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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79020-0.txt b/79020-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27a785b --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7567 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79020 *** + + + + + THE SPOON: + WITH + UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS, + PRIMITIVE, EGYPTIAN, ROMAN, MEDIÆVAL, AND MODERN. + + + BY HABBAKUK O. WESTMAN, + + OF THE GLOBE TAVERN; + FORMERLY TEACHER OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL. + + BEING A PART OF + + THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CHIFFONIERS, + + ILLUSTRATING THE PRIMITIVE ARTS IN DOMESTIC LIFE. + + LONDON: + + WILEY & PUTNAM, 6, WATERLOO PLACE. + + + + + ADVERTISEMENT. + + +‘THE SPOON’ is the first of a series of papers designed to elucidate the +origin, history, and value of several primitive devices, which, from +their apparent insignificance, have been overlooked by writers on the +useful arts; but which have not been without their influence on the +progress of civilization. As it was out of the question to treat every +subject with the gravity due to historical research—to do so a writer +must be the personification of melancholy herself—the idea was adopted +of embracing them under the ‘Transactions’ of a Society, whose name +should indicate their miscellaneous character, and relative value among +literary merchandize. Small as this value may be, there are persons +simple enough to suppose the annals of the shuttle and needle, of +bellows and boilers, &c. possess higher claims on the attention of the +moralist, philosopher, and historian, than many dignified tomes of +acknowledged history; for what are these, when divested of extraneous +matters, but records of the club, sword and bayonet, the musket, cannon, +and scaffold? + + THE PUBLISHERS. + + + + + PREFACE. + + +A Turkish shepherd tending his flocks in the vicinity of Adrianople, +bethought of solacing himself with a few whiffs of tobacco. Seated on +the ground, under the shade of a tree, he drew from a pouch his +apparatus for striking fire, but found the piece of flint missing. He +therefore arose, looked about for a stone, and at length picked up a +pebble, which answered the purpose so well that he used it daily for a +year or more. It came to pass that a Jewish pedlar one morning +approached as the boor was lighting his pipe. The Israelite took a fancy +to the stone, and bought it for a few aspers—soon after which, it shone +the largest and brightest gem in the turban of Mahomet IV:—Now every +reader of this book will either resemble the disciple of Moses or the +Mahommedan keeper of sheep. It is true, diamonds are not concealed +within the leaves; yet he who has wit to detect, _aurum e stercore_, +gold from dirt—will certainly meet with something more than materials to +light a cigar. + +_New-York, February, 1844._ + + + + + INTRODUCTION: + + _Embracing a Sketch of the Origin and Organization of the Society of + Chiffonniers._ + + +COURTEOUS READER: + + In the character of an author I beg leave to salute +thee as my reader; and, as host of “The Globe,” as my guest. Having for +some time kept an establishment for the accommodation of travellers—that +is, for supplying at moderate charges such conveniences and refreshments +as are necessary to comfort and strengthen the body or outer man, I have +lately been induced, indeed in a manner compelled, by the rage of +competition, to add a new branch to the business; a department for +providing various cates and delicious dainties to cheer and invigorate +the spirit or inner man—to the end that both the mental and material +palates of my patrons may be gratified at my table. + +This, it is suspected, will become a general practice. As libraries are +expelling decanters from steamers; sojourners at hotels will next +require landlords to furnish literary as well as culinary food—books as +well as butcher’s meat; philosophical essays and fashionable novels as +well as pasties and beef à la mode. A change is passing over the world +and none feel it more than those in my line. Temperance has already +turned bar-rooms out of doors; while, from the efforts made by new +doctors on diet, it is likely kitchens will soon have to follow. So far +as I am concerned, the change will not be disagreeable, for I still +prefer Horace to Kitchiner, and Tully to Mrs. Glasse. I can have no +objection to imitate Phædo, who kept a victualing shop, and entertained +those whom he fed; for like him I may peradventure have a Socrates for a +boarder. May I hope, gentle guest, our acquaintance will be as agreeable +to thyself as to me—that the fare to be set before thee will be to thy +taste, and that I and my family may often have the prof—I mean the +pleasure of thy company. + +Ahem—It never was my wont to make excuses when my stock of viands was +low; yet, sooth to say, the pantry is at present bare of fresh meats and +of game. Vegetable and other watery aliments have been so much cried up +in these parts, that old dealers in sirloins and haunches have been +driven from the trade; some have taken stands in the fish-market, others +opened stores for the sale of garden truck, and not a few have begun to +vend “cookies and candies,” which last, strange to say, are found the +most profitable. All I can therefore promise thee on the present +occasion is a simple dish, or rather a wholesome bowl of spoon-meat—_un +dejeuné à la cuiller_. I pray thee let not thine anger kindle at this +announcement, for, on my veracity and hopes of public favor, it is a +pleasant and not an unsubstantial food—a rather thick, but still an +agreeable, acidulous fluid—one in which thou wilt find (what Englishmen +erroneously attribute to beer) both meat and drink—though certainly not +washing and mending, which Irishmen, it is said, formerly ascribed to +their whiskey. + +Its appearance may not be enticing to “queasy” appetites, but I have +seldom known a customer who, after once tasting it, did not lick the +dish clean. Pray excuse me: I am oblivious in bringing into the parlor +expressions belonging to the kitchen. But I scorn to take advantage of +any one—to decoy customers by false colors; _i. e._ by hanging out +signboards which promise what I cannot supply. Thou hast seen my +_signum_ on the title page, where it honestly indicates, as honest signs +should do, the entertainment to be had within; and to convince thee of +the liberal principles on which I am determined to build up my business, +I ask not a doit for the meal of which thou art about to partake—all +that is required of thee is to meet the small charge of the publisher +for this “bill of fare.” Having done that—there is a seat—here comes thy +food—now sit thee down, and in the language of mine ancient brethren of +the spigot and spit, “much good may it do thee.” + +There is one thing it behooves me to say, since it will, I trust, +assist in making our acquaintance more lasting than from a temporary +visit it otherwise might be. People of my profession are natural +judges of character. Without knowing how, we become practical +physiognomists—comprehending at a glance a stranger’s disposition, his +station in society, and often the state of his purse—not that the +latter excites my curiosity as it does that of unworthy members of the +craft—men whose attentions are graduated by their ideas of the +repletion or collapsion of a customer’s pockets. Now there are traits +in thy countenance of a cultivated and ingenuous mind—marks stamped by +Nature on her favorite offspring. Hence it is not less my duty than my +desire to make thy short stay with me agreeable. + +It was formerly a custom of respectable hosts to entertain an esteemed +guest during his first refection with pleasant stories, traditions, +local news, or other matters; on which account, chiefly, inns or taverns +became known as “houses of entertainment.” Attached as I am to the good +old ways of our forefathers, I will take this chair and relate some +particulars which will not be distasteful to so amiable a spirit as +thine. They will prepare thee for the company of a number of gentlemen, +whom I hope to have the honor of introducing to thee, members of a +society whose meetings are held once a week in my house. If I have not +misjudged thy character, thou wilt be amused with their conversation; +and wilt moreover learn the names of some new dishes, which, with their +assistance, I hope shortly to serve to my customers. + +I have here an abridged history of the association, drawn up by the +secretary. It commences thus: + +“The society was organized by a few plain individuals whose time was +taken up during the day with the current occupations of life. Men of +moderate capacities and attainments, they united to a little general +knowledge a pretty large amount of ambition, for they determined not to +be overlooked in the general herd of the living, and _not_ to sink into +instant oblivion at death. They had no idea of having their +individualities amalgamated with the myriads travelling with them to the +grave—like drops of rain in a shower, undistinguishable from each other +while falling, and never to be identifiable afterwards. They therefore +cast about for the means of making some noise in the world, or of so +performing their parts on its theatre, that if they could not secure the +applause conferred on first rate actors, they would try to avoid the +silence of contempt, that attends the entrance of poor ones, and the +momentary shrug conferred on the exit of quiet ones. + +“Impressed with these views, they concluded to form themselves into some +kind of library or philosophical society, this appearing the most +promising mode of acquiring notoriety. They hoped in this way to +accomplish jointly what they could not do individually, viz. get up +something in the shape of a BOOK, which should make them known while +they lived, and remain a memorial of them after their decrease. It +signified little how poor the performance might be, or how unfit they +were to perform it, for they were aware that the more incapable an +author is the more likely he is sometimes to be remembered; his +unfitness being the very cause of his notoriety. They instanced the case +of W. READ, an English baronet, who published a work on optics, and +could neither write a line of it nor peruse one; or even tell when his +book was upside down—a circumstance by which alone he is still +remembered, and his name renewed in print. + +“Then, as for the number of copies sold—should they be many or few—some +stray ones would be almost sure to wander through a century, if not a +longer period; and suppose the leaves _then_ distributed by grocers, as +envelopes of tea, cheese, or soap; or pasted as linings in trunks; they +might perchance call up some recollections of, or enquiries about, the +authors. Nay, if a dozen copies only were printed, future bibliomaniacs +would certainly treasure them up like Queen Anne’s farthings—or like the +twenty-six volumes of sermons by WILLIAM DAVY, a Devonshire clergyman, +of