The two drinks, mead and cider, are appropriate to nations who have made but slight advances on the path of civilisation. Tribes of nomads, or of hunters, would find the wherewithal for their manufacture—the honey in the hollow tree, the crabs growing wild in the woods. The manufacture of ale, however, indicates another step forward; it implies the settlement in particular districts, and the knowledge and practice of agriculture. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that the Celtic inhabitants of the midland and northern parts of this country, at the time of the first Roman attack, knew no drink but mead and cider; while, in the southern districts, where contact with { 29} the outer world had brought about a somewhat more advanced civilisation and a more settled mode of life, agriculture was practised, and _cerevisia_, or ale, was added to the list of beverages.
Given below is a metrical version of the origin of ale. It is put in this place between the account of the use of ale by the Britons and its use by the Saxons, because our anonymous poet does not seem to have quite made up his mind whether he is recording a British or a Saxon myth. The name of the king would seem to point to a British origin, whilst some of the gods on whom he calls are Teutonic.
In a jolly field of barley good King Cambrinus slept, And dreaming of his thirsty realm the merry monarch wept, “In all my land of Netherland there grows no mead or wine, And water I could never coax adown this throat of mine.
“Now list to me, ye heathen gods, and eke ye Christian too, Both Zernebock and Jupiter, and Mary clad in blue; And mighty Thor the Thunderer, and any else that be, The one who aids me in my need his servant I will be.”
And as this sinful heathen all in the barley lay, There came in dreams an angel bright who soft these words did say— “Arise, thou poor Cambrinus, for even all around, In the barley where thou sleepest a nectar may be found.
“In the barley where thou sleepest there hides a nectar clear, Which men shall know in later times as _porter_, _ale_ or _beer_.” Then in terms the most explicit he “put the monarch through,” And gave him ere the dream was out the recipe to brew.
Uprose good King Cambrinus and shook him in the sun. “Away, ye wretched heathen gods—with you I’m quit and done! Ye’ve left me with my subjects in error and in thirst; Till in our dreadful dryness we scarce know which is worst.”