Collation

“ She then washes her right breast and squeezes out some milk from it. The father or the priest then sprinkles a little water over the infant, reciting an incantation, the mother or the nurse keeping her hand on the right breast all the time. The incantation is to this effect :— "O Child, let the Sea of Milk * [2] fill the Mammae with milk for thee, and be thou strong and happy for ever. lovely-faced lady, let thy child live long by drinking the nectar-like milk, just as the gods are able to live for very many years by drinking the beverage of immortality." ”

“ For as the bread is presented separately from the cup, the body, being united to the bread, must consequently be divided from the blood contained in the cup. For when they affirm that the body is in the bread, and the blood in the cup, while the bread and the wine are at some distance from each other, no sophistry will enable them to evade this conclusion—that the body is separated from the blood. Their usual pretence, that the blood is in the body, and the body in the blood, by what they call concomitance, is perfectly frivolous, while the symbols in which they are contained are so divided. ”

“ I smacked my lips audibly as I gasped for breath after emptying the tumbler, and my sable friend smiled with satisfaction. Then, still holding me, she poured about a wine-glassful of very dark-brown—almost black—liquid from the porcelain jug into the cup and presented it to me. This, too, I drank, for I was still thirsty; but the “medicine” was by no means so palatable as the lemonade, being of an exceedingly pungent, bitter taste, and I am afraid I made a rather wry face as the negress removed the cup from my lips. ”

“ My mistress at parting warned me to be particularly watchful of him toward two in the morning. The doctor (in case anything happened) left me a large hand bell to ring, which could easily be heard at the house.
Restored to the society of my fair friend, I spread the supper table. A pâté, a sausage, and a few bottles of generous Moselle wine, composed our simple meal. When persons adore each other, the intoxicating illusion of Love transforms the simplest meal into a banquet. ”

“ Rice and fish were next brought in, after which the bridegroom's mother took the second cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after which she passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and gave the cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups. Soup was then served, and then the bride drank once from the third cup, and handed it to her husband's father, who drank three more cups, the bride took it again, and drank two, and lastly the mother-in- law drank three more cups. ”

“ Colics which are occasioned by wet feet, or catching cold, may generally be removed at the beginning, by bathing the feet and legs in warm water, and drinking such warm diluting liquors as will promote the perspiration, as weak wine-whey, or water-gruel, with a small quantity of spirits in it. ”

“ The offerings I furnish in your honour are bright cloth, shining cloth, soft cloth, and rough cloth. Of sake I raise up the tops of the jars and fill and range in order the bellies of the jars. [Grain] in juice and in ear I offer you. Of things that dwell in the mountains and on the moors I offer the soft of hair and the coarse of hair. Of things that dwell in the blue sea-plain, the broad of fin and the narrow of fin, even to the weeds of the offing and the weeds of the shore. ”

“ TAke a fat brawn of two or three years growth, and bone the sides, cut off the head close to the ears, and cut five collars of a side, bone the hinder leg, or else five collars will not be deep enough, cut the collars an inch deeper in the belly, then on the back; for when the collars come to boiling, they will shrink more in the belly than in the back, make the collars very even when you bind them up, not big at one end, & little at the other, but fill them equally, and lay them again in a soaking in fair water ”

“ And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. And every garment and every skin whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even. The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even. And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days ”

“ In all the mixed receipts, such as those in which you would put to distil flowers, fruits, and spices together, without being previously prepared by means of the digestion; the action of the fire raises first the spirits of the flowers; in such a manner that, in spite of the mixture, these spirits have contracted nothing from the smell of the fruits nor of the spices. That secretion made, the spirits of the fruits rise next, without any mixture of the spices or of the flower. ”

“ The great amusement of the evening,—which I suppose was owing to its being carnival—was the breaking of eggs filled with cologne, or other essences, upon the heads of the company. One end of the egg is broken and the inside taken out, then it is partly filled with cologne, and the whole sealed up. ”

“ If it was only a bit of dry bread, a crust, a bone left by a dog, a little mouldy pudding of Indian corn, a fish bone, a cherry stone—in fact anything that he could gnaw. But he could find nothing, nothing at all, absolutely nothing. ”

“ The bread and wine before consecration are “likenesses of his body and blood,” this in virtue of the words pronounced over them by Jesus on the night of his betrayal. The prayer then continues thus: “O God of truth, let thy holy Word settle upon this bread, that the bread may become body of the word, and on this cup, that the cup may become blood of the truth. And cause all who communicate to receive a drug of life for healing of every disease and empowering of all moral advance and virtue.” ”

“ A few days after that they sat down to the breakfast-table—the fellow, the glass eye, the arm-chair and the corker—and while sitting at breakfast, talking over their cocoa, the husband said something over his cocoa, and then the wife said something over her cocoa, and they got into an argument over their cocoa, and finally he picked up the old arm-chair, over his cocoa, and passed it to his wife, over her cocoa, and broke it all to pieces—not the cocoa, but the old arm-chair. ”

“ Every mother should study the individual nature and disposition of her child, in order to know what to do for it when it cries, for a cry may mean over-feeding as well as under-feeding, colic, or a wet diaper. Colic is often quickly relieved by turning the baby upon his stomach and rubbing his back, or by holding him in front of the fire, or wrapping him in a heated blanket. In drying the baby his comfort will be greatly increased by the use of talcum powder. ”