the last century, of which the first and only edition consisted of +fourteen copies. A bookworm prizes one of these as a treasure; and +hence, the members of the proposed association hoped some bookworms of +the twentieth century would cluck over a few impressions of their work, +as brooding hens over their callow young. + +“The first thing was to agree on a plan, as success would depend +principally upon the wisdom with which it was drawn up, and the energy +and prudence with which it was carried out. Several meetings were held, +and numerous measures suggested. Mr. Delf thought it would not be amiss +to run over a host of institutions already established. Perhaps, (said +he,) by modifying or by joining one of them, our objects might be +attained. The idea was acted on, but none were found to be precisely +what was wanted. Mr. Digwell remarked, that it would not answer at all +to unite with any. We are (he observed) men of ordinary abilities, of +humble pretensions, and never can attain distinction among abler +persons. Instead of seeking initiation into Lyceums, Academies, and +other bodies of the learned, among whom we can only be hewers of wood +and drawers of water, lighters of lamps and riddlers of ashes—‘helps,’ +not members of the family—we ought to establish ourselves on +independent, unoccupied ground. Let us have a field of our own, however +small it may be—one that borders on no other people’s property. [‘A +pretty large field, that,’ observed Dr. Swallow.] I beg pardon; I meant +one so clearly defined, so well enclosed, that there might be no danger +of us trespassing on our neighbor’s grounds, or they hunting on ours. + +“I am not prepared at this moment to say where such a field is, but I am +persuaded it is to be had. One to which other associations have no +claim—to which their ‘tracks’ do not lead. It would indeed be unworthy +of us to attempt a location where the title might be disputed; and sure +I am we could not start a new settlement in the vicinity of our +predecessors without being abused as intruders, if not served with writs +of ejectment. + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 1_ _Primitive_ + + _Lith. of E. Jones 123 Fulton S^t. N.Y._ +] + +“Look at the hosts of regular associations for the promotion of +_science_ in general, and others to extend its separate departments; the +world is full of them; they swarm every where. It is the same with +_literary_ societies: these are as common as ‘Common Schools,’ and +excite about the same amount of interest. Academies of the _fine arts_, +and institutions for _agricultural_ and _mechanic arts_, abound in every +village. Their name is legion. So it is with _religious_, _moral_, and +_active benevolent_ societies. The best, at any rate the most +attractive, sites are all taken up—not a yard is left between those +cultivated by national institutes, and such as are covered by parish +associations for the gratuitous distribution of soup.” + +[These sentiments were evidently approved, but as the evening was far +advanced, a proposal was made to adjourn; when Mr. Jacob Christener rose +and begged leave to say a few words.] + +“The gentleman is right, Mr. Chairman, and I thank him for so clearly +opening the way for a motion I have to make. He has strengthened my +convictions of its propriety, and given me the confidence I lacked to +bring it forward. It seems to me, sir, the only plan open to us is the +one I am about to propose, and if we don’t lay hold of it, others will. +It has hitherto been unthought of, but cannot long remain concealed. +Reject it, and farewell to the happiness anticipated from our union +while we live, and to the odor that is to exhale from our names after +death. Adopt it, and this night we become the parents of a society whose +auxiliaries will rise up in every land. In twelve months, we shall want +a travelling agent, a foreign sec—” + +[Here the speaker was interrupted with cries of “What is it?” “There’s +no time for a preface to-night!” “Order!” &c.] + +“Well, gentlemen, to be short, then: I propose that we organize +ourselves into ‘_The Society of Literary and Scientific Chiffonniers_.’ +[On this announcement, an explosion burst forth simultaneously from +every mouth, except the speaker’s, and some good humored remarks were +exchanged. When the excitement had a little subsided, he continued:] I +was prepared for this; I expected as much; but hear me out, and then be +as merry as you please. If a better plan be not brought forward—one +equally original, and less open to objections—why, then it will be my +turn to laugh. + +“Here have we been engaged this evening five mortal hours, without +agreeing on the character of the proposed association, chiefly from the +difficulty of steering clear of those already established. We admit the +latter are too numerous to allow an additional one of the same kind any +chance of success. Why, then, excite a competition we lack means to +carry on? It would be folly to attempt it; besides, we are agreed that +no modification of any old institution can meet our wants. Now, the plan +I propose is derived from and indebted to none. It crowds on and +interferes with none, but gives to all a wide berth. There is no danger +of our ever being amalgamated with any. Our identity will be preserved, +for none will be in a hurry to adopt our designation or infringe on our +labors. + +“Let us be candid, at least among ourselves. We are, then, philosophical +mendicants. We have no property of our own—not a scrap—and we confess +inability to originate any. Whatever we get must come from other people; +hence, as members of established societies, we could not succeed, or +even be respected, for we have nothing to command respect; and I risk +little in saying, if we made application for admission, nine-tenths of +us would be blackballed. As well expect Chambers of Commerce to offer +scavengers seats and votes at their boards; or extensive dealers in dry +goods to receive the owners of apple stands into their firms. There are +but two ways to realize anything—honestly and roguishly; or, as the +saying is, ‘by hook or by crook.’ Now, as we disavow all ideas of hooks, +(except the small and harmless ones by which chiffonniers raise moist +matters into their baskets or bags,) we must, to succeed in any other +society, give value for the property we acquire—but this we cannot do—or +receive it as alms—which we won’t do. What, then, is left for us, but to +pick up what others throw away? From my experience, gentlemen, I assert +there is more to be thus got, than you are aware of. With industry, we +can acquire wealth—a local habitation and a name—wealth that none will +dispute with us; for it will consist of a mass of minute matters, which, +individually considered, the owners will be ashamed to claim. If we +cannot deal in webs and wholesale packages of fresh goods, we shall +become extensive jobbers in fragments of old goods. + +“Pray, who can interfere with our ranging the bye-paths and alleys, the +cellars and garrets of science, in search of lumber—to pick up, as it +were, bits of rags, bones, and glass, with other small matters, which +the wealthy throw out, and the proud step over? None. On the contrary, +we can rake at our leisure the kennels, and stir up heaps of cinders and +street sweepings, without let or hindrance; and, depend upon it, we +shall every now and then meet with a godsend, (as our prototypes often +do, in the shape of a silver spoon or fork, thrown out in slops by +slipshod scullions.) Yes, industrious chiffonniers, we shall bring many +rare and lost things to light—things singularly _recherché_—curious and +useful as those found in historical and antiquarian collections. If we +are true to ourselves, the ‘Chiffonniers’ Repository’ will soon equal in +interest any other. + +“Our labors will be pleasant; we can carry off what we fancy, and leave +what is disagreeable. They will be profitable. Many a chiffonnier has +purchased the house in front of which he once looked out for chiffons, +has changed conditions with its owner, thrown off his professional garb +and stepped into the parlor, lounged as a gentleman on his own sofa, and +listened to the warblings of his daughters at the piano! And who knows, +Mr. Chairman, but we shall do so too—shall hold our meetings in stately +buildings now belonging to other societies, compete with the wealthy +Nestors of knowledge in their own halls, and perhaps at last turn them +out of their own doors! [Cries of ‘Hear! Hear!’ interrupted the +speaker.] + +“Think, gentlemen, how interesting our meetings will be. When a member +brings in his budget and displays his gatherings, who can sit still? Who +can restrain his curiosity? Verily, not one of us! Then what original, +erudite, and racy remarks will be made! Here, a speaker descanting on +the value of spoons, or the history of gridirons; there, another +relating the adventures of a stocking foot, which he proves once had a +place in Queen Elizabeth’s or Madame Maintenon’s wardrobe. This member +gives a lecture on the value of many simple and primitive devices which +the world never thinks of; and that, shows the claims which the trammel +and tinder-box have on the gratitude of mankind! + +“Another word, and I have done: We shall have a jubilee once a year; for +I propose that we offer a collection of chiffons at public sale, every +spring or fall. Then will buyers of miscellanies crowd our marts, and +bring us their wealth in exchange for our wares! We shall make a kind of +Leipsic Fair of it! Gentlemen, our prospects are glorious; they brighten +as we gaze at them. I feel animated by anticipations of success. I see +that as Chiffonniers we shall ascend the rugged mount on which stands +the temple of Fame, and get there before others who are now half way up. +Bless us! what a welcome the old lady will give us to her abode! What a +blast she will blow in honor of chiffonniering!—in praise of a new set +of men who have cut a new path to her dwelling!” + +[The speaker sat down amidst much acclamation.] + +“The discussion here closed for the evening, and was resumed on the +following one, when an extended and animated debate was kept up to a +late hour. Various slight modifications of the plan suggested were +brought forward. They will be understood from the style or title by +which each speaker proposed to designate the body. The most striking +were: ‘Odds and Ends Association,’ ‘Literary Rag Society,’ ‘Scientific +Scrap ditto,’ ‘Miscellany Club,’ ‘Chiffonniers’ Institute,’ ‘Society for +reviving the claims and preserving memorials of sundry Primitive +Inventions,’ ‘Emporium of Philosophical Small Wares.’ The general +feeling settled on the fourth and fifth. At the first ballot, the votes +stood equally in favor of the Miscellanarians and the Chiffonniers—but +on the second, the street rovers and rag pickers were triumphant. + +“The Chiffonniers admitted ‘The Miscellany Club’ would be a more +respectable designation; and the Miscellanarians conceded that ‘The +Chiffonniers’ Institute’ was characteristic and select. By a subsequent +and unanimous vote, the latter was changed to ‘_The Society of Literary +and Scientific Chiffonniers_,’ as at first proposed. + +“A constitution was next agreed on. It declares the objects of the +society to be, the picking up of literary, philosophical, mechanical, or +other fragments, from unusual or neglected sources, and to revive the +claims of simple, and what are generally deemed insignificant, devices. +It is the duty of each member to visit odd and out of the way places, +open to him, in search of chiffons. Common subjects of discussion are +excluded at the meetings. A paper on matches or walking-sticks would be +applauded, while one on the strength or other properties of timber would +be a signal for the author’s expulsion. A communication on costume would +be received perhaps with indifference, but if confined to a single +article of apparel, or to a fragment of one, would be hailed with +acclamation. A lecture on any regular manufacture, as glass making, iron +founding, earthen ware, the furniture of a parlor or kitchen, &c. would +hardly be admissible; but one on a bottle, or part of one, on a caldron, +a pipkin, a broken chair, or a cheese grater, would rejoice the hearts +of the members. Every chiffonnier to prepare a paper or lecture on a +chiffon, in his turn. + +“At the first meeting under the constitution, the expressive apothegm +‘_Vive la Bagatelle_’ was selected as the Society’s motto. The author of +the plan adopted was chosen President, but as Mr. Christener persisted +in declining the chair, to which he was entitled, the late Dr. Nathan +Swallow was elected, though not by a unanimous vote. No other member +possessed such varied qualifications. His experience with men and +matters was extensive, for he had dabbled in almost every thing, but +succeeded in few. + + “Had been every thing by starts, but nothing long.” + +“How he came by his title is a vexed question, as he was never known to +have studied medicine, nor to have dealt in drugs, except one which no +longer holds a place in the pharmacopia. Alchemy was his favorite study, +and he is said to have made a near approach to projection; _i. e._ to +the composition of a powder which, thrown into certain ingredients, +transmutes them to gold. Certain it is, he realized money by a secret of +this kind, while others who tried it were ruined. One person of property +lost his all in two years; and another was beggared in less time, and +consigned, a hopeless maniac, to a lunatic asylum; but the history of +modern as well as ancient alchemy is full of such things. + +“He talked on all subjects, practical or theoretical, physical or +metaphysical; on the properties of iron and whiskey, colors and +calicoes, filial obedience and the philosopher’s stone; on the evils of +theatres, and the performance of crack actors. He occasionally performed +Falstaff, and without stuffing, for he was what the French call _chargé +de cuisine_. Columbus himself was not more embued with the spirit of +adventure. Within a fortnight of first hearing the terms geognosy, +hornblende, serpentine, trilobite, and madrepore, in a conversation +between two geologists, he had a person at work labeling a basket of +minerals; and getting the names of a dozen by heart, boldly proposed to +undertake the survey of a state. An extraordinary chiffonnier, he dashed +without hesitancy into every opening where chiffons were likely to be +had—he was not one of those who confine themselves to street sweepings, +but was ever on the _qui vive_ for wholesale speculations. Dryden +certainly must have dreamt of him when describing Buckingham, for + + He was often in the course of one revolving moon, + Author, actor, artist, cook, chemist, and buffoon: + +“And in another month as many more. + +“Rich in Apician lore, he could enumerate the famous dishes of old, from +those placed on the table of Heliogabalus to Spartan broth and Athenian +porridge, and could name the ingredients of all. In modern cookery, he +was more at home; nothing escaped his observation, and but little his +palate. His taste was equal to Pollio’s; his knowledge of the mysteries +of the kitchen surpassed that of M. Beaujeu. See him take his seat at a +supper party; watch him draw a laden dish towards him, and you would +shudder from a dread that his eyes were about to drop into his plate—as +if attached like those of the chameleon to the ends of flexible tubes, +so fearfully did they advance and recede. He was at one time known as +‘Spoonie,’ and ‘Eating Nat,’ for he had an appetite equal to Galba’s—a +stomach capacious as that of Vitellius. His spoon, and he had one for +his exclusive use, might apply to him, with a slight alteration, an +epigram by Boileau: + + Here lies my owner, and heaven knows, + Not less for mine than his repose. + +“An excellent representative of the god of raillery and ridicule—that +is, if Momus was a short and squab fellow of forty, with a droll leer, a +shambling gait, and a touch of Silenus or Bacchus about him. Exceedingly +facetious, the Doctor told stories equal to Matthews or Hackett, and +rivaled Braham in singing. He was full of first rate though second hand +wit. His physiognomy was prepossessing, though his friends used to joke +him about a devil lurking in his eye, which, they said, appeared sly as +Sancho’s, and mischievous as the solitary one in Ichabod Crane’s nag. + +“His knowledge was said by his friends to have been universal. In +science, an Arago; in philosophy, a Newton; in chemistry, a Farraday or +Berzelius; in general knowledge, a Crichton. Well versed in Thaumaturgy, +he certainly could beat conjurers at their own weapons. An adept in +Metoposcopy, he saw at once the various points in human character, and +by some mesmeric influence could always open a communication between +himself and those in whose affairs he wished to take an interest. + +“All great men have their enemies, and Doctor Swallow was not without +his. He had to pay the usual penalty exacted by envious detractors. +These insisted that he was a literary Bombastes, in veracity a +Mandeville, in morals a Mephistopheles, in scheming a Machiavel, and in +every thing except humbugging a humbug. A retailer of other men’s ideas, +which (said they) he claimed as his own, and, like all liars, often +forgot himself and claimed them in the presence of those from whom he +received them—that his life was a lie. There is little doubt, that both +parties were wrong. He never was the angel one made him, nor the devil +the other called him; but, whatever he was, he was made President of the +Society; and, all things considered, it was thought a better selection +could not have been made; for, as an old chiffonnier, he had picked up +more chiffons, and knew how to make more of them, than any other artist +who lived by the hook. + +“Popular with most of the members, nearly all consulted him on subjects +they brought forward. Ever ready to give advice, and seldom more pleased +than when asked for it. Though he never wrote a paper but one, and of +the authorship of that some doubts have been raised, he was a judge of +what would ‘take;’ or, what often amounts to the same thing, he had that +reputation. + +“When conducted to the chair, he rose with smiles playing round his lips +and satisfaction sparkling in his eyes, and thus commenced his opening +address: Gentlemen, I ... I know not how to thank you for this honor. +I ... I ... d—n it, I cannot make a formal speech—I never could—unless I +had it by heart. I tried once before at extempore, but it was no go; +after getting rid of a few sentences, a kind of mental and physical +lock-jaw seized me, and there I stood—my mouth wide open, and without +the power to close it, or to call to mind what I meant to say. It was +said I stood grinning like a Barbary ape, and in my efforts to +articulate might have stood longer, if Medlar had not pulled me down by +the skirt, while saying loud enough (hang him) for half the room to +hear, ‘don’t make an ass of yourself, Nat.’ Gentlemen, that man is now +here, and I never see him without thinking of the predicament I was in, +and the ugly epithet he gave me. I cannot go on unless he goes out, and +I am not sure even then. But, gentlemen, if I cannot thank you as I’d +like to, I can treat you to something better—something to eat. Will not +a member move an adjournment to my house, where we can discuss matters +more at ease, and amuse ourselves at intervals with a cold cut and a +drop of”—[Ere the proposition was finished, the meeting adjourned amidst +cries of ‘Bravo!’ ‘Excellent!’ ‘A first rate speech, that, Doctor!’] + +“Rëassembled at his dwelling, the party partook of a substantial supper, +during which a curious conversation arose on variety of tastes for food. +Mr. Milder, an amiable and highly intelligent young man, but rather odd +in some of his views, thought it artificial; others, with the Doctor, +contended that it was natural. Nature, it was said, never designed men +to live on one kind of food; if she had, she would not have furnished +them with so many. She moreover produces no one in sufficient quantities +to supersede all others, nor has she distributed any one over the whole +earth. That’s true, observed the Doctor; if we were designed to have but +one dish, as pork, beef, mutton, or turkey, bread, cabbage, potatoes, or +yams, I should like to know where _enough_ is to come from? The case is +different with drink. Water may be the natural beverage of animals and +men, for it is every where, and every where abundant; but not so with +either animal or vegetable food. It was further observed by the +advocates for variety, that we might as well read only one book as eat +of one dish; for if material palates are originally moulded after one +pattern, so are literary ones. But no, said they; Nature has made both +to vary as much as the minds and persons or faces of men. The Doctor +thought if men had but one dish for the body and another for the mind, +it would save a world of trouble to booksellers and keepers of eating +houses; yet, even with those people, he was sure things were better as +they are, because, said he, different tastes bring into action diverse +talents, and so give employment to hosts of writers, and, what is +better, to swarms of cooks. It is therefore right that what suits one +stomach should not be the thing to tickle all others. Here is my friend, +Sam Tortiller, imagines a connection between the bent of man’s genius +and his favorite food; as if by knowing the general course of a person’s +studies one could tell what he craves for his dinner, and _vice versa_. +I don’t believe a word of it. A writer on morals may love pork, and an +author of romances abhor it; but, to my knowledge, all pork eaters are +not righteous men, nor those who let pigs alone composers of fiction. +Professor Freeling often digests turkey, but it’s not every chemist who +can afford to put that into his digester. Then there is Finelli, a lover +of shell fish—but what then?