A profitable instruction of the perfect ordering of Bees/First Treatise/Chapter 29
Of the drinke of Honny which they cal the Mulſe water, or ſweete water of the Romaines. Cap. xxix.
BY the aunſwere of Pollio the Romaine vnto Auguſtus Emperour, we may euidently learn, that the Mulſe made of hony, is healthfull drinke in ſtrengthning the bodie. For Auguſtus on a time demaunded of him by what meanes a man might liue to great yeares, and all that ſeaſon free from ſickeneſſes, to whome he thus aunſwered, the applying the Mulſe water within, and annoynting Oyle without the bodye, doeth worke the like. The Mulſe truly is a drinke made of water and hony mixed togither, which ye Greeks properly name Melicrate, & ſome Hydromel, as the drinke made with wine vnlayde, or without water, and hony, they aptly name Oenomel. Now the Mulſe water drunke, doeth eaſe the paſſage of winde or breath, ſoftneth the belly, and the long time of oldeneſſe changeth it into the kinde of Wine, moſte agreeable and profyting the Stomacke: but the ſame contrary to the Synowes, yet it recouereth the appetite loſt, and is a defence againſt the dangerous drinke of Henbane, if it be miniſtred with Aſſes milke. Thys drinke truely (Aegineta wryting therof) is thus made: let eight time ſo muche water be mixed vnto your Honnye prepared, whyche boyle or ſeeth ſo long, vntill no more fome aryſeth to be ſkymmed off, then taking it from the fyre, preſerue it to youre vſe. But the ſame Paule Aegineta affyrmeth, that the Mulſe profyteth nothing in manner the collericke, bycauſe the ſame in them is lightly conuerted into choller.