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.)