A curious manifestation of hospitality has been noticed among the Tchuktchi of Siberia: “Les Tschuktschi offrent leurs femmes aux voyageurs; mais ceux-ci, pour s’en rendre dignes, doivent se soumettre à une épreuve dégoûtante. La fille ou la femme qui doit passer la nuit avec son nouvel hôte lui présente une tasse pleine de son urine; il faut qu’il s’en rince la bouche. S’il a ce courage, il est regardé comme un ami sincère; sinon, il est traité comme un ennemi de la famille.”—(Dulaure, “Des Divinités Génératrices,” Paris, 1825, p. 400.)

Among the Tchuktchees of Siberia, “it is a well known custom to use the urine of both parties as a libation in the ceremony; and likewise between confederates and allies, to pledge each other and swear eternal friendship.”—(“In the Lena Delta,” Melville, p. 318.)

The presentation of women to distinguished strangers is a mark of savage hospitality noted all over the world, but never in any other place with the above peculiar accompaniment; yet Mungo Park assures his readers that, during his travels in the interior of Africa, a wedding occurred among the Moors while he was asleep. He was awakened from his doze by an old woman bearing a wooden bowl, whose contents she discharged full in his face, saying it was a present from the bride.

Finding this to be the same sort of holy water with which a Hottentot priest is said to sprinkle a newly married couple, he supposed it to be a mischievous frolic, but was informed that it was a nuptial benediction from the bride’s own person, and which, on such occasions, is always received by the young unmarried Moors as a mark of distinguished favor.—(Quoted in Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” London, 1849, vol. ii. p. 152, article “Bride-Ales.” See also Mungo Park’s “Travels in Africa,” New York, 1813, p. 109.)

In Hottentot marriages “the priest, who lives at the bride’s kraal, enters the circle of the men, and coming up to the bridegroom, pisses a little upon him. The bridegroom receiving the stream with eagerness rubs it all over his body, and makes furrows with his long nails that the urine may penetrate the farther. The priest then goes to the outer circle and evacuates a little upon the bride, who rubs it in with the same eagerness as the bridegroom. To him the priest then returns, and having streamed a little more, goes again to the bride and again scatters his water upon her. Thus he proceeds from one to the other until he has exhausted his whole stock, uttering from time to time to each of them the following wishes, till he has pronounced the whole upon both: ‘May you live long and happily together. May you have a son before the end of the year. May this son live to be a comfort to you in your old age. May this son prove to be a man of courage and a good huntsman.’”—(Peter Kolbein, Voy. to the Cape of Good Hope, in Knox, “Voyages,” London, 1777, vol. ii. pp. 399, 400. This statement of Kolbein is cited by Maltebrun, Univ. Geog. vol. ii. article “Cape of Good Hope,” but he also mentions Thurnberg, Sparmann and Foster as authorities. Pinkerton, vol. xvi. pp. 89 and 141, likewise quotes from Thurnberg on this subject.)

“Have I not drunk to your health, swallowed flap-dragons, eat glasses, drank wine, stabbed arms, and done all the offices of protested gallantry for your sake?”—(Marston’s “Dutch Courtesan,” London, 1605; see also footnote on the same point in the “Honest Whore,” Thomas Dekkar, 1604, edition of London, 1825. “Dutch flap-dragons,” “Healths in urine.” See also “A New Way to Catch the Old One,” Thomas Middleton, 1608, ed. of Rev. Alex. Dyce, London, 1840; footnote to above: “Drinking healths in urine was another and more disgusting feat of gallantry.” Again, for flap-dragons, see in “Ram Alley,” by Ludovick Barry, 1611, ed. of London, 1825.)

In the “Histoire Secrète du Prince Croq’ Étron,” M’lle Laubert, Paris, 1790, Prince Constipati is entertained by the Princess Clysterine; “elle lui donna de la limonade, de la façon d’Urinette” (p. 17).

Brand has a very interesting chapter, entitled “Drinking Wine in the Church at Marriages,” in which it appears that the custom prevailed very generally among nations of the highest civilization, of having the bride, groom, and invited guests, share in a cup or chalice, filled with some intoxicant; in England, a country which has never raised the grape, this drink is wine; in Ireland, it was whiskey. Brand traces it back to a Gothic origin, but he himself calls attention to the breaking of wine-glasses at the marriage ceremony among Hebrews, from which circumstance a still greater antiquity may be inferred.

“Cobbler’s punch,” urine with a cinder in it.—(Grose, “Dictionary of Buckish Slang,” London, 1811.)

“A beautiful lady, bathing in a cold bath, one of her admirers, out of gallantry, drank some of the water.”—(Idem, article “Toast.”)

“We were told that the priest (of the Hottentots) certainly gives the nuptial benediction by sprinkling the bride and groom with his urine.”—(Lieut. Cook, R. N., in “Hawkesworth’s Voyages,” London, 1773, vol. iii. p. 387.)

Similar statements are to be found in the writings of Hahn and others of the Dutch missionaries to the natives of South Africa.

The malevolence of witchcraft seems to have taken the greatest pleasure in subtle assaults upon those just entering the married state. Fortunately, amulets, talismans, and counter-charms were within reach of all who needed them. The best of all these was thought to be urination through the wedding-ring.—(See Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. iii. p. 305.)

The variants of this practice are innumerable, and are referred to by nearly all the old writers.

Beckherius tells his readers that to counteract the effects of witchcraft, and especially of “Nouer l’Aiguillette” ... “Si per nuptialem annulum sponsius mingat, fascina et Veneris impotentia solvetur, qua a maleficiis ligatus fuit.”—(“Med. Microcos.” p. 66.)

