Note 51 — Chapter II

Note 51.—On the Beverage called Booẓah. Booẓah, or boozeh, is a favourite beverage of the boatmen, and other persons of the lower class, in Egypt; and more especially of the Nubians and negroes; as it was, according to Herodotus173 and other writers, of the ancient Egyptians. It is an intoxicating liquor, a kind of beer, most commonly prepared from barley-bread, crumbled, mixed with water, strained, and left to ferment. It is also prepared from wheat and from millet in the same manner. The account of Herodotus has been confirmed by the discovery of large jars, containing the dregs of the barley-beer in ancient tombs at Thebes.