Now I have read a good book by Harry Harrison called the Hammer and the
Cross. It was a trilogy about the Vikings and Norsemen. They seemed to
characterize each area. For example the Swedes would sacrafice capitves and
slaves to their god under a certain tree. Since you are talking about peeing
in someones ale, this seems appropiate. When leaders met and were
negotiating they would drink this meade/ale of some sort that was drugged
with some kind of hallucinogen. They would drink it and drink it an then pee
into the other leaders cup and drink again. This removed the impurities and
if you drank another person's pee a friendship was built. I am not sure if
this was Sweden, Norway or Finland that this practice took place. A good
historical trilogy if you can find it.
Darius
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Received on Thu Dec 21 2000 - 14:19:42 UTC