Mead of the Bell Beaker Culture (c. 2800–1800 BCE). The earliest surviving description of mead is in the hymns of the "Rigveda", one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and (later) Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BC. During the Golden Age of ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) discussed mead in his "Meteorologica" and elsewhere, while Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) called mead "militites" in his "Naturalis Historia" and differentiated wine sweetened with honey or "honey-wine" from mead. The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in "De re rustica", about
The Third Ingredient The Third Ingredient "The Third Ingredient" is a short story by O. Henry, notable for its ironic take on the "Stone Soup" theme. The story was originally published in 1908 in "Everybody's Magazine" with illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele. The next year it was included in O. Henry's collection "Options". As reported by O. Henry's good friend and biographer C. Alphonso Smith, "The Third Ingredient" was inspired by a real experience: ... in one of his first months in New York he was living in very humble lodgings and one evening found him without funds. He became so hungry that