That it was customary among our ancestors for the lady of the house herself to fill the guests’ cups after dinner, may be gathered from the poem called the _Geste of Kyng Horn_, which in its present form is of thirteenth century date, but is probably founded upon a much earlier work. The poem thus describes Rymenhild, the queen and wife of King Horn, performing this duty:— Rymenhild ros of benche Wyn for to schenche;[9] After mete in sale,[10] Bothe wyn and ale. On horn he bar in honde. So laye was in londe,[11] {34} Knightes and squier Alle dronken of the ber. [9] _Schenche_ = to pour out. [10] _Sale_ = hall. [11] A horn she bare in her hand, So was the custom in the land. These lines also show that ale and beer were used at that time as interchangeable words. Our Saxon ancestors seem to have made use of several kinds of beverage; they had wine and mead, cider, which they called _æppelwin_, and piment, which was a compound of wine, honey, and spices. Ale and beer, however, seem, to use the quaint words of old Harrison, to have “borne the brunt in drincking,” and to have formed the national beverage of the English people from the earliest times to the present day. Ale, honest English ale, was the general drink, and wine was a luxury of the rich, as may be gathered from the old Anglo-Saxon dialogue, entitled _Alfric’s Colloquy_, in which a lad, on being asked what his drink is, replies, “Ale, if I have it, water, if I have it not.” To the question why he does not drink wine his answer is, “I am not so rich that I can buy me wine; and wine is not the drink of children or the weak-minded, but of the elders and the wise.” The _Exeter Book_, which contains a collection of Anglo-Saxon songs and poems, and was presented to the church at Exeter by Bishop Leofric in the eleventh century, contains one of those curious rhyming riddles so popular among the Saxons, which were known as _Symposii Ænigmata_. It is as follows:— A part of the earth is Prepared beautifully, With the hardest, And with the sharpest, And with the grimmest Of the productions of men, Cut and . . . . Turned and dried, Bound and twisted, Bleached and awakened, Ornamented and poured out, Carried afar To the doors of the people, It is joy in the inside Of living creatures, It knocks and slights Those, of whom while alive {35} A long while It obeys the will, And expostulateth not, And then after death It takes upon it to judge, To talk variously. It is greatly to seek, By the wisest man, What this creature is. Those who remember the more elaborate legend of _John Barleycorn_ will not have far to seek for the solution of this somewhat ponderous riddle.