And we will strew chopped straw before the door.
A German custom prevalent among the common people, when they suspect the virginity of a bride. The ceremony is performed on the day before the marriage.—Vide Adelung in voce Häckerling.
And good Sir Urian is the guide.
“Sir Urian is a name which was formerly used to designate an unknown person, or one whose name, even if it were known, it was not thought proper to mention. In this sense it was sometimes applied to the devil. In the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the unprincipled Prince of Partartois is called Urian.”—Bayard Taylor.
The ointment gives our sinews might.
“According to the orthodox theory, the witches anointed their whole body with a salve or ointment prepared in the name of the fiend, murmured a few magic sentences into their beard, and then flew up, body and soul, head and hair, actually and corporeally into the air.”—Horst’s Dæmonomagie, vol. ii. p. 203.