—if the lady that poets call the Genius of +Song sometimes visits an oyster cellar, she does not confine her favors +to those who either chew or eschew clams, crabs, and lobsters. Mr. +Milder, let me help you to a slice of this ham; I believe you have not +tasted it.” + +“Not any for me; I never eat any, Mr. President.” + +“Not eat ham! Why, you are neither a Jew nor a Turk, I hope, to +abominate those glorious animals that supply us with the richest of all +relishes?” + +“No; but I prefer hams from China, if I must eat any.” + +“O! O! I thought you knew what’s good! Well! I can’t say this fine +fellow ever ran through the streets of Canton; but, is the difference of +flavor between your oriental favorites and ours very sensible?” + +“Very.” + +“Ah! I must get my friend, Captain Drinker, to bring over a Chinaman +grunter, or a few hams; but, will these not spoil on the voyage?” + +“No danger of that. The fact is, sir, I am not a consumer of animal +food; the joints I allude too are _vegetable_ ones. They are described +by La Compte and other travellers.” + +“You are joking, (observed the Doctor, inquiringly;) Sam, here, says you +are a terrible bore that way!” + +“Not at all, (replied Mr. Milder;) I almost hope to see the day when no +other hams will be used. You have heard of _wooden_ ones?” + +“Yes! Carved blocks of wood, so neatly sewed up in hog skins, as to +deceive the eyes of the keenest pork butchers! Yes; I have read of +people boiling them, but I never heard of any having been _eaten_.” + +“True; but even that is not so unlikely as you seem to think.” + +“I pray heaven, (said the Doctor,) the practice may never become +general; the chine of a two year old shote is with me a favorite dish. +What reason have you for supposing it ever will, Mr. Milder?” + +“Why, sir, you of course know that a few years ago, a German philosopher +discovered the nutritious elements of wheaten bread in wooden meal—that +he made wholsome cakes out of pine boards, and supported his wife and +five children for seven weeks on dumplings kneaded of dough formed of +fine sawdust and water. The paste, it is said, rose without leaven, and +when cooked was really delicious—especially so, when lubricated with +molasses, or sprinkled with the essence of sugar, extracted by Braçonnot +from old rags and scrap paper. Now, an ingenious friend of mine has been +engaged on a somewhat analogous subject for the last twelve months, and, +from an experiment I witnessed yesterday, I have no hesitation in +avowing my confidence in his assertion that he will shortly produce good +palatable pork out of whitewood, and well seasoned hams from red cedar.” + +[Much laughter, during which the Doctor observed, in a suppressed voice, +to the gentleman at his right, “Sam, this fellow is a devil of a quiz; I +cannot believe he is serious, and yet what a solemn phiz he puts on.”] + +“Now, sir, (continued Mr. Milder,) where is there a man of feeling who +would not rejoice at the success of my friend, in attempting to change +the world from a shambles for gratifying the carnivorous appetites of +our species—a slaughter house constantly flooded with gore and vibrating +with the shrieks of expiring victims? For my part, sir, I never see a +female cutting up raw flesh, her hands smeared with blood—now killing, +plucking, embowelling, and at last, with perfect nonchalance, +transfixing innocent fowls or sucking pigs on the spit, without +shuddering at the disgusting employment—at the horrible effects of +indulging unnatural appetites! O! how would the spirit of humanity exult +at the abolition of animal diet—or even at the general introduction of +vegetable hams! These would be a consummation in morals and science +devoutly to be wished—to be prayed for; all Nature, sir, would rejoice +at their manufacture—at any rate, sir, you will admit, all PIGS +would—and well they might, as they would (to use a vulgar expression) +then save their own bacon! Yes! Their days of mourning would then be +over. + +“And why should they not save it, sir, as well as we preserve ours? Has +not a pig organs, dimensions, feelings, passions, affections? If struck, +does it not cry? If wounded, does it not bleed? If imprisoned and in +bonds, does it not struggle to be free? If driven to the shambles, does +it not refuse to go? When slain, does it not suffer the pangs of death? +In one word, sir, is not life as precious to pigs as to any of us? And +would they not have cause to rejoice were they and their offspring no +longer murdered ere living out half their days? Millions are slain in +their infancy, and their parents in the vigor of life! Upwards of a +century ago, not less than 52,500 sucking innocents were annually +immolated in London alone! + + Lovely buds—their mother’s pride! + +[Here, as at every other pause made by the speaker, excessive laughter +broke out afresh; but, unembarrassed, he continued:] + +“There is something else, sir, in connection with this subject, which +every lover of his country should deplore. Slavery is an unmitigated +evil, and we are taught to admire the free States for shaking the +incubus off; it is, however, a melancholy fact, that the citizens of +what is called one of the most enlightened and liberal, are carrying to +a horrible extent, a system almost equally atrocious. As if regretting +their lost dominion over negroes, they seem determined to be revenged a +hundred fold upon a race, between which and ours Blumenbach, in his +remarks on varieties of complexion, has traced many analogies. Yes! The +capital city of Ohio is rapidly rising into power, on the bodies of +slaughtered swine! She is already known as ‘The Emporium of Pork’—a +designation which wicked Nineveh or more wicked Gomorrah would have +shrunk from. Her merchandise is flesh. Her bulletins are occupied with +its sales, and as the market price rises and falls, so does the value of +her real estate. Her merchants are butchers; her staple is stearine; her +palaces are built with the price of blood, and illumined at night with +the fat of her slain! All her lamps are replenished with lard! Like +Babylon, ‘seated on many waters, and drunken with blood,’ so reclines +Cincinnati, on a larger stream than the Euphrates, clothed in scarlet, +and proudly calling herself ‘Queen of the West!’ But let her beware—for, +depend upon it, sir, vengeance will not sleep forever; and when pigs get +their rights, she will meet her deserts!” + +[On Mr. Milder concluding his remarks, a shout of laughter arose that +shook both floor and table. Some held their sides, and groaned with +pain; others screeched as they, ever and anon, glanced at the +imperturbable gravity of Mr. M. and the woful appearance of the +President’s face.] + + * * * * * + +But, indulgent guest, I am trespassing too much on thy patience. I will +therefore lay aside, for the present, this account of the Society, and +the rather since the author presses hard on the late President. They +never were friendly. The Doctor, like other men, had his faults; but he +had good qualities as well. Peace to his ashes! He was one of my best +customers in one respect though not in another; for he never was in a +hurry to wipe out his scores, and, to speak truth, some he never wiped +out. When my turn came round for a paper, I consulted him for a subject, +and submitted to him what I wrote. Desirous of not disgracing my former +profession of schoolmaster, I took particular pains; but the subject was +new, and embarrassed me much. When I left the choice to him, I little +imagined he would take a knife from the table, and insist that _it_ +should be my text. However, I made out tolerably well; though he was +sparing of praise. He was, in fact, not altogether pleased with my +“Adventures of a Carving Knife;” but he made ample amends on another +occasion, as will soon be perceived. + +My next attempt was a higher flight—a composition half dramatic. There +were passages in it of tragic interest: at least, _I_ thought so. The +subject—an ancient pincushion, brought over in the Mayflower. I had a +presentiment that I should take the Doctor by surprise—snatch him up, as +by a hurricane, into the regions of romance, and extort his praise ere +he had time to descend and recover his self-possession. And, sure +enough, something even more than this took place. + +By appointment, I met him at his own house. He was in a happy mood, +having just risen from dinner. We retired to the parlor, and I handed +him the MS. Drawing his arm-chair in front of the fire, and desiring me +to take another, he made a remark about the high price of beef, and +commenced reading the first paragraph; but he made such murdering work +of the sense, running one sentence half way into another, and then +stopping as if brought up by a period, that I wriggled in the chair, and +felt my viscera squirming like eels in a bag. I stopped him to explain, +but he ascribed every thing to what he called my illegible hand. I +proposed to read it myself. To this, he consented; and, for the benefit +of light, I stepped to the window, some distance behind him; a +circumstance which increased my confidence, and left him free to enter +into the spirit of the story, unembarrassed with external interruptions. + +I had not got through the first chapter before he gave utterance to some +short but flattering expressions. They encouraged me wonderfully, and +ere the second was finished became more frequent; the words “rich!” +“capital!” dropped from him several times. I felt elated, and went on +trippingly to the end—borne along by the kindness of his manner, and +quite lifted up with the confidence of having fairly gained his +approbation. The reading did not occupy over fifteen minutes; and, when +finished, I remained standing, ready, with pencil in hand, to make such +corrections and alterations as he might suggest. He seemed to be +balancing the merits of different parts; for he said, as if to himself, +“that was overdone;” “the other excellent;” “capital!” He resembled the +gentleman mentioned by Horace, + + Who long imagin’d that he heard the tone + Of deep Tragedians on an empty stage, + And sat applauding, in ecstatic rage. + +[Illustration: + + + _Plate 2_ _Roman_ + +] + +My feelings quickly overcame my politeness, and I cried “Come, Doctor, +what is the sentence? Life or death?” (I had heard enough to know what +it would be.) As I said this, I resumed my seat beside him, and thanked +him for the kind attention he had given to the humble performance; but I +had scarcely finished the last word ere my old friend gave a memorable +proof of the intense interest he had taken in the story—of the fine +sensibilities of his nature, and the depth of his feelings. Now, Sir +Guest, what think you he did? Perhaps you say: ‘I suppose, Mr. Westman, +his cheeks were streaming with tears—his passions, excited by the +incidents of the story, had not recovered their natural tone! Or, did he +spring from his seat and embrace the magician, who had such power to +enchant him? Either would have been very natural.’ + +He did neither, sir; he was unable to rise. + +‘Indeed! Why, what was the matter?’ + +His mental and bodily powers were prostrated. + +‘What do you mean?’ + +He was dead! th— + +‘_Dead!_ did you say, Mr. Westman?’ + +On my conscience, yes sir; that is, he was, as the saying goes, _dead +asleep_! As for tears, his cheeks were as free from them as the back of +my hand, and his face calm as an infant’s reposing on its mother’s +breast. + +‘You really surprise me!’ + +I was astonished myself sir. + +‘And how did you act on making this strange discovery?’ + +I don’t exactly know what I did, sir—nor what I thought—nor how I felt. +I was paralyzed—deprived of the powers of speech and motion. My +respiration was thick, and at last suspended. I believe I sat gazing on +him five minutes without breathing or moving a muscle, except those by +which the lower jaw is dropped to its farthest extent, and such as push +the eyes out of the head. There was no mistake about his slumbers; to +satisfy myself that they were genuine, I remember stretching my face +towards his till both were nearly in contact. His mouth was wide open, +and I had a full view of the horrible cavern within. What I suffered, +ere I had power to leave my seat, was dreadful. Impalement could hardly, +I should think, surpass it. When at last I rose and stepped in front of +him, heaven forgive me, for, though I say it myself, a quieter man does +not breathe, I felt as much inclined to push the end of my cane down his +gullet as ever I had to send any thing pleasant down my own. + +On second thoughts, I took my hat, put the MS. in my pocket, and walked +softly to the door of the room; when I heard him mutter something about +“Betty ... sauce rich; veal ... overdone; rabbits ... excellent.” The +brute, sir—pardon the uncivil word—was dreaming about his dinner; but +that was not all, nor the worst; for it was now clear he had fallen +asleep almost as soon as he sat down, and the expressions of approbation +which I had foolishly taken to myself were in reality compliments to +Betty’s skill in roasting and boiling! When this truth flashed on my +mind, I felt keenly—my wrath rose, and Satan strongly urged me back to +take leave of him by no gentle shake of his person or tweak of his +proboscis—but either my good genius or his own interfered, and I +hastened out of the house, without meeting one of the family. I am +ashamed to say, I felt very unwell during the rest of the day, being +greatly more affected than a sensible mart should have been; but our +feelings are not in our power. + +I mentioned the circumstance to a few members the same evening, and +learned the Doctor had been in gay company all the morning, and was +certainly half drunk at the time of my interview with him. I certainly +did notice something strange in him, but my mind was wholly absorbed on +the paper. We were anxious to know how he would face the matter out; for +no one believed he would for a moment acknowledge being asleep. Within a +few days, Medlar, Pickwell, and I, met him in the street; when,—would +you believe it?—without the slightest indication of embarrassment, he +began the following colloquy: + +‘Neighbor Westman, further reflection has convinced me your last paper +will never do. It will gain you neither credit with the members nor +custom from their friends.’ + +_Further reflection_, did you say, Doctor! + +‘There’s nothing in it, believe me, (said he,) neither life—’ + +Rather nettled, I abruptly asked _what_ he wanted in it. + +‘I’ll tell you what I don’t want—(he replied;) a tale dull and +monotonous from beginning to end—one without a grain of piquancy in +it—flat and distasteful as buckwheat cakes without salt or sauce.’ + +Now I thought I had done better than could have been expected; but stop, +did you hear a word of— + +‘_Expected!_ (he cried out, as if wanting to hear nothing more;) I +expect, and so will the members, something like the spices and pickles +at your ordinaries, and which you know full well often help an insipid +dish down. The paper has but one quality that can render it of any +service.’ + +What may that be? + +‘It might serve on occasion as a soporific.’ + +I believe I colored at this, and said sharply, Yes, I understand. It +composed _you_ to sleep quick enough—or something else did. + +‘No! not asleep; (said he, unabashed, as with a face of flint—absolutely +staggering me with the audacious falsehood;) I remember feeling a little +drowsy.’ + +Indeed! Do you recollect anything else? + +‘No! nothing particular—ex—except that my strictures were perhaps too +severe; but I did not wish to mislead you by being less pointed.’ + +_Your strictures, eh!_ Why, you made none, and for the best of reasons! +Look ye, Doctor, you may, for aught I know, be able to catch authors +napping when you’re awake, but not when you’re actually snoring. I’ve +seen further into your head than you imagine. + +Mr. Westman, (said he, in a bristling manner,) I hope you don’t mean +to—to—t—t—t—’ + +Yes, I do! and what’s more Doctor, I felt so confoundedly queer that I +had some difficulty in refraining from— + +‘From what?’ + +Never mind; I’ve got over it now; but you don’t see another paper of +mine, I promise you, unless you will go through it before dinner. +“Further reflection,” as you say, has convinced me the last is yet +defective. I’ll revise, and we’ll read it some evening. + +‘Better put it in the fire, some morning, (he said, resentfully, as if +caught in an unpleasant dilemma, and determined to get out with a bold +face; then assuming a patronizing tone, added:) Believe me, neighbor, +you, and others I wot of, will never succeed in life till you let +scribbling alone.’ + +Then, Doctor, let me tell you tha— + +‘Peace, (he interrupted,) I pray you, peace! I know you, and Medlar, and +Fribble, and Delever, well. Your talents are good of their _kind_, and +may be useful in their _place_.’ + +In their place! Where is that? + +‘_In the kitchen!_ Confine your energies to your proper vocations, and +you may do well. Stick to your fires and fuel, your andirons and +hearths, spits and bellows, pots and pans, knives and forks—to your +ladles and spoons—to—’ + +Enough! Enough! Egad, Doctor, you are right this time! (I exclaimed.) +Yes, we will! We’ll write papers on all of them; and I’ll begin myself +with THE SPOON. + +On hearing this, he gazed intently on my face, and, as he turned on his +heel, whispered in my ear, “Habbakuk, thou hast been handling thy +decanters this morning!” + + * * * * * + +I have no more to add, except to appeal, courteous reader, to thy +judgment. Let me, therefore, entreat thee not to peruse the following +pages directly after dinner, lest Morpheus make his appearance, and thou +shouldst sin, like the President of the Chiffonnier Society, by +ascribing the imp’s visit to + + HAB’K O. WESTMAN. + + + + + =The Spoon;= + + ANCIENT AND MODERN. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + _Singular Subjects chosen by Authors—The Spoon, a popular and fertile + one—Sancho Panza, a Spoonmaker—Influence of this Profession on his + Adventures—Ingenuity of Cervantes—Pedro Garcia’s Purse—Selection of + the Spoon for a Theme, an Indication of Taste—One of the first things + wanted on coming into the world, and last parted with ere going + out—Its Domestic and Moral Influence—Ancient Fracas with Hot Broth._ + + +Singular are the subjects on which authors have written: as Lucian on a +fly, Apuleius on the ass, Virgil on a gnat, and Homer on a pitched +battle between some frogs and mice. One writer is sublime on a flea, +another on the north wind, and a third on nothing. Here, one expatiates +on the social pipe; and there, goes a royal counterblast against +tobacco. Pope has a poem on a lock of hair, Gray wrote lines on a cat, +Prior on the ladle, and Cowper on the sofa. Tasso spun out twelve cantos +on a bucket, and John Heywood, in Henry the Eighth’s time, wrote +seventy-seven chapters on cobwebs and spiders. + +The merry Dean of St. Patrick’s wrote an essay on a broomstick; and some +reviewer of a late work on hydraulics thinks the author could readily +compose a homily on pump handles, or a series of meditations on cistern +hooks. A fig for such subjects, and those who discuss them. A person’s +taste is seen in what he writes on, as well as in what flows from his +pen; and small must be the brains that think on such things. Every one +knows Swift’s head was worn out when kind Nature led him to muse on the +stump of a besom—an emblem of himself. As there was always something of +the wizard about him, he naturally selected the same hobby that +accommodates witches in their evening excursions. As for the other +gentleman, he must be a dry soul indeed, since he could hit upon nothing +but water, about which to fill up a book—or some rickety machines to get +at it. + +Commend us to something better than either; and on the present occasion +to that which daily inspired the reverend wit, and at which it is very +certain every writer on water-works has labored oftener than at any pump +gearing—_videlicit_, A SPOON. Why, there’s life in the sound! To the +hungry and poor and rich, it conjures up visions of pleasure. Its very +picture moves the salivary glands into action, and sets the lickerish +muscles agog, while thoughts of the good things with which it often is +laden make mendicants draw in their breath and thrust out their lips, as +if about to salute it! + +What gentleman cares for a broom, or a cistern pole, except to kick them +out of his way, as a fat neighbor of ours did yesterday? But for a +spoon, ah! how eagerly he seized it at dinner! Like the hand of a friend +for whom he had long anxiously waited, and from whom he could hardly be +prevailed on to part. + +As a novel and a popular subject, the spoon is unrivaled—as a fertile +one, its equal never rose in the brains of Will Shakespeare or John +Baptiste Moliere; and that is strange too, seeing the implement so often +entered their heads. A Spanish writer of the sixteenth century, however, +did not let it escape him. His wanderings through various countries, and +in indifferent circumstances, made him too keenly alive to its value to +forget or neglect it. He has immortalized himself by recording the +adventures of a spoonmaker, in an inimitable piece of biography. + +‘Indeed! (exclaims some reader.) Pray, of whom do you speak? Who was +this author, and who the mechanic he snatched from oblivion?’ + +Strange that at this day such a question should be asked! But, Miguel de +Cervantes Saavedra was the writer, and Sancho Panza the artist. + +‘Sancho Panza! The short and fat husband of Tereza—the Governor of +Barrataria—he whose simplicity and shrewdness, jokes and proverbs, were +so pleasant; and whose witty conceits fell from him as thick as drops in +a shower—a maker of spoons?’ + +To be sure he was! And it was from this circumstance he became so expert +in handling them, and which led him to prefer olla-podridas, stews, and +hashes of cow beef and onions, to Milan godwits, Roman pheasants, geese +of Lavajos, and other kickshaws, which Doctor Pedro Rezio Aquero de +Tirteafuera and the steward talked about. Not that Sancho loved good +eating more than other people, but he naturally enough preferred those +kinds of food which were fluid, in the conveyance of which to his mouth +he had become quite familiar from his previous professions and habits. + +Cervantes, to elucidate the association of ideas and the force of early +impressions, wittily concealed this employment of Sancho’s, and left it +till the knight was condemned by him of the ‘White Moon’ to refrain for +a whole year from using a sword, or going in quest of adventures. Then +the truth unexpectedly appears. Quixote proposed to pass the time in +pastoral pursuits. ‘O, Sancho! said he; we will turn shepherds for the +time I must live retired. I will buy sheep and all necessary materials. +We will range the mountains, the woods, and the meadows—singing here and +complaining there—drinking the liquid crystal of the fountains, of the +limpid brooks, and the mighty rivers. The oaks, with a plentiful hand, +shall give their sweetest fruit—the trunks of the hardest cork-trees +shall afford us seats, the willows shade, and the roses scent. The +spacious meadows shall yield us carpets of a thousand colors—the air, +clear and pure, shall supply breath, the moon and stars afford light, +maugre the darkness of nights—singing shrill furnish pleasure, and +complaining yield delight! Heaven be my aid! What a life shall we lead, +friend Sancho! What a world of bagpipes shall we hear! What pipes of +Zamora! What tambourets and rebecks!’ + +‘Before God, quoth Sancho, this kind of life squares with me exactly; +and no sooner will the Bachelor Sampson Carrasco, and Master Nicholas +the barber, have well seen it, but they will have a mind to follow, and +turn shepherds with us; and God grant that the priest have not an +inclination to make one in the fold; he is of so gay a temper, and such +a lover of mirth!’ After arranging about shepherdesses, each amateur +shepherd to have one, except the priest, who, according to Sancho’s +views, ought not to be associated with a lady; but if the bachelor +Sampson was inclined that way, why, his soul was at his own disposal. +Then the knight begins to anticipate the ditties he and his associates +would indite to the charms of their lady loves, when Sancho, mentally +recurring to occupations more agreeable to _his_ taste, and with which +he was more at home, exclaims in a rapture, ‘O! what SPOONS! What neat +WOODEN SPOONS will I make when a shepherd!’ An exclamation which he +never, of course, could have made had he not been engaged in that +business before. Then, like a sound philosopher, who only regards +science and the arts in proportion as they are applied to the purposes +of life, he instantly recurs to the _use_ of spoons, and, very naturally +to the agreeable visions they call up. “What crumbs! What cream! What +olla-podridas! What stews we shall have!” + +Having thus shown that the Knight of La Mancha’s squire was, in the +early part of his career, a manufacturer of spoons, the reader will at +once concede the propriety of this reference to his labors; since he is, +beyond controversy, the most famed character of the kind in print. But +that is not all. There are other things in Cervantes which reviewers +never dreamt of. It were an easy matter to show, but would be out of +place here, that the celebrity of his great work is due chiefly to +spoons; for example, had he withheld from Sancho the penchant for +handling them, the history of Quixote might as well have been without +the owner of Dapple; and every body knows what an insipid affair it +would have been then. From what but the free use of spoons were the +jolly face and sly look of Sancho derived? To what else but their +neglect was to be attributed the ghastly appearance of him of the Rueful +Countenance? Silenus and a moving corpse! + +Such are the wonders wrought by the Spoon: but, great as they appear, +they are not the greatest. Had the knight lived in the manner of Sancho, +he had never lost his wits; and had the latter dieted as his master, he +never would have had any. The moral of the romance is misunderstood. The +author designed to inculcate this truth—that the proper use of a spoon +can make a sensible man of a fool, and the neglect of it a fool of a +sensible man! + +The Spoon is really the nucleus of the romance—the core on which the +party colored threads of the story are wound. Indeed, the whole affair +is nothing else than a mystic account of this useful little implement, +and written by Cervantes, most likely to fulfill a vow made on account +of the services it rendered him on some occasions of extreme +distress—occasions, from the checkered scenes of his life, believed to +have been of frequent occurrence. + +These things, to be sure, do not stand up on the surface—they are not +seen at a glance. Cervantes, in concealing them from readers whose +obtuseness of intellect does not suspect them, or who will not take the +trouble to look for them, imitated the conduct of his witty and +ingenious countryman, Pedro Garcias, whose epitaph strangely announced +that his _soul_ lay under the slab. And there it did lay, without +exciting the least curiosity from the crowds walking over it, until a +poor and shrewd student of Salamanca, travelling that way, guessed the +truth, disinterred, and joyfully carried home the Licentiate’s soul in +his pocket. But to leave such matters: As every person on earth loves a +spoon, there are few who cannot relish an essay upon it; and all will +admit its selection for a theme, if no proof of genius, is at least a +strong indication of taste. + +The Spoon is one of the first things wanted when we come into the world, +and one of the last we part with before we go out. It is the companion +of childhood, manhood, and age—the great nurse of mankind. It +administers comfort to ladies when they ‘lay in,’ and to every person +before being ‘laid out.’ Without it, no baby takes pap; nor boys and +girls porridge or soup; the man acquires strength by its aid, and it +assists in prolonging the years of the old and infirm. In the hands of +physicians, it drives sickness away; and when the angel of death comes +at last, it soothes the last moments of many. + +Its influence is felt in every department of life—in manners, morals, +and even in national characteristics. Associated almost as much with the +soul as the body, it seems equally to modify both. It is a healer of +wounds, whether in the person or mind. What tempers has it not +subdued—what passions allayed! For it is always called in after a broil +to promote peace and good will. What evils, too, has it not extinguished +which want has conceived and poverty planned! Hunger and haggard despair +fly before it, while health and hilarity attend it! It is, and justly, a +universal favorite—as well with the savage as the sage—with ladies and +their maids—with children and their grandpapas. + +What urchin has not felt more elastic when beholding his mother beating +up eggs for plum-cake with a spoon; or stood by when with it she scraped +out the bowl in which the pudding was made! And where is the youngster +with ‘a sweet tooth’ that has not thrust it with delight into ‘mush and +molasses!’ or with joy almost extatic made it dive into ‘samp,’ through +an ocean of melted butter and sugar! As for grown people, it daily works +the same wonders in them as it did in the Rev. Mr. Sampson when applied +by the hospitable hand of Mrs. Merriless. In barbarous and +semi-barbarous countries, few meals are prepared without it, but in +civilized life it is as regular an attendant at table as plates. + +The moral influence of the spoon is remarkable. It preaches contentment, +and fosters no pride. It enters the cottage and comforts those who are +too poor to own either cottage or cot. It ascends into garrets, dives +into cellars, and forces its way into prisons, where, like a Howard or +Frye, it condoles with the children of sorrow. It is all things to all +men, for it adapts itself to the circumstances of all. To the humble or +poor, it appears in homely apparel; to the rich and the proud, it shines +forth in ivory and pearl—in silver and gold. + +Some men talk about the ‘social glass’—of the pleasures it imparts, the +agreeable reminiscences it calls up; but what are they, compared to +those associated with the spoon? The former is selfish—men indulge in it +by themselves; but the latter is the innocent companion of both sexes—of +young and old. The glass too often destroys some joys—loosens domestic +ties; the spoon revives the one and strengthens the other. It gratifies +a natural, the glass an artificial, appetite. The one imparts happiness +to the abstemious, the other maddens the brain of the intemperate. Here +sits an industrious laborer at his evening meal; he has reached home +shivering with cold and faint with hunger; he sups the warm pottage his +wife has prepared, and finds his heart strengthened, and his energies +blessed. There carouses an acquaintance at the tavern; his eyes now +rolling with the maniac’s gaze, and now like an idiot’s, fixed on +vacancy. Reason has left her seat, and the character of the man is lost +in that of the beast. Such are the different effects of the ‘social +glass’ and the spoon. + +A lover of domestic quiet, family jars cease in its presence; for unlike +the mischief loving ladle, the spoon enters into no broils. An +instrument of peace, it lends not itself to those illegitimate and +unconjugal uses to which enraged housewives are said sometimes to put +its taller associate. No! Instead of stirring up the caldron of family +feuds, the gentle spoon soothes the boiling elements, and, in the +pleasantest way imaginable, silences the squalling of infants, and the +grumbling of older folks. + +It took no part in an ancient fray between the scholars of Oxford and +some Reverend companions of the Pope’s Legate, on a feast or saint’s +day; but the soup or rather the broth did. The peace loving spoon +withdrew ere the fracas began. “And at that tyme was maister Edmunde of +Abendon archbishoppe of Caunterbury, an holi man, in the twelff hundred +yere of our Lorde and foure and thritti. And at that tyme come the legat +Oter from Rome, and called a councelle of Bishoppes at London, and went +from thens to Oxenford, to the Abbey of Osney. And as certeyn of the +clerks come to speke with the legat, vppon Seynt Gregoryes day, one of +the legats men _cast hote broth_ vppon a scolore, and then come the +clerkes first, and besett Osney, and slew one of the legats men, and the +legat fled into the steple.” [_Peter Langtoff’s Chronicle_, _Hearne’s +Glossary_, vol. ii. 682.] + +This quotation may serve as a little seasoning to the dish before the +reader. If any one questions its pertinence, and that of others +hereafter to be noticed, we beg to observe that what relates to the soup +can hardly be foreign to the spoon. