1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

18

CUPS ANB THEIB CUSTOMS.

of the many hymns In the Yedas in its praise may be thus translated—

u We have drunk the Sonaa And are entered into Light, So that we know the Gods. What can now an enemy do to us ? What can the malice of any mortal effect Against thee and us, O ! thou. immortal God? "

For further information on this and. other points, much may be learnt from Mr* Wright J s excellent book of € Domestic Manners and Sentiments of the Middle Ages/ where some good illustrations of Saxon drinking- seenes are sketched from the Harlcian and other manuscripts. From the scarcity of materials descrip- tive of the social habits of the Normans,, we glean but little as to their customs of drinking; in all probability they differed but slightly from those of the Saxons, though at this time wine became of more frequent use, the vessels from which it was quaffed being bowl- shaped, and generally made of glass. Will of Malms- bury, describing the customs of Glastonbury soon after the Conquests says, that on particular occasions the monks had "mead in their cans, and wine in their grace-cup/ 1 Excess in drinking appears to have been looked upon with leniency; for, in the stories of Eeginald of Durham, we read of a party drinking all night at the house of a priest; and in another he mentions a youth passing the whole night drinking at a tavern with his monastic teacher, till the one cannot prevail on the other to go home. The qualities of good wine in the 11th century are thus singularly set forth :— " It