DRINKING USAGES. Some of these are of great antiquity, and all are interesting in connection with the history of manners. Besides sacrifices of animals and articles of food, the Hebrews made drink-offerings a solemn religious service. To mark the spot where he communed with God, Jacob set up a pillar of stone, and "poured a drink offering thereon."—Gen. xxxv. 14. We learn that such sacrifices were not made alone to the true God; for women are said to have poured out " drink-offerings unto other gods."—Jer. vii. 18. Such a statement is amply verified by pagan writers. Among the Greeks and Romans, the powiugout_of,a,libation to the gods was a common relig ious observance; A libation wagaliade" tin the occasion of solemn prayers, and also before meals. These libations were usually of undiluted wine, but they were also some times of milk diluted with water, or water flavored with honey. There are many refer ences to these libations by Sophocles, dEschylus, Pliny, and other writers. The libation at meals consisted of pouring a small quantity of liquor from the cup ou the ground— so much waste being a kind of propitiation, or an act somewhat equivalent to the asking of a blessing. See SACRIFICE.
From these and similar usages in remote times sprung the ceremonial observance of drinking healths, or the uttering of a pious, heroic, or friendly sentiment before quaffing liquor on festive occasions. It has been stated that the practice of saying, or pledging "I pledge you," originated in England in the 10th c., it being then necessary for one to watch over the safety of his companion when the cup was at his lips. But the custom of drinking healths, as just mentioned, is of far higher antiquity, and was derived immediately from the boisterous convivialities of a Scandinavian and Teutonic ancestry (see VALHALLA), if not with equal likelihood from the usages of the early Britons, who were of Celtic origin. A story is told of a feast given by Hengist (5th c.) at his strong hold of Thong-caster, in Lincolnshire, to the British king Vortigern, and of the bewitch ment of the royal guest by the charms of Rowena, the young and beautiful daughter of his entertainer. Rowena's address, as she gracefully knelt and presented the wine cup to the king, Liever kyning, wass heal, or, "Dear king, your health," is often quoted as the origin of our still existing expressions, wassail and wassail-cup; though wassail means pledging or health-drinking independently of the saying of Rowena, and cer tainly was not then uttered for the first time. Wassail is derived from the old Anglo Saxon Wces ha, "Be in health;" and Wces hell and Drinc hell were the usual ancient phrases in quaffing among the English, and synonymous with "Here is to you," and "I'll pledge you," of later times. The explanation of wassail by an old writer, Robert de Brunne, may be appropriately quoted: " This is ther custom and her gest When thei are at the ale or fest, Ilk man that levis qware him think Salle say Wosseille, and to him drink. He that biddis salle say, Wassaile, The tother salle say again, Drinkaille. That says Wosaeille drinkis of the cop, Kissand his felaw he gives it up." The learned Selden, in a note on the Polyolbion, says: "I see a custom in some parts among us; I mean the yearly was-haile in the country on the vigil of the new year, which I conjecture was a usual ceremony among the Saxons before Hengist, as a note of health-wishing (and so perhaps you might make it wish-heil), which was exprest among other nations in that form of drinking to the health of their mistresses and friends. 'Bone vos, bane nos, bone te, bene me, bone nostram etiam Stephanium,' in Plautus, and infinite other testimonies of that nature in him, Martial, Ovid, Horace, and such more agreeing nearly with the fashion now used; we calling it a health, as they did also in direct terms." For further particulars concerning wassail and wassail-bowl, we
may refer to Brand's Popular Antiquities, edited by Ellis. It is enough here to quote from that authority the following passages: "Milner on an ancient cup (Archwologia, xi. 420), informs us that 'the introduction of Christianity amongst our ancestors did not at all contribute to the abolition of the practice of wasselling. On the contrary, it began to assume a kind of religious aspect, and the wassel-bowl itself, which in the great monasteries was placed on the abbot's table, at the upper end of the refectory or eating-hall, to be circulated amongst the community at discretion, received the honor able appellation of " poculum charitatis." This, in our universities, is called the grace cup.' The poculum charitatis is well translated by the toast-master of most of the public companies of the city of London by the words a 'loving cup.' After dinner. the master and wardens 'drink to their visitors, in a loving cup, and bid them all heartily welcome.' The cup [a silver flagon containing warm spiced wine] then cir culates round the table, the person who pledges standing up whilst his neighbor drinks to him." While the drinking of healths is thus of old date, the application of the word " toast " is modern, having had its origin in the practice of putting a piece of toasted bread in a jug of ale, hence called "a toast and tankard." The custom of so using the word is said to have had its rise at Bath, in the reign of Charles II. It happened that on a public day a celebrated beauty of those times was in the cross [or large pub lic] bath, and one of the crowd of her admirers took a glass of the water in which the fair one stood, and drank her health to the company. There was in the place a gay fellow half-tipsy, who offered to jump in, and declared, though he liked not the liquor, lie would have the toast. lie was opposed in his resolution; yet this whim gave foundation to the present honor which is done to the lady we mention in our liquors, who has ever since been called a toast. —Tatler. Begun in the form of toasting beauties at private parties, toasts were in time given on all sorts of subjects at public festivities, accompanied with rounds of cheers and hurrahs, these noisy demonstrations being now called " the honors." The fatigue of announcing these exciting sentiments is so great, that in all well-ordered large assemblies toastmaster is employed. Standing behind the chairman, this official, besides proclaiming the toasts, acts as a fugleman to regu late the clapping of hands and the "hip, hip, hurrahs" of the company. "Toasts, i certainly, in this guise look more like a medium for taking an indefinite quantity of wine, than that spontaneous effusion of the heart in honor of some cherished individual, which they originally were. On certain occasions, these signals are hushed, and the convivial glass is taken " in solemn silence." The effect is rather startling. A convivial glass to the memory of one departed has surely something in it of practical absurdity."-3Irs. Stone's Chronicles of Fashion (1845). The absurdity of the whole toasting system has incurred the reprehension of temperance societies, without any perceptible abatement; but the old custom of drinking healths at private parties is now given up in good society, along with the excesses which were formerly practiced.