Cock-penny

A penny levied by the master on each of the boys for allowing the brutal sport of cock-throwing in school on Shrove Tuesday formerly. The master himself found the bird. Cocktail. Tradition has it that one of Monte zum a’s nobles sent a draught of a new beverage concocted by him from the cactus plant to the Emperor by his daughter Xochitl. The Aztec monarch smiled, tasted it, gulped it down with a relish, and, it is said, afterwards married the girl; thenceforward this drink became the native tipple, and for centuries it bore the softened name of Octel. The corruption of Octel into Cocktail by the soldiers of the American Army when, under General Scott, they invaded Mexico, about sixty years ago, was easy.