But among the Romans, as Polybius says, in his sixth book, it was forbidden to women to drink wine at all. However, they drink what is called Passum; and that is made of raisins, and when drank is very like the sweet Ægosthenite and Cretan wine, on which account men use it when oppressed by excessive thirst. And it is impossible for a woman to drink wine without being detected: for, first of all, she has not the key of the cellar; and, in the next place, she is bound to kiss her relations, and those of her husband, down to cousins, and to do this every day when she first sees them; and besides this, she is forced to be on her best behaviour, as it is quite uncertain whom she may chance to meet; for if she has merely tasted wine, it needs no informer, but is sure to betray itself." And Alcimus the Sicilian, in that book of his which is entitled the Italian History, says that all the women in Italy avoid drinking wine on this account: "When Hercules was in the district of the Crotoniatæ, he one day was very thirsty, and came to a certain house by the wayside and asked for something to drink; and it happened that the wife of the master of the house had privily opened a cask of wine, and therefore she said to her husband that it would be a shameful thing for him to open this cask for a stranger; and so she bade him give Hercules some water. But Hercules, who was standing at the door, and heard all this, praised her husband very much, but advised him to go indoors himself and look at the cask. And when he had gone in, he found that the cask had become petrified. And this fact is proved by the conduct of the women of the country, among whom it is reckoned disgraceful, to this day, to drink wine, on account of the above-mentioned reason." [Sidenote: FEMALE DRINKERS.] 57. And what sort of women those among the Greeks are who get drunk, Antiphanes tells us, in his Female Darter; where he says— There is a certain neighbouring victualler, And he, whenever I arrive, being thirsty, Is th' only man who knows the proper way In which to mix my wine; and makes it not Too full of water, nor too strong and heady: I recollect that once when I was drinking . . . . . And, in his Woman Initiated, (and it is women who are conversing,) he writes— _A._ Would you now like, my dearest friend, to drink? _B._ No doubt I should. _A._ Well come, then, take a cup; For they do say the first three cups one takes All tend to th' honour of the heavenly gods. And Alexis, in his Female Dancer, says— _A._ But women are quite sure to be content If they have only wine enough to drink. _B._ But, by the heavenly twins, we now shall have As much as we can wish; and it shall be Sweet, and not griping,—rich, well-season'd wine, Exceeding old. _A._ I like this aged sphinx; For hear how now she talks to me in riddles.