[jambutty]

By the way, seems 'over the brush' meaning to cohabit without being legally married, originated from an expression 'over the broomstick', from makeshift marriages performed by couples jumping over a broomstick.

I believe that “Jump The Broomstick” was a tradition of the Negro slaves in the West Indies and America because being slaves they had no rights at all so couldn’t get married in the same way that the plantation and slave owners could. So when a couple of slaves wanted to get ‘married’ they had a ceremony that included jumping over a broomstick that was sometimes placed at the threshold of the room that they would live in.

If memory serves me well this ceremony was demonstrated in the excellent TV programme Roots.