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + _The Spoon always an Object of Plunder—Border Thieves—Golden + Rule—Index of Human Condition—Old English and other Salutations—Lip + Worship—Spoons formerly Preachers of Temperance—Their Influence on + Individual and National Character—Beef and Bouilli—Fat Men fined and + Obesity revered—Steaks and Stews—Effects of Animal Food on Nations—War + Speech of an English General—Greeks and Trojans—Spoons of peculiar + Antiquarian Value—Trick of Alexander—Curious use of Spoons, and + Lessons derived from them—Their Influence in Politics and War—Procure + Food as well as Cook it—Friends in need—Heir-looms._ + + +The virtues of the spoon have in every age led men to covet it, and, to +gratify their covetousness, to commit burglaries to obtain it. With the +wicked, this is natural; for a _silver_ spoon is a talisman—he who +possesses one can never want. It is chiefly, however, such unfortunates +as are not born with one in their mouths who thus attempt to supply what +nature forgot. But _horn_ and _pewter_ spoons were not despised by +respectable robbers of yore. In Maitland’s “Complaynt against the +Theivis of Liddisdail,” we find them borne off from poor people’s +dwellings, along with bread, fowls, spinning apparatus, bed-clothes, +shirts, &c. The old leviers of black mail seized on every thing that was +not ‘too heavy or too hot’ to be carried away. + + Thay spuilye puir men of their pakis, + Thay leif them nocht on bed nor bakis; + Baith hen and cok, + With reil and rok, + The Lairdis Jok, + All with him takis. + Thay leif not spindel, SPOONE, nor speit, + Bed, bolster, blanket, sark, nor scheit. + +Many a knife has committed murder, and forks have been guilty of felony; +but what bad thing has the spoon ever done? Kidnapped in all ages, it +never was known to return evil to its evil entreaters: on the contrary, +it has blessed its greatest foes. Like the sun shining on the wicked and +the good, this servant of man has been among all nations, kindreds, and +tongues, a practical teacher of the Golden Rule—withholding its services +from none, but feeding alike the thankless and the thankful. No +implement has done more for man. Almost all others have been turned +against him, but the spoon—never. + +The spoon is an indicator of merit and of human condition. It is every +where deemed an appropriate crest for the arms of an alderman, because +every where hailed as the symbol of good cheer. A wooden or a _pewter_ +spoon, or one of tinned iron, is an emblem of an author, who seldom gets +a better, unless he borrows it; a _silver_ one, the symbol of a printer, +who is generally “well to do;” and a _golden_ one, of a publisher, who +alone in the book trade can afford to eat turtle. Of all indications of +poverty, a broken pewter spoon is the most distressing—a proof of +wretchedness extreme. + +The implement is about the only one belonging to the kitchen that +behaves well in the dining room. Its associate, the angry knife, +sometimes wounds its master, and the sly fork occasionally pricks him, +but the spoon is ‘ever faithful,’ and the ‘most obedient of servants.’ +To these amiable qualities it is possible the very common expressions, +“Your humble servant,” “Your most obedient and faithful servant,” may be +allied; for it is a fact that these French forms of address were first +introduced into English compliments and composition on an occasion when +the spoon performed a royal part—at the marriage of Mary, daughter of +Henry IV. of France. The usual British salutations before this were, +“God keep you,” “God be with you;” and with country people, “How dost +do?” accompanied often with a whack on the shoulder; and, if a woman, +with a smack on the lips. (_See Antiq. Repertory_, iii. 43.) + +Antiquarians inform us that kissing with a smack was a _Roman_ practice; +for the benefit of future Archæologists, an equally surprising fact may +as well be mentioned of the _Dutch_, who actually relish other earthly +comforts in a similar way! Whenever a glass or spoon leaves anything +agreeable within their lips, the approving smack, it is said, invariably +follows. This sharp and pleasant little sound is so inseparably +associated with their ideas of the good things of this life, that it has +become incorporated with their ordinary salutations. Their usual morning +greeting is “_Smaakelyk eeten!_” So a southern Chinese salutes another +by saying _Ya tan?_ Have you eaten your rice? In other words, have you +handled your chopsticks or spoon? + +The spoon is a fine symbol of complaisance. No one takes hold of it +without pleasure, and many lay it down with regret. Its daily appearance +at table is met with smiles, and every guest intimates his or her +unalloyed joy by carrying it to their lips. In some countries it is so +esteemed that when loaned it passes directly out of the mouth of the +owner into that of the borrower. (See account of Esquimaux ladies at +dinner, in the late voyages to the north.) Like the black stone at +Mecca, it is polished with the lips of its admirers. A censorious world +might stigmatize this as “lip worship,” but it flows from the heart; or, +at least, from the neighborhood of the heart, for, according to Chinese +philosophy, the seat of the soul is in the centre of the stomach. So +thought an old statesman and poet: + + From _thence_ she sends out those supplies + Which make us either stout or wise; + The strength of every other member + Is founded on your belly timber; + The qualms or raptures of your blood + Rise in proportion to your food; + And if you would improve your thought. + You must be fed as well as taught. + +Though with some an instrument of gluttony, the spoon was formerly a +preacher of temperance; the lessons it taught being engraved as mottoes +on the handle; while for those on whom words made no impression (and few +who used it in the middle ages could read,) images of death and the +devil were cut on the bowl! _Plate V_ has a figure of one of these +curious inventions for enforcing moderation at meals—one on which is +emblazoned a _death’s head_! Think for a moment how could the most +confirmed gourmand sin with such a tool! Why, the _chef d’oeuvre_ of +gastronomic fluids could not be conveyed to any man’s stomach in excess +by it, unless the owner of the stomach was blind. The most horrible of +_memento morii_ not only staring him in the face, but actually mixing +with his food! If anything could subdue voracious appetites, one might +suppose this would. + +The spoon opens the mouth of every dumb person; and, what is sometimes +as difficult to accomplish, it stops the most loquacious one. Its +effects are exceedingly diversified. With most people, eating puts an +end to speaking, according to the venerable precept, “Let your meat stop +your mouth;” but some are more talkative at table than any where else. +We remember an old lady remarkably taciturn except when handling a +spoon. It was a key that unloosed her tongue. Every time she sipped +coffee or tea, a remark dropped from her; but not a word ever came out +till the spoon had first gone in; as if it carried permission to the +imprisoned member to take a moment’s exercise. + +Its influence is very observable on nations. It modifies their manners +and customs, affects their arts, sciences, and manufactures; gives tone +to individual character, to modes of thought and action. Who does not +know that the vivacity and other marked attributes of the French people +are derived from the free use of the spoon? They are too wise to follow +the example of their saturnine neighbors, in everlastingly using the +knife and the fork. It is a fact too well known to need repetition here, +that the differences in the temper and habits of the Briton and Gaul are +to be traced to Roasts and Ragouts, to Beef and Bouilli. + +The Celts and Gauls fined a fat man, and increased or diminished the +penalty according to the size of his paunch—reversing the doctrines of +India, where Rajahs are respected for their obesity—and of Southern +Africa, where ladies are admired for the width of their waists, and +their beauty determined by the hundred weight. + +_Steaks_ make a German or an Englishman portly and dull; _stews_, a +Frenchman light and agile. On one side of the channel, _fries_ render +men heavy as dray horses; on the other, _fricasees_ make them frisky as +genets. It is the spoon that causes one people to be graceful in their +persons and polite in their demeanor, and the want of it another +ungainly in their movements and awkward in their compliments—that fits +this people for natural teachers of dancing, and makes those persons +incapable of appreciating the rudiments of personal accomplishments. So +with other national characteristics. All may be traced more or less +direct to the knife and the spoon. + + Observe the various operations + Of food, and drink in several nations. + Was ever Tartar fierce and cruel + Upon the strength of water-gruel? + But who can stand his rage and force + If first he rides, then eats his horse? + Salad and eggs and lighter fare + Tune the Italian spark’s guitar; + And if I read Dan Congreve right, + Pudding and beef make Britons fight.—_Prior._ + +Howell says, ‘while Englishmen drank only ale, they were strong, brawny, +able men, and could draw an arrow an ell long; but when they fell to +wine and beer, they are found to be much impaired in their strength and +age.’ + +An old British commander thus addressed his troops on the eve of battle: +“What a shame it would be to you, Englishmen, who feed upon beef and +drink beer, to let those rascally Spaniards beat you, who eat nothing +but oranges and lemons.” The same intellectual gentleman we presume it +was who supposed a well-known passage in Macbeth had reference to the +dressing of a beef steak or mutton chop: + + If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well + It were done quickly. + +Sir William Temple attributed the bravery of his countrymen to their +carnivorous propensities. According to this doctrine, and it has many +advocates, rice-eating Asiatics can never withstand European feeders on +beef: those nations that excel others in killing cattle for food will +generally be the most successful butchers of men—the most valiant eating +the most bullocks. The principle is certainly illustrated in almost +every page of ancient history—and the most in accounts of those nations +the most known—as the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. So in the +present day—oppressed people are such as are confined to vegetable diet, +as the Hindoos, the Irish, &c. In the Iliad, spits, roasting fires, and +boiling pots are about as common as spears, shields, or clubs: and +enumeration of cattle, sheep, goats, and swine, as troops of men and +horses. The Greek princes were their own butchers and cooks, and were +often half broiled while preparing their dinners. But we don’t read of +Hector or his friends sweating like + + Patroclus, who o’er the blazing fire + Heaps in a brazen vase three chines entire. + +No! the people of Troy were unfortunately more chastened in their +manners, and refined in their appetites, and hence compelled to yield to +their savage and flesh eating invaders! + +Spoons possess a high antiquarian interest, not merely as specimens of +the arts, and indicative of the use of hot fluids in former times, but +as bearing on the curious subject of human stature—on the question of +the degeneracy of man’s frame. Egyptian spoons of great antiquity are +preserved