For loss of virility, Paullini recommends drinking the urine of a bull, immediately after he has covered a cow, and smear the pubis with the bull’s excrements; also piss through the engagement ring (pp. 152, 153).
But when witches have been the occasion of such impotence, the victim should urinate through the wedding ring immediately after discovering his misfortune; he also advises urination upon a broom; human ordure was also efficacious. Or, take castor-oil plant, put it into a pot, add some of the patient’s urine, hermetically seal, boil slowly, and then bury in an unfrequented spot. By this method, the witches will either be made to piss blood, or have other tormenting pains until they relieve the bewitched one.—(Idem, pp. 264, 265.)
Etmuller describes another “sympathetic” cure for this infirmity: This prescribed that the bridegroom should catch a fish (the Latin word is “lucium,” meaning probably our pike), forcibly open its mouth, urinate therein, and throw the fish back in the water, upstream; then try to copulate, taking care to urinate through the wedding-ring, both before and after. “Si quis emat lucium piscem sexus masculini, huic per vim aperiatur os, et in os ejus immittatur urinam, maleficiati. Hic lucius ita vivus immittatur in fluvium, idque contra ejusdem cursum ... subito namque tollitur maleficium si non sit nimis inveteratum, etc.... probatum etiam fuit si sponsus ante copulationem et etiam post eam mittat suam urinam per annulum sponsalitium quem accepit a sponsa.” He gives another cure, of much the same kind, which, however, required that the micturation through the ring should be done in a cemetery while the patient was lying on his back on a tombstone. “A vetula suppeditato dum scil. in cementerio quodam missit urinam per annulum cujusdam lapidis sepulchro incumbentis.”—(Etmuller, vol. i. p. 462 a, 462 b.)
This remedy is believed in and practised by the peasantry in some parts of Germany to the present day. “A married man who has become impotent through evil influences can obtain relief by forming a ring with his thumb and forefinger, and urinating through it secretly.”—(“Sagen-märchen, Volkaberglauben, aus Schwaben,” Drs. Birlinger and Buck, Freiburg, 1861, p. 486.)
Grimm, in his “Teutonic Mythology” (vol. iii.) refers to “Nouer l’aiguillette,” but adds nothing to what has been presented above.
There are certain quaint usages connected with weddings among the peasantry of Russia, as well as among the rustic population of England, which might excite the curiosity of antiquarians. In the first case, there is a “sprinkling” with water once used by the bride for the purpose of bathing her person; in the other, there is a “sale” of a liquid by the bride, this liquid being an intoxicant.
Wedding ceremonies of the peasantry of Samogitia: “The bride was led on the wedding-day three times round the fireplace of her future husband; it was then customary to wash her feet, and with the same water that had been used for that purpose the bridal bed, the furniture, and all the guests were sprinkled.”—(Maltebrun, “Univ. Geog.,” vol. ii. p. 548, art. “Russia.”)
By a reference back to page 60 of this volume, it will be seen that the Queen of Madagascar favored her subjects in the same way. This sprinkling with the water used as above may be a survival of a former practice, in which the aspersion was with the urine of the bride.
“Bride-Ale, Bride-Bush, and Bride-Stake are nearly synonymous terms, and are all derived from the circumstance of the bride’s selling ale on the wedding-day, for which she received, by way of contribution, whatever handsome price the friends assembled on the occasion chose to pay her for it.” (Brand, “Pop. Ant.,” vol. ii. p. 143, art. “Bride-Ales.”) In this article he introduces the story from Mungo Park already given in these pages, and seems to have a suspicion that the custom above described could be traced back to a rather unsavory origin.
The derivation of the English word “bridal” is very obscure; Fosbroke says that the word “bride-ale” comes from the bride’s selling ale on her wedding-day, and the friends contributing what they liked in payment of it.—(“Cyclop. of Antiq.,” vol. ii. p. 818, under “Marriage” and “Bride-Ales.”)