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CUPS
AND
THEIR
CUSTOMS.
be
rendered
available
for
drinking
purposes^
or
to
assist
us
in
forming
any
idea
of
his
inner
life
;
we
must
therefore
commence
our
history
at
the
time
,
^^
when
God
made
choice
to
rear
His
miglity
champion,
strong
above
compare,
Whose
drink,
was
only
from
the
limpid
brook.'
Nor
need
we
pause
to
dilate
on
the
quality of
this
primaeval
draught
;
for
^^
Adam^s
ale
^^
has always
been
an
accepted
world-wide
beverage^
even
before
drinking-
fountains
were
invented,
and
will
continue
till
the
end
of
time
to
form
the
foundation
of
every other
drinkable
compound.
Neither
was
it
necessary
for
the
historian
to
inform
us
of
the
vessel
from
which
our
grand
pro-
genitor
quaffed
his
limpid
potion,
since
our
common
sense
would
tell
us
that
the
hollowed
palm
of
his
hand
would
serve
as
the
readiest
and
most
probable
means.
To
trace
the
origin
of
drinking-
vessels,
and
apply
it
to
our
modern
word
"
cup/^
we
must
introduce
a
singular
historical
fact,
which,
though
leading
us
to
it
by
rather
a
circuitous
route,
it
would
not
be
proper
to
omit.
We
must
go
back
to
a
high
antiquity,
if
we
would
seek
the
derivation
of
the
word,
inasmuch
as
its
Celtic
root
is
nearly
in
a
mythologic
age, so
far
as
the
written
history
of
the
Celts
is
concerned,
—
though
the
barbarous
custom
from
which
the
signification
of
our
cups
or
goblets
is
taken
(that
of
drinking
mead
from
the
skull
of
a
slain
enemy)
is
proved
by
chronicles
to
have
been
in
use
up
to
the
eleventh
century.
From
this,
a
cup
or
goblet
for
containing
liquor
was
called
the
Skull
or
Skoll,
a
root-word
nearly
retained
in
the
Icelandic
Skal,