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Preface.

A small printer's ornament features a central dot with two tapering decorative flourishes extending horizontally.

Behold, kind reader, here is my right hand and my pledge. This is indeed the true German custom. I shall not detain you long in the entryway. I entrust this little book to your care, which contains the most ancient and hitherto unpublished formula of ZOSIMOS concerning the brewing of zythos Original: "zythis"; a Greek term for an ancient Egyptian fermented beverage, similar to beer.. Among the baggage train of King DARIUS, there were cooks, pot-makers, drink-makers, wine-tasters, and perfumers. Now, receive with kindness the Zythopoios Original: "Ζυθοποιὸν"; Greek for "beer-maker" or "brewer." ZOSIMOS, a no less noble interpreter of preparing cerevisia Latin for "beer.". The ancients drank raw and poorly boiled zythos. Our ancestors and fathers drank beer of potent strength from immense cups. Our children and grandchildren still drink that beverage made from barley and wheat, a rival to wine, whether good or bad, sweet or sour, strong or watery, simple or complex, easy on the stomach or heavy on the head, or intoxicating. It is renewed here and there in many forms, deformed by bad arts and seemingly disguised, and marked by countless names. Yet, by its own nature, it remains always the same, not so different after many centuries in its method and boiling.

You see, kind reader, once you have read through this fragment, which is dear for its antiquity, small in size, and weighty in subject, that there is much contained within the writings of the au-