There is an Arabic work of some celebrity, and not of small extent, entitled "Ḥalbet el-Kumeyt,"[158] apparently written shortly before the Arabs were in possession of the first of these substitutes for wine, nearly the whole of which consists of anecdotes and verses relating to the pleasures resulting from or attendant upon the use of wine; a few pages at the end being devoted to the condemnation of this practice, or, in other words, to proving the worthlessness of all that precedes. Of this work I possess a copy, a quarto volume of 464 pages. I have endeavoured to skim its cream; but found it impossible to do so without collecting at the same time a considerable quantity of most filthy scum; for it is characterised by wit and humour plentifully interlarded with the grossest and most revolting obscenity. Yet it serves to confirm what has been above asserted. The mere existence of such a work, (and it is not the only one of the kind), written by a man of learning, and I believe a Ḳáḍee, (a judge), or one holding the honourable office of a guardian of religion and morality,[159] and written evidently _con amore_, notwithstanding his assertion to the contrary,--is a strong argument in favour of the prevalence of the practice which it paints in the most fascinating colours, and then condemns. Its author terminates a chapter (the ninth), in which many well-known persons are mentioned as having been addicted to wine, by saying, that the Khaleefehs, Emeers, and Wezeers, so addicted, are too numerous to name in such a work; and by relating a story of a man who placed his own wife in pledge in the hands of a wine-merchant, after having expended in the purchase of the forbidden liquor all the property that he possessed. He excuses himself (in his preface) for writing this book, by saying that he had been ordered to do so by one whom he could not disobey; thus giving us a pretty strong proof that a great man in his own time was not ashamed of avowing his fondness for the prohibited enjoyment. If then we admit the respectable authority of Ibn-Khaldoon, and acquit of the vice of drunkenness those illustrious individuals whose characters he vindicates, we must still regard most of the anecdotes relating to the carousals of other persons as being not without foundation.