Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/343

 u s. xii. OCT. so, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in Palestine (Pesachim, 42). They kept a sharp eye also on the water-supply, and enjoined avoidance of rivers and pools for drinking purposes when travelling by night (ibid., 112). Fine wheaten bread, fat meats, and well-matured wines were deemed excellent for the figure and the eyesight (Pesachim, 49). Contrary to Von Helmont's directions, they recommended paterfamilias to feed his daughters on poultry and milk, if he wanted them to have complexions like alabaster (Ketuboth, 29) ; while their standard of perfect health was summed up in the power " to eat and drink anything and everything ad lib., and to be able to bathe all th year round " (Kiddu- shin, 30b).

The doctors of the Talmud were divided on dietetics, as they were also on many other debatable topics. " It was not a banquet" unless there was a plenteous supply of lettuce, cucumbers, and " yein sarrif " or liqueurs (Berachoth, 44). Ban- quets were held at midday (Yoma, 74b). Antigonus of Socho had his table loaded all the year round with melons, cucumbers, radishes, and lettuce (Berachoth, 57b). On Sabbath, wine, cider, or beer could be drunk all day long (Shobbos, 118). These were drunk undiluted, though the Rabbins advocated dilution (Berachoth, 44). That modified drink was known as the " Kous shel Berocho," or " Cup of Blessing." It was a safeguard against drunkenness, no doubt, a vice held in particular abhor- rence. They described (Taanith, 26) the people of Mechuza " as a dissipated lot.' At all public dinners they had waiters to attend on guests (Berachoth, 50b). A period of restriction and abstinence set in during the Hasmonean wars, and we gather from the Talmud (Kiddushin, 66) that Alexander Jannseus (who was a very unpopular ruler), on his return from subjugating Philistia and Petrea, inaugurated greater licence at table as a means of recovering popularity. His own table was made of gold. He re-introduced the popular taste for " meloochim " (lettuce, asparagus, melons, cucumbers, &c.), dainties banished from royal tables in previous reigns by reason of their costliness.

Some of the Rabbis were consummate epicures, and boasted of it (Chulin, 57). The Sabbath was the great day of the week, when extravagance in foodstuffs was gene- rally encouraged. There were three meals, and all substantial. Meat and wine, and plenty of them, were the order of the day (San- hedrin, 109). For that day there had need to have been a plentiful supply of plates

and dishes, because they could not wash up (as on weekdays), whereas for drinking purposes their silver or golden tankards and goblets amply sufficed (Sabbath, 118).

Adam was said to have been a vegetarian (Sanhedrin, 58b); albeit, that is not quite hit harmony with what we read in another place (ibid., 38), viz., that Adam was created late on Friday in order that he might straight- way sit down to a grand Sabbath feast especially provided for him, a statement that lends colour to the romantic tradi- tion (ibid., 59b) that Adam was a jovial bachelor, who had a superb time of it with winged Peris, who daily fed him on the daintiest of viands, and filled his goblet with the most delectable of w r ines. Hospitality was a sacred duty (Sanhedrin, 38); so also was a fine cellar (Erubin, 65). Although the common people were enjoined to practise frugality (Pesachim, 49b), they often had strokes of luck. A story is told in Baba Mezia, 29, of a certain Rabbi, who deputed his son to hire " pouangaleem " (workmen),, and to give them a good feed before starting them on their jobs. On reporting to his father how he had carried out instructions, and fearing censure, he was, on the contrary,, complimented for a praiseworthy deed. " Verily, my son," said the Rabbi, " even^ if you had given them a repast worthy you would only have duty. For are they

not all the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ? " Dining al-fresco and small talk were things to be shunned (Taanith, 5). Nor were domestic pets to be pampered (ibid., 20b). Dates were a favourite fruit. Fish does not appear to have been a feature of the ordinary bill of fare at all, though for Sabbath breakfasts salmon and other- fish were recognized dishes (Sabbath, 118b). The Rabbins had a keen scent for the bou- quet of well-matured wine (Megillah, 16).

Let us now briefly consider the other side of the shield. " Wine-bibbers," they tell us in Niddah, 24, " are setting their bones on fire." Rabbi Mallay declared (Sabbath, 139) that " from the hour Joseph separated from his brethren he was a strict teetotaler." Doubtless he grieved very much at his exile, though that hardly seems to explain the tradition. The Rabbins discover (Yoma, 76b) that wine was called " yayin," be- cause it brings " sorrow " into the world, and "teerosh," because it reduces to poverty (rosh) all who indulge in it to excess. Extra- vagance in dress and waste were constant themes of reproach. " Rob thy back, by all: means," they said (Baba Mezia, 52), '* and

of King Solomon, just done your