"There is another stronger
liquor distilled from millet, and called shao chiu: in Anglo-Chinese,
samshu; Mongols call it araka, arrak, and arreki. Ma Twan-lin (Bk.
327) says that the Moho (the early Nu-chen Tartars) drank rice wine (mi
chiu), but I fancy that they, like the Mongols, got it from the Chinese."
Dr. Emil Bretschneider (Botanicon Sinicum, ii. pp. 154-158) gives a most
interesting account of the use and fabrication of intoxicating beverages
by the Chinese. "The invention of wine or spirits in China," he says, "is
generally ascribed to a certain I TI, who lived in the time of the Emperor
Yue. According to others, the inventor of wine was TU K'ANG." One may refer
also to Dr. Macgowan's paper On the "Mutton Wine" of the Mongols and
Analogous Preparations of the Chinese. (Jour. N. China Br. R. As. Soc.,
1871-1872, pp. 237-240.) - H. C.]
[1] Kington's Fred. II. II. 457. So, in a French play of the 13th
century, a publican in his patois invites custom, with hot bread,
hot herrings, and wine of Auxerre in plenty: -
"Chaiens, fait bon disner chaiens;
Chi a caut pain et caus herens,
Et vin d'Aucheurre a plain tonnel." -
(Theat. Franc. au Moyen Age, 168.)
CHAPTER XXX.
CONCERNING THE BLACK STONES THAT ARE DUG IN CATHAY, AND ARE BURNT FOR
FUEL.
It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is a kind of black
stones existing in beds in the mountains, which they dig out and burn like
firewood.
