Memorabilia; Or Recollections, Historical, Biographical, and Antiquarian

Chapter 13: BOTTLES OF SKIN.

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About This Book

A collection of short essays and anecdotal sketches that assemble historical, biographical, and antiquarian material drawn from diverse sources. Entries present portraits of memorable individuals, accounts of notable events and last moments, and descriptions of monuments, libraries, coins, and curiosities of natural history and horticulture. The pieces also touch on language, literature, social customs, and scholarly practices, often citing authorities in notes. Arranged as miscellanea for instruction and light entertainment, the compilation emphasizes factual reporting over interpretation so readers can form their own judgments.

BOTTLES OF SKIN.

The Ancients made use of bottles of skin to hold their wine, as is usual in many countries to this day. Thus Homer mentions wine being brought in a goat’s skin. (Il. II. iii. line 247. Odys. VI. line 78, IX. line 196, 212) Herodotus (ii. 121,) mentions skins being filled with wine. And Maundrell in his Travels to Jerusalem, speaking of the Greek Convent at Bellmount, near Tripoli, in Syria, says, “The same person whom we saw officiating at the altar in his embroidered sacerdotal robe, brought us the next day on his own back, a kid, and a goat’s skin of wine as a present from the Convent.”