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Smuggling in the Highlands. 259
Spain and Gaul ; but it was unknown to the ancient Greeks and
Romans. Tlie distillation of aromatic waters is said to have been
known from very remote times to the Arabians. The word
" iilcoliol" is Arabic, meaning originally " tine powder," and becoun'ng
gradually to mean " essence," " pure spirit," the "very
heart's blood/' as I>urns >iays of John l.arleycorn. You remember
the exclamation of i)Oor Cassio when he sobered down after his
drunken row— " O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no
name to be known by, let us call thee devil !" We have now got
a name for the intoxicating element of fermented liquors, and call
it alcohol, which may go some way to prove that the Arabians
were early accpiainted with the art of distillation. A rude kind
of still, which is yet employed, has been used for distilling spii'its
in Ceylon from time immemorial, and Captain Cook found among
the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands a knowledge of the art of
distilling spirits from alcoholic infusions.
It is said the art was first introduced into Europe by the
I\roors of Spain about 1150. Abucasis, who lived about that
time, is spoken of as the first western philosopher who taught the
art of distillation, as applied to the preparation of spirits. In the
following century Arnoldus de Villa Nova, a chemist and physician,
describes distilled spirit, and states that it was called by some the
" water of life ;" and about the same time Raymond Lully, a
chemist, noticed a mode of producing intoxicating spirit by distillation.
But for my purpose the most interesting fact is that
shortly after the invasion of Ireland by Henry II. in 1170, the
English found the Irish in the habit of making and drinking aqua
vitce. Whether the Ii'ish Celts claim to have brought the knowledge
of the art from their original scat in the far East, or to have
more recently received it from Spain I do not know, but, without
having access to purely Irish sources of information, this is the
earliest recoi'd I find of distilled spirits having been manufactured
or used in the British Islands. Whether Highlanders will allow
the Irish claim to Ossian or not, I fear it must be allowed they
have a prior claim to the use of whisky.* Uisye-beatluo is no doubt a
literal translation of the Latin aqua vitce (water of life), supposed to
be a corruption of acqua vite (water of the vine). "The monastei-ies
being the archives of science, and the original dispensaries of medi-
cine, it is a natural surmise that the term acqua vitevfus there corrupted
into the Latin and universal appellation, aqua vitce (water of
* My attention has been called to the fact that in Mr Skene's " Four
Ancient Books of Wales," the Gael are hi some of tiie 6ih or 7th century
poeins called "distillers," "furnace distillers," "kiln-distillers."