The eastern bottle is made of a goat or kid skin, stripped off
without opening the belly; the apertures made by cutting off the tail
and legs are sewed up, and, when filled, it is tied about the neck. The
Arabs and Persians never go a journey without a small leathern bottle of
water hanging by their side like a scrip. These skin bottles preserve
their water, milk, and other liquids, in a fresher state than any other
vessels they can use. The people of the east, indeed, put into them
every thing they mean to carry to a distance, whether dry or liquid, and
very rarely make use of boxes and pots, unless to preserve such things
as are liable to be broken. They enclose these leathern bottles in
woollen sacks, because their beasts of carriage often fall down under
their load, or cast it down on the sandy desert. These skin bottles were
not confined to the countries of Asia; the roving tribes, which passed
the Hellespont soon after the deluge, and settled in Greece and Italy,
probably introduced them into those countries. We learn from Homer, that
they were in common use among the Greeks at the siege of Troy; for, with
a view to an accommodation between the hostile armies, the heralds
carried through the city the things which were necessary to ratify the
compact, two lambs, and exhilarating wine, the fruit of the earth, in a
bottle of goat skin:
Ἄρνε δύω, καὶ οἶνον ἐΰφρονα, καρπὸν ἀρούρης,
Ἀσκῷ ὲν αἰγείῳ. _Il._ lib. iii, l. 246.
The bottle of wine which Samuel’s mother brought to Eli, 1 Sam. i, 24,
is called נבל, and was an earthen jug. Another word is used to signify
the vessel out of which Jael gave milk to Sisera: she opened a bottle of
milk, and gave him drink, Judges iv, 19. This is called נאוד, which
refers to something supple, moist, oozing, or, perhaps, imports
_moistened into pliancy_, as that skin must be which is kept constantly
filled with milk. This kind was usually made of goat skins. This word is
also used to denote the bottle in which Jesse sent wine by David to
Saul, 1 Sam. xvi, 20. It is likewise employed to express the bottle into
which the Psalmist desires his tears may be collected, Psalm lvi, 8; and
that to which he resembles himself, and which he calls a bottle in the
smoke, Psalm cxix, 83, that is, a skin bottle, blackened and shrivelled.
Beside the words already considered, another אבות, in the plural, is
used, Job xxxii, 19. This signifies, in general, to swell or distend. On
receiving the liquor poured into it, a skin bottle must be greatly
swelled and distended; and it must be swelled still farther by the
fermentation of the liquor within it, as that advances to ripeness. In
this state, if no vent be given to the liquor, it may overpower the
strength of the bottle, or it may penetrate by some secret crevice or
weaker part. Hence arises the propriety of putting new wine into new
bottles, which, being strong, may resist the expansion, the internal
pressure of their contents, and preserve the wine to due maturity; while
old bottles may, without danger, contain old wine, whose fermentation is
already past, Matt. ix, 17; Luke v, 38.
without opening the belly; the apertures made by cutting off the tail
and legs are sewed up, and, when filled, it is tied about the neck. The
Arabs and Persians never go a journey without a small leathern bottle of
water hanging by their side like a scrip. These skin bottles preserve
their water, milk, and other liquids, in a fresher state than any other
vessels they can use. The people of the east, indeed, put into them
every thing they mean to carry to a distance, whether dry or liquid, and
very rarely make use of boxes and pots, unless to preserve such things
as are liable to be broken. They enclose these leathern bottles in
woollen sacks, because their beasts of carriage often fall down under
their load, or cast it down on the sandy desert. These skin bottles were
not confined to the countries of Asia; the roving tribes, which passed
the Hellespont soon after the deluge, and settled in Greece and Italy,
probably introduced them into those countries. We learn from Homer, that
they were in common use among the Greeks at the siege of Troy; for, with
a view to an accommodation between the hostile armies, the heralds
carried through the city the things which were necessary to ratify the
compact, two lambs, and exhilarating wine, the fruit of the earth, in a
bottle of goat skin:
Ἄρνε δύω, καὶ οἶνον ἐΰφρονα, καρπὸν ἀρούρης,
Ἀσκῷ ὲν αἰγείῳ. _Il._ lib. iii, l. 246.
The bottle of wine which Samuel’s mother brought to Eli, 1 Sam. i, 24,
is called נבל, and was an earthen jug. Another word is used to signify
the vessel out of which Jael gave milk to Sisera: she opened a bottle of
milk, and gave him drink, Judges iv, 19. This is called נאוד, which
refers to something supple, moist, oozing, or, perhaps, imports
_moistened into pliancy_, as that skin must be which is kept constantly
filled with milk. This kind was usually made of goat skins. This word is
also used to denote the bottle in which Jesse sent wine by David to
Saul, 1 Sam. xvi, 20. It is likewise employed to express the bottle into
which the Psalmist desires his tears may be collected, Psalm lvi, 8; and
that to which he resembles himself, and which he calls a bottle in the
smoke, Psalm cxix, 83, that is, a skin bottle, blackened and shrivelled.
Beside the words already considered, another אבות, in the plural, is
used, Job xxxii, 19. This signifies, in general, to swell or distend. On
receiving the liquor poured into it, a skin bottle must be greatly
swelled and distended; and it must be swelled still farther by the
fermentation of the liquor within it, as that advances to ripeness. In
this state, if no vent be given to the liquor, it may overpower the
strength of the bottle, or it may penetrate by some secret crevice or
weaker part. Hence arises the propriety of putting new wine into new
bottles, which, being strong, may resist the expansion, the internal
pressure of their contents, and preserve the wine to due maturity; while
old bottles may, without danger, contain old wine, whose fermentation is
already past, Matt. ix, 17; Luke v, 38.