Mead ingredients of alcoholic beverages led to commercial mead becoming a more obscure beverage until recently. Some monasteries kept up the old traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping, especially in areas where grapes could not be grown. The English "mead" – "fermented honey drink" – derives from the Old English "meodu" or "medu", and Proto-Germanic, *"meduz" (source also of Old Norse mjöðr, Danish mjød, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch mede, Old High German metu, German Met "mead"). "Madh", and the related terms "mad" (मद, مد) and "madira" (मदिरा, مدِرا), also mean alcohol. These words are all derived from the
Black drink traditionally limited to only adult men. The ritual name "Asi Yahola" or "Black Drink Singer" is corrupted into English as "Osceola"). Among the Timucua, a type of black drink was called "cacina" by the Spanish. The preparation and consumption of the drink were strictly limited to the community council house. Women (other than an occasional female chief) were normally excluded from the council house except for activities such as dances, but did prepare the "cacina". In 1678 a bedridden "cacica" (a female chief) was given permission to brew and consume "cacina" in her house, on the condition that no one