“Pisse through a wedding-ring if you would know who is hurt in his privities by witchcraft.”—(Reg. Scot, “Discoverie,” p. 64.)

“Si quis aliquo veneficio impotens ad usum veneris factus fuerit at quam primum mingat per annulum conjugalem.”—(Frommann, “Tract. de Fascinat.” p. 997.)

Etmuller did not believe that witches could “nouer l’aiguillette;” he attributed that effect to excessive modesty; yet all the remedies mentioned by him, by which the testes of the bridegroom were to be anointed, contained “Zibethum” as an ingredient.—(See his “Opera Omnia,” vol. i. p. 461 b, and 462 a.)

For loss of virility, Paullini recommends drinking the urine of a bull, immediately after he has covered a cow, and smear the pubis with the bull’s excrements; also piss through the engagement ring (pp. 152, 153).

But when witches have been the occasion of such impotence, the victim should urinate through the wedding ring immediately after discovering his misfortune; he also advises urination upon a broom; human ordure was also efficacious. Or, take castor-oil plant, put it into a pot, add some of the patient’s urine, hermetically seal, boil slowly, and then bury in an unfrequented spot. By this method, the witches will either be made to piss blood, or have other tormenting pains until they relieve the bewitched one.—(Idem, pp. 264, 265.)

Etmuller describes another “sympathetic” cure for this infirmity: This prescribed that the bridegroom should catch a fish (the Latin word is “lucium,” meaning probably our pike), forcibly open its mouth, urinate therein, and throw the fish back in the water, upstream; then try to copulate, taking care to urinate through the wedding-ring, both before and after. “Si quis emat lucium piscem sexus masculini, huic per vim aperiatur os, et in os ejus immittatur urinam, maleficiati. Hic lucius ita vivus immittatur in fluvium, idque contra ejusdem cursum ... subito namque tollitur maleficium si non sit nimis inveteratum, etc.... probatum etiam fuit si sponsus ante copulationem et etiam post eam mittat suam urinam per annulum sponsalitium quem accepit a sponsa.” He gives another cure, of much the same kind, which, however, required that the micturation through the ring should be done in a cemetery while the patient was lying on his back on a tombstone. “A vetula suppeditato dum scil. in cementerio quodam missit urinam per annulum cujusdam lapidis sepulchro incumbentis.”—(Etmuller, vol. i. p. 462 a, 462 b.)

This remedy is believed in and practised by the peasantry in some parts of Germany to the present day. “A married man who has become impotent through evil influences can obtain relief by forming a ring with his thumb and forefinger, and urinating through it secretly.”—(“Sagen-märchen, Volkaberglauben, aus Schwaben,” Drs. Birlinger and Buck, Freiburg, 1861, p. 486.)

Grimm, in his “Teutonic Mythology” (vol. iii.) refers to “Nouer l’aiguillette,” but adds nothing to what has been presented above.

There are certain quaint usages connected with weddings among the peasantry of Russia, as well as among the rustic population of England, which might excite the curiosity of antiquarians. In the first case, there is a “sprinkling” with water once used by the bride for the purpose of bathing her person; in the other, there is a “sale” of a liquid by the bride, this liquid being an intoxicant.

Wedding ceremonies of the peasantry of Samogitia: “The bride was led on the wedding-day three times round the fireplace of her future husband; it was then customary to wash her feet, and with the same water that had been used for that purpose the bridal bed, the furniture, and all the guests were sprinkled.”—(Maltebrun, “Univ. Geog.,” vol. ii. p. 548, art. “Russia.”)

By a reference back to page 60 of this volume, it will be seen that the Queen of Madagascar favored her subjects in the same way. This sprinkling with the water used as above may be a survival of a former practice, in which the aspersion was with the urine of the bride.

“Bride-Ale, Bride-Bush, and Bride-Stake are nearly synonymous terms, and are all derived from the circumstance of the bride’s selling ale on the wedding-day, for which she received, by way of contribution, whatever handsome price the friends assembled on the occasion chose to pay her for it.” (Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. ii. p. 143, art. “Bride-Ales.”) In this article he introduces the story from Mungo Park already given in these pages, and seems to have a suspicion that the custom above described could be traced back to a rather unsavory origin.

The derivation of the English word “bridal” is very obscure; Fosbroke says that the word “bride-ale” comes from the bride’s selling ale on her wedding-day, and the friends contributing what they liked in payment of it.—(“Cyclop. of Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 818, under “Marriage” and “Bride-Ales.”)

The Latin name for beer or ale was “cerevisia,” which would seem to be a derivative from the name of the goddess. It may, in earlier ages, have been a beverage dedicated to that goddess, employed in her libations, and held sacred as the means of producing the condition of inebriation, which in all nations has been looked upon as sacred. Réclus tells that there are still nations who regard their brewers as priests, and there are others who exalt their milkmen to that office: “Les Chewsoures du Caucase ont leurs prêtres brasseurs; les Todas des Neilgherries leurs divins fromagiers.”—(“Les Primitifs,” p. 116, article “Les Inoits Occidentaux.”)

Hazlitt mentions the case where the Fairies, having a mock baptism and no water at hand, made use of strong beer.—(“Fairy Tales,” London, 1875, p. 385.)

Beer would appear entitled to claim as old an origin as alcohol; it is mentioned in the sacred books of the Buddhists of Tibet: “La Bière d’hiver (dguntchang).”—(“Pratimoksha Sutra,” translated by W. W. Rockhill, Paris, 1885, Société Asiatique.)