Madeira, like sherry and port, is a fortified wine.
The olives and white wine of Aguilar are celebrated in Spain, although the wine, which somewhat resembles sherry, is known as Montilla, from the adjacent town of that name.
Among objects used are a pool of ink in the hand (Egypt), the liver of an animal (tribes of the North-West Indian frontier), a hole filled with water (Polynesia), quartz crystals (the Apaches and the Euahlayi tribe of New South Wales), a smooth slab of polished black stone (the Huille-che of South America), water in a vessel (Zulus and Siberians), a crystal (the Incas), a mirror (classical Greece and the middle ages), the finger-nail, a swordblade, a ring-stone, a glass of sherry, in fact almost anything.
The great bulk of sherry shipped to the United Kingdom is blended.
The early form of the word in English was "sherris" (abbreviated from "sherris-wine" or "sherris-sack"), which was taken to be a plural, and "sherry" was formed as a singular by mistake.
