Pig and Whistle
. The bowl and wassail, or the wassail-cup and wassail. A piggen is a pail, especially a milk-pail; and a pig is a small bowl, cup, or mug, making “milk and wassail;” similar to the modern sign of Jug and Glass—i.e. beer and wine. Thus a crockery-dealer is called a pig-wife.
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Entry taken from
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.