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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