“ What was called ‘souling,’ or ‘sowling,’ was practised by the female portion of the poor, who visited their wealthier neighbours, demanding ‘soul’ (possibly from the French soûl, signifying ‘one’s fill,’ or from saouler, ‘to satisfy with food.’ See Wright’s Provincial Dictionary) , which signified, in its provincial acceptation, any condiment eaten with bread, such as meat, fish, etc., but especially cheese. ”

“ At the wedding feast, all the food is prepared in baskets. The young woman sits by the young man, and hands him the basket of food prepared for him with her own hands. He does not take it with his right hand ”

“ It is only when he has reached the age of tail coats and spike-fence collars that he discovers two hands are frequently too many and often not enough. They are too many at your first church wedding when wearing your first pair of white kids and they are not enough at a five o'clock tea. ”

“ When a marriage has been settled between the parents of the young people, visits are exchanged by the two families. On a fixed day, the contracting couple sit on a blanket at the bride’s house, and five women throw rice over five parts of the body as at the menstrual ceremony. ”

“ If sport, or exercise in the garden, led me to desire refreshment between the regular meals, a piece of brown bread was given me without butter, and I was content. Candies and confectionery were strangers to us primitive people. The stomach, that keystone of this mysterious frame, not being unduly stimulated, no morbid tastes were formed, and no undue admixture of saccharine or oleaginous matter caused effervescence and disease. ”

“ Trifling as it may seem to many, I never find that a young woman keeps a cologne bottle in her dressing room, or a smelling bottle about her—or perfumes her clothes—or is in the habit of eating, every now and then, a little coriander, or fennel, or cloves, or cinnamon—without trembling for her safety. Persisting long in this habit, she will as inevitably injure her brain and nervous system, her lungs or her stomach—ay, and her teeth too—as she continues the habit. ”

“ When their excellencies give orders that anyone is to be strangled, he is made to sit down on a stool, the back turned to this collar, and his head is so placed that the collar goes round one half of the neck. ”

“ In visiting different tailor shops we find that the dressing of the under-collar is accomplished in many different ways, and for aught I know all may be right—if they suit the customer, or if the collar is on, as it is required by the coat. ”

“ This, with the grain in the basket, is the midwife's perquisite. Should the child present with the cord round its neck, a cocoanut is immediately offered. If the child survives, a cock is offered to the gods on the day the mother takes her first bath. ”

“ The blood of the Word has been also exhibited as milk. Milk being thus provided in parturition, is supplied to the infant; and the breasts, which till then looked straight towards the husband, now bend down towards the child, being taught to furnish the substance elaborated by nature in a way easily received for salutary nourishment. For the breasts are not like fountains full of milk, flowing in ready prepared; but, by effecting a change in the nutriment, form the milk in themselves, and discharge it. ”

“ An Old English recipe for a woman who miscarries is to let her take milk of a one-coloured cow in her hand and sup it up {159} into her mouth, and then go to running water and spit out the milk therein. ”

“ In preparing Milk Punch or Egg Nogg in quantity, the milk or eggs should be poured upon the wine or spirits, very gradually, and continually beating the mixture in order to mix the ingredients thoroughly. ”

“ We drove only until noon, and stopped to stay over Sunday, so that we can do our washing and baking, without violating the Sabbath. We do not have collars and cuffs, and fine starched things to do up, but we have a great many pocket handkerchiefs, aprons, stockings, etc. We have pretty bead collars made of black and white beads, tied with a ribbon, that always look nice and do not get soiled. ”

“ Just as it is desirable, in the interests of health, that wool should be used exclusively for clothing during the day, so it is that the surroundings of the body during the night should be of wool, and the bed or mattrass, being, as it is generally supposed to be, stuffed with hair, wool, or feathers, should be cased in woollen material. ”

“ The babe drawing the milk from the nipple of either the breast or the bottle, of course, does so by a sucking motion, which moves the tongue and cheeks, and produces a flow of fluid from the glands, which liberates the food-prana and has also a chemical digestive effect upon the milk itself, notwithstanding the fact that true saliva is not secreted in the young babe, and does not appear until the teeth show themselves. ”

“ Highly commended.—A. should explain to his hostess that he has a peculiar hobby, to wit, collecting slices of bread-and-butter from the houses of the great. His collection of Royal Family slices is unrivalled. Might he have the pleasure and honour of adding to his collection this dainty specimen? He should then reverently fold the slice in two and place it in his breast-pocket. ”

“ Every liqueur made by infusion is thus called. When the spirit has imbibed thoroughly the flavor and color of the fruit steeped in it, the infusion is drawn off and sugar added; then filtered and bottled. ”

“ Ah, friends, how humble doth an empty stomach make the human animal! We told her that we adored fried eggs. In fact we could not picture to ourselves anything more delectable. (We hadn’t had fried eggs at every turn in the West Indies for nothing, our stomachs were becoming acclimated.) ”

“ Methods of mixing are important, where several ingredients are combined. We seek for a way that will give the most complete mingling of all the substances with smoothness and lightness, at the same time saving time and strength. We must look always for the “short cut.” It is necessary to have the texture of the food such that it can be well masticated and mixed with the digestive fluids, but time is too precious to spend hours on a dessert, or in beating biscuits. ”

“ For you should always have your hearts warmed up, and your bodies pure, when you visit the house of the Lord. Make not the outside of the cup and the platter clean alone, but also the inside. People who keep the inside of the cup and platter clean are very apt to wash the outside of it. ”