ABSTRACT
The sensation of thirst is the psychological correlate of the metabolic functions of water. In direct importance drink comes next to air and before food. Civilized taste has declared against the fermented drinks included in the term "mead." The projection outwards of the drinker's will is typified in many languages, as in most of the customs, by emphasizing the fact that he drinks first. Drinking is a social rite in connexion with the ceremonial eating of the new crops. Asceticism naturally would interdict stimulating drinks, as it interdicts all tendency to expansion. Drinks, other than milk and blood, produced from animal substance, are in the lower cultures not merely soups or broths, but actual beverages. Palm-wine is the chief drink in most of the East Indian islands, Celebes, and especially the Moluccas; it is used to some extent in Java, Sumatra, Malaysia, and India. Rice-spirit and distilled palm-wine are largely drunk in the East.
