[Sca-cooks] Aloxa, a honey drink

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

We've had a lot of OT posts in the past few days, and several of those have 
been from me (bad Brighid, no bizcocho!).  By way of atonement, here's a 
small segment from my new translation project.

La aloxa es cierto genero de agua miel que se haze con especias calientes, 
bevese en tiempo de estio, porque dizen que refresca, y no se engañan 
mucho en ello, porque aunque sea verdad que por parte de las especias y la 
miel calienta, empero por la mucha porcion de agua refresca, y las especias 
hazen penetrar la agua por todo el cuerpo, por que se abren los caños y 
poros del cuerpo, y ansi casualmente de per accidens refrescan, aunque de 
suyo calienten.  

Aloxa is a certain kind of honey water which is made with hot spices; it is 
drunk in summertime, because they say that it refreshes, and they are not 
very wrong about that, because although it is true that the spices and the 
honey heat it up, however, the much larger portion of water refreshes, and 
the spices cause the water to penetrate throughout the body, because they 
open the channels and the pores of the body, and thus coincidently and per 
accidens [Latin for "by accident"] they refresh, although by themselves they 
cause heat.  

Francisco Nuñez de Oria, "Aviso de Sanidad" (Advice on Health),  Madrid, 
1572    
http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533126427


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net