Kæmpfer, in his _History of Japan_, i., 121, tells us that in the manufacture of _Sacke_ or _Saki_,[119] a strong and wholesome beer produced from rice, the Japanese are not excelled by any other people. This beer, a very ancient drink, is white when fresh, but becomes brown, if it remains long in the cask. It is manufactured to the highest degree of excellence in Osacca, and thence exported to other countries. The beer’s name is said to be derived from that of this city, being the genitive case of the word, with the initial letter omitted. It is wholesome and pleasant, but should be drunk moderately warm.[120] There are many varieties of _saki_, distinguished by different names. RUSSIA. _Quass_, or _Kvas_, a word signifying _sour_, an ancient Scythian beverage, is the ordinary household beer of Russia. A variety of it called _Kisslyschtschy_ is variably described as exceedingly pleasant, and as an abominable small beer, something like sweet wort or treacle beer, almost as vile as the _Vodki_ or Russian gin. These matters of course depend on individual taste. The Russian _pivo_, also in common use, is said to resemble German beer, but German beers are many and diverse. SWEDEN. Swedish beer is made at Stockholm. _Spruce_ beer is much in use. This drink is said to have originated from a decoction of the tops of the spruce fir. In Norway and Denmark as well as in Sweden this liquor is made from boiling the leaves, rind and branches of pines. But the _Spruce_ beer of Great Britain and Ireland—either white or brown, according as sugar or molasses is employed in the making—is an essence or fluid extract procured by boiling the shoots, tops, bark and cones of the Scotch fir (_pinus sylvestris_). _Spruce beer_ is supposed to be of much medicinal value as an antiscorbutic. Samuel Morewood presents us with a gratifying reflection on this matter. While, he says, _Spruce_ is beneficial to the health of man, it has not, by its “consequence depreciated his character, or lowered him in his moral dignity.” TARTARY. The beer to be met with in Tartary is for the most part of an indifferent quality. That brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed _baksoum_, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They, however, admire it, and affirm that it is an invaluable remedy for dysentery. The reader will have already perceived that it is a cosmopolitan practice to pamper the appetite under the pretence of preserving the health. _Baksoum_ is acid in taste, of no scent, a feeble intoxicant, and cannot be kept for any length of time. [Illustration] _Non-Alcoholic Drinks._ [Illustration] TEA. I. Popularity of Tea as a Drink—Consumption in England, and comparative Use all over the World—Legend of its Origin—Date of its Use—Growth of the Plant—Different Kinds of Tea—Great Falling off in the Exports from China—Ceylon Tea—High Prices of—Statistics—Analysis of Tea.