_The Bargain Cup._--Can the old English custom of drinking together upon
the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era?
Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his
_Mysteries_ (London, 1634), says:
"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they
also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie
vsed in striking of couenants."
This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom,
which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I should like
confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an ancestry so remote.