Bread formed ■' the staff of life" to the ancient He- brews even more than to ourselves ; but the modes of preparing it have been noticed under other heads. See Bread; Mill.
On a remarkable occasion a calf, tender and good, was taken, slain, dressed (roasted, most probably [Cren. xxvii, 7; Exod. xii,8,9; Judg. vi, 19; 1 Sam. ii, 13] ; boiling was not known till long afterwards), and set before the guests, while the entertainer (Abraham) respectfully stood at their side, doubtless to render any desirable service. The sauce or accompaniments on this occasion were butter and milk. From Gen. xix, 3 it may be in- ferred that the bread was unleavened. See Butter; Milk.
The cases, however, to which reference has been made were of a special nature; and from them, as well as from what is recorded touching Isaac and Esau and .Jacob, it apjxiars that flesh meat was reserved as food for guests or as a dainty for the sick ; lentils, pulse, onions, grain, honey, and milk being the ordinar}' fare. See Meat.
The agreeable, and perhaps in part the salubrious, qualities of salt were very early known and recognised. In Lev. ii, 13, it is expressly enjoined, "Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt ; with all thine offerings shalt thou offer salt." See Salt.
Locusts were a permitted (Lev. xi, 22) and a very common food. At the present day they are gathered by the Bedawin in the beginning of April, and, being roasted on plates of iron or dried in the sun, are kept in large bags, and, when needed, eaten, strewed with salt by handfuls. See Locust.
Of four-footed animals and birds, the favorite food were sheep, goats, oxen, and doves. There are few traces of the eating offish, at least in Palestine (Le\'. xi, 9-22; Ninnb. xi, o). In the first passage a distinction is made between certain fish which might be eaten and others which were forbidden. "These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters : whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat; and all that have not fins and scales, they shall be an abomination unto you." See Cattle; Fish.
The distinction of clean and unclean animals, and of animals which might and those which might not be eaten, is found to have existed to a great extent in ancient Egypt. See Spencer, Le^. Rit. i, o; Danz, in
VICTUALS
VICTUALS
Meuschen, .V. T. Ttdin. p. 795; jMaimouiilcs, De Cihis Ke/jVw, ed. Woklicke (Lips. 17o4j; Kciiilianlt, />e Cibis lltbreeor. (Viteb. 1097). Tlie Mosaic laws which regu- lated the use of animal food may be Ibuiul iu Lev. xi and Dent. xiv. 'I'he grounds of many of these regula- tions may be ascertained with a greater or less degree of probability, provided the slndent is well acipiainled with the mind and spirit of Hebrew antiquity. Con- siderations drawn from idolatrous usages, regard to health, the furtherance of agriculture, and established customs and tastes, had in each case an inlluence in the promulgation of these laws. See Clean.
2. In the earliest times water was the common drink. That wine of an intoxicating tendency was drunk at a very early period appears from what liappened to Noah (Gen. ix, "20), wiio seems to have made as well as druidi wine. Bread and wine are spoken of in xiv, 18, as ot- fered for refreshment to Abraliam by Jlelchizedek, king of Salem. Water was sometimes put to the wine ; at others a strong drink was made by mixing with the wine aromatic iierbs (I'sa. Ixxv, 9; Isa. v, S'i), or a de- coction derived from them; myrrh was used for this pur|)ose. Date wine was iu use, and probably the Egyp- tian or malt wine, ^Ti^o;;, o7i'Of Kpiiivoi; (Herod, ii, 77). Jerotne {0pp. iv, 364, ed. Beiicd.) says that '• drink call- ed sicera by the Hebrews (~-^") is every kind which can inebriate, or that which is made from grain, or of the juice of apples, or when the honey-comb is made (decoquuntur) into a sweet and barbarous beverage, or the fruit of the palm expressed into a liquor, and when water receives a color and a con- sistency from pre]iared herbs." ■ ■ The common peo)ile (^Lnrk xii, 37) •!'' :■ -•• ^ drank an acrid sort of wine, which ^'i .. is rendered vinegar in our English version (Kuth ii, 14; j\Lttt. xxvii, 4«). The Orientals frequently used wine in excess, so as to oc- casion intoxication, whence are drawn many striking figures iu Holy Writ (Deut. xxxii, 42 ; Psa. Ixxviii, Go; L-^a. v, II ; xxviii, I ; xlix,'2t); .Jer. viii, 14; ix,14; xvi, 48). That indulgence in wine was practiced in very ancient days is manifest from there being iu the court of Pharaoh, at the time of Joseph, state - officers who hail charge of the wine, and served the
monarch with it when he drank (fien. xl, ], 1 1 ; romp. 1 Kings X, 5; 2Chron.ix,4; Neh.i, 11). See Wine.
VoT drinking-vessels there were used the cup and the howl (Exod. XXV, 33; Ntunb. vii, 13, 84; Jer. xxxv, .5; Amos vi, 6). The cup w-as generally of brass covered ■with tin, in form resembling a lily, sometimes circular. It is still used by travellers, anil may be seen iu both shapes on the ruins of Perse])olis (1 Kings vii, 26). The bowl (Exod. XXV, 33) assimicd a variety of shapes, and bears many iianies. Some of these "cliargers" appear, from the presents made by the jirinces of Lsrael (Numb. vii), to have been of large size and great splendor; some were silver, some gold (1 Kings x, 21). See Cir, etc.