora was probably of a smaller size. Wooden vessels for wine seem to have been unfamiliar to the Greeks and Romans ; they, however, occasionally em- ployed glass.. Bottles, vases, and cups of that material, which may be seen often enough now in collections of antiquities; show the great taste which in these and in other matters they possessed. A few of these are given to illustrate our text. Skins of animals, ren- dered impervious by oil or resinous gums, were probably the most ancient receptacles for wine after

To these there are fre-

it was taken from the vat.

quent allusions in Vessels of clay, with a coating of pitch, were introduced subsequently. Homer and Isaiah.