cheering cup; and we are told of Verres, by the Roman orator, that he who trampled upon the laws of his country, was yet a good subject in all drinking societies, and yielded a ready obedience to all convivial laws.

DRINKING MATCHES.

If inebriety be, as Seneca calls it, "nothing else than a voluntary insanity," there can be few madder things than to make a study of madness, by bragging and wagering. One of the first to whom the disgrace belongs of proposing a drinking match, was Dionysius, who, at the feast of Choas, proclaimed a reward of a crown of gold to the person who should drink most. Xenocrates of Chalcedon was the man who obtained this inglorious triumph. It having been a custom, however, that the victors in all exercises should leave their crowns of flowers, myrtle, ivy, and laurel, on the head of a statue of Mercury which stood at the palace gate, Xenocrates would not break through it, even for the sake of gold; and with a spirit which almost atoned for the grossness of his achievement, left his golden crown also on the head of the presiding genius.

PUSS AND MEW.

In 1738, when penalties were laid on the dealers of spirituous liquors, an ingenious mode of avoiding informations was adopted. The customer, on entering

the house, or the entrance to it, cried puss, to which a voice from within replied mew; a drawer was then thrust forward, into which the customer put his money; the drawer being pulled in, was soon after thrust out again, with the quantity of spirits required.

UNDER THE ROSE.

This saying is said to have taken its rise from convivial entertainments, whereat it was anciently the custom to wear chaplets of roses about the head, on which occasions those who desired to confine their words to the company present, that they might go no farther, usually protested that they were spoken "under the rose." Hence the Germans have a custom of picturing a rose in the ceiling over the table.

Peacham, in "The Truth of Our Times" (1638), says: "In many places, as well in England as in the Low Countries, they have over their tables a rose painted, and what is spoken under the rose must not be revealed. The reason is this: the rose being sacred to Venus, whose amorous and stolen sports, that they might never be revealed, her sonne Cupid would needes dictate to Harpocrates, the God of Silence.”

BUZZA; TO BUZZA ONE.

Grose says, this word signifies to challenge a person to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his glass,

with the undertaking to drink it should it prove to be above the capacity of the glass; and as commonly applied to one who hesitates to empty a bottle that is nearly out.

The expression is said to have been used in collegiate circles as a threat, by way of pleasantry, to black the face of the person so addressed with the burnt cork, in the event of his failing to empty the bottle.

SUPERNACULUM.

To drink supernaculum was an ancient custom, in England and several European countries, of emptying the cup or glass, and then pouring the remaining drop or two on the nail of him that drank it, to show that he was no flincher.

In a popular ballad entitled the "Winchester Wedding," preserved in Ritson's "Antient Songs" (1792), is the following allusion to this custom

"Then Philip began her health,

And turn'd a beer-glass on his thumb,
But Jenkin was reckon'd for drinking
The best in Christendom."

HALF-SEAS OVER,

Or nearly drunk, is likely to have been a proverbial phrase from the Dutch, applied to that state of

rats.

ebriety by an idea familiar with those waterThus op-zee, Dutch, means literally over-sea. Mr. Gifford tells us, in his "Jonson," that it was a name given to a stupefying beer introduced into England from the Low Countries: hence op-zee, or over-sea; and freeyen, in Germany, signifies to swallow greedily.

A ROUSE AND A CAROUSE

Was a large glass, in which a health was given, the drinking of which, by the rest of the company, forming a carouse. We may add, that there could be no rouse, or carouse, unless the glasses were emptied: hence the saying, "Gentlemen, charge your glasses." Carouse is a corruption of two old German words-gar, signifying all, and ansz, out; so that to drink garanz is to drink all out: hence carouse.

PEG-TANKARDS.

They have in the inside a row of light pins one above another, from top to bottom; the tankard holds two quarts, so that there is a gill of ale, i.e., half a pint of Winchester measure, between each pin. The first person that drank was to empty the tankard to the first peg or pin; the second was to empty to the next pin, &c., by which means the pins were so

D

many measures to the compotators, making them all drink alike, or the same quantity; and as the distance of the pins was such as to contain a large draught of liquor, THE COMPANY would be very liable by this method to get drunk, especially when, if they drank short of the pin or beyond it, they were obliged to drink again.

TO KNOCK THE GLASS ON THE THUMB,

Was to show they had performed their duty. After having drunk, the president "turned the bottom of the cup upwards, and in ostentation of his dexterity, gave it a fillip, to make it cry, 'TING.'"

HOCH! HOCH! HOCH!

The Germans show their brotherhood by striking their glasses against each other's. When they give a toast they stand on their feet, and holding high their glasses, shout simultaneously, "Hoch! Hoch! Hoch!" meaning that the person whose health is drunk deserves all praise and honour, for his deeds. have been high and noble.

CONVIVIAL VOCABULARY.

Infinite is the variety of phrases employed to express the conditon of an honest fellow, and no