Although much might be added to this brief reference to the drink and drinking habits of the ancient Egyptians, that is rendered needless by the fact that similar customs prevailed in Rome, and those will be treated at greater length hereafter. We will therefore simply add, in conclusion, that however excellent a means boiled cabbage may have been for alleviating drunken headaches, the sword of Islam proved a far more efficacious and permanent cure, for, as already stated elsewhere, abstinence, if not universal, is at least the rule of that faith in modern Egypt and Arabia. CHAPTER VII. THE DRINKING CUSTOMS OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME. Thus far we have considered, although superficially, the habits of those primitive races whose origin is lost in the obscurity of myths and legends; but we have been able to gather, even from the imperfect records that have been handed down to us, certain trustworthy information relating to the subject. We have ascertained that it is impossible to retrace the history of any of the nations of antiquity to a period when strong drink was unknown and intoxication was not practised. We know beyond a doubt that various productions of the soil, the palm tree, the hemp plant, several shrubs, herbs, and fruits, especially the grape, and also certain cereals, were employed from the earliest times in the preparation of intoxicating beverages. We know, too, that it was considered quite legitimate for all classes, with very few exceptions, to drink these beverages in moderation, and that amongst the early races of mankind some of them were deemed worthy of being offered to their gods, and were supposed to be acceptable to them. Neither can it be doubted that from the beginning of the world, so far at least as our records of its history extend, intemperance existed, and that it was a concomitant of most of the vices and crimes which it impels men to commit even in our day. But the imperfection of those records which we have consulted has prevented us from travelling over the whole life-history of a nation as we shall be able to do hereafter, for as we follow the migrations of the great Aryan family from East to West, from Asia into Europe, travelling downwards on the stream of history, we shall obtain a clearer insight into the social customs of the time, and be better able to judge of their relations with its political history. The great empires of Greece and Rome constitute a connecting link between the ancient and modern world, and we shall find it profitable to study the history of drink in those countries, not only on account of its intrinsic interest, but because of the lessons which it conveys in regard to the present and probable future of our race.