in museums of Europe, and are of the same average size as +those now in use; [_see figures farther on_;] proving in the clearest +manner that people’s mouths, between three and four thousand years ago, +were of the same width and capacity as ours. If mummies, therefore, had +never been drawn from the catacombs of the Nile, these little implements +would have been sufficient to show that while the subjects of the +Pharaohs surpassed other people in the magnitude of their works, their +souls dwelt in bodies no larger than ours. + +Ancient caldrons were often of enormous capacities, sometimes equaling a +modern brewer’s vat. This was on account of the large households of +princes—their families, like Solomon’s, consisting of hundreds and even +thousands of officers and attendants; but there is no record of the +spoon having ever varied in its general dimensions. Had Alexander, when +he wished to deceive posterity into a belief that his army was composed +of giants, buried on each field of battle a few gross of spoons, +capacious as good sized ladles, the deception would have been as likely +to succeed as by his inhuming bridles and mangers for mammoth horses, +and armor suitable for such men as Goliah of Gath, and the old King of +Bashan. + +Is it imagined existing ladles of a former world were possibly used as +spoons, and therefore such reasoning is not conclusive? A little +reflection will show the contrary; or if the reader will turn to _Plate +III_, he will see it would be a very difficult matter to empty an +ancient ladle, or simpulum, into the mouth, in consequence of the +position of the handle; this being perpendicular to the mouth of the +bowl; whereas in the spoon it is on a line or nearly so with it. + +In how many ways does the spoon contribute to man’s enjoyments! Besides +its more appropriate business, it often assists in quite different +matters. Its devotion is not confined to the mouth, nor to things for +the mouth, but, like an anxious attendant, is ever ready to lend its +assistance where it can. Most readers can call to mind numerous +occasions on which the value of its presence was felt. Neighbor Windt +can never get up the heels of his shoes till in place of his fingers he +applies the shank of a spoon, and matches were never made in his house +without tipping their ends in brimstone fused in another. Is a person +faint? The spoon is called to revive him. Are you in pain? quoth the +doctor, “three drops from this vial, in a tea-spoon full of syrup, will +relieve you.” You are restless? “Take these pills in a table-spoon full +of wine, and you’ll soon be asleep.” Infants suffer greatly in cutting +their teeth, but by “champering a spoon,” the gums are sooner cut +through; and thus this devoted servant of our species kindly hastens the +period when, in a more legitimate way, it can gratify little innocents. + +When influenzas rage, what is the first act of attending disciples of +Galen? To ask for a spoon, that with it they may press down the tongue +to examine the fauces. In epidemic catarrhs, there is scarcely a house +free from the disease, or a spoon from this service. Now, is it not +remarkable that in afflictions of the mouth and throat the benign and +sympathetic spoon should not only administer appropriate medicines, but +he actually called in ere the nature of those medicines is determined! +Its presence required by consulting physicians, as if from its +familiarity with the patient, his habits and manner of life, and its +acquaintance with the bronchial regions—its aid was indispensable! + +It serves prince and peasant on some curious occasions. The part it +performs in the coronation of kings will be noticed further on, but we +may here notice how the poor derive from it a valuable lesson. Start +not, gentle reader, at our announcing that spoons have long taught the +children of penury to lay right in bed! Yes; and shown them the only +way, in certain cases, by which either to get in or keep in—solving a +very curious geometrical problem. The custom alluded to is said to be +well known in soldiers’ barracks, lodging houses for mendicants, in +cheap boarding schools for boys, and wherever circumstances require four +or more persons to sleep on one couch. It is obvious uniformity of +position and movement, in such cases, is indispensable to individual +repose. + +When half a dozen spoons are laid out separately, they take up +considerable room, but place them edgewise, bring up the mouth of one +close to the back of the next, &c. and the whole will form a compact +mass. Just so with half a dozen tenants of one bed; if laid +promiscuously, they could not find room; that is only obtained by +placing themselves “spoon-fashion”—all turned one way and close fitted +to each other. The oldest occupant regulates the positions and motions +of his fellows. Having the privilege of first laying down, he adjusts +himself to his own liking; drawing up his knees as far as he finds +agreeable, he becomes a model or pattern to which those behind him must +conform. No one can then “turn on t’other side,” without general +consent; and it is only when the chief gives the signal (by exclaiming +“_spoons_,”) that the interesting evolution takes place. + +Spoons were formerly used to feed the nose as well as the mouth—_snuff_ +being conveyed in them to the nostrils instead of between the finger and +thumb—but this will be illustrated by a cut on a future page. We have +somewhere read of the implement performing the part of a +linguist—interpreting between navigators and strange people. When other +modes failed to make known the want of food, the sight of a spoon, +accompanied with the usual movements in using it, instantly opened the +understandings of savages, and saved Christian travellers from +starvation. + +Silver spoons have made their influence felt in the politics of nations. +The enthusiasm of the people of England in supporting the cause of the +parliament against Charles I. may be gathered from the contribution of +the inhabitants of a single town to the republican cause. In London, +enormous masses of plate were heaped up in Guildhall, the gift of the +citizens. We select a few items from the list of donors named in the +History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth, [Norwich, 1772.] + + “Thomas Goose, seven pieces of plate and _two spoons_. + + “Robert Wakeman, 51 oz. of plate, at 5s. 4d. per oz. and _nine spoons_ + in _coarse silver_, weighing 14 oz. at 4s. 6d. per oz.” + +[We leave it to modern smiths to distinguish between the “_coarse_” and +“best” silver.] + + “William Burton, 59 oz. plate, _one spoon, best_, and _four coarse + spoons_ and a bodkin. + + “George England, 91 oz. and _seven silver spoons_. + + “Robert Huntington, 158 oz. and _one spoon_. + + “William Bridge, 10 pieces of plate and _seven spoons_; and at another + time, 72 oz. and _seven spoons_. + + “John Thompson, _two cups_ and a _spoon_.” + +The above may serve as a commentary on the following lines from a +contemporary poet, by whom the parliament is addressed: + + Our plate, our coin, our jewels, and our rings, + Arms, ornaments, and all our precious things, + To you we brought as bountifully in, + As if they had old rusty horse-shoes been. + +Butler, the champion of monarchy, as a matter of course turned this +patriotic ardor into ridicule: + + Did saints for this bring in their plate, + And crowd as if they came too late? + For when they thought the cause had need on’t, + Happy was he that could be rid on’t. + Did they coin p— p—s, bowls and flagons, + Int’ officers of horse and dragoons? + And into pikes and musqueteers, + Stamp beakers, cups, and porringers? + A thimble, bodkin, and a SPOON, + Did start up living men as soon + As in the furnace they were thrown.—_Hudibras_, _Canto_ ii. + +Nor have pewter spoons been behind silver ones in freedom’s cause. Few +kitchen utensils have done more for national independence. Like those in +the house of John Adams, they have been molded into bullets, and sent in +haste to stay the stomachs of mercenary troops attempting to prey upon +their owners. In the war of the revolution, when the spoons in New-York +were used up, a set of men without the fear of God or the King before +their eyes, pulled down the leaden statue of George in the Bowling +Green, and fused him into balls. Then, as the royal officers professed +to honor the king in their hearts, the rebels thought it right to send +him into their bosoms. Here we see how spoons, though designed to convey +victuals to the mouth, can of themselves effectually silence the +cravings of hunger. + +In another sense, pewter spoons have entered the field. Essentially of +domestic habits, and brought up to wait on their owners at table, yet +when a country family’s provision has been spent, they have been known +to go in quest of some. Putting on a new form, (being cast into +“buck-shot,”) they have left home, like Esau, “to take venison,” and +have generally returned (in the bodies of the game) with fresh supplies +for the larder. Having done this, they have, in one or two instances, +(when serving a backwoodsman,) resumed their previous occupation, (being +recast,) and assisted to cook and serve up the animals they killed. But +this is rarely the case, for rambling in the woods commonly puts an end +to their household occupations. + +In cities, silver spoons often leave home to raise means for purchasing +provisions when the purse of their owner is emptied and his credit quite +gone. Pledged for a loan, they remain in prison without murmuring till +his circumstances revive and he redeems them from thraldom. Money +lenders turn their backs on the poor man’s knife and fork, but never +refuse his silver spoons—_their_ touching appeals cannot be resisted. +Like those heroic Moravian Missionaries, who went into slavery to +benefit perishing heathen, these well disposed little things repeatedly +save Christian families from famishing by acting in a similar manner. +After a prolonged absence, great is the joy on their arrival—then every +one takes them by the hand and greets their return. + +Thus the spoon contributes to man’s joys, in prosperity, and diminishes +his sorrows when in pecuniary trouble. It is a friend that sticketh +closer than a brother. Like a Grecian or Roman nurse, its labors cease +not with the death of its master—it continues to serve him in his +descendants. Made an heirloom, it bears his initials or his name, and is +sent down to succeeding generations, a cherished memorial of the +friendship that existed between them. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + _Proverb respecting Long Spoons—Attempt to define its + origin—Female Costume—Trains, Steeple Caps, Fardingales and + Ruffs—Extract from an old Sermon—Homily on Dress—Enormous cost of + Ruffs—George Heriot—Oriental long Spoons—Satan’s Household—Other + Proverbs—Conjurers—Mountebanks—Lotteries—Feats of the Spoon on the + Stage—Curious Practice of Morris-dancers—Superstition of the + Goths—Dryden—Gruel—Possets—Spoons doing duty as ferulas—Sir Thomas + More—The Spoon or Spoon-meat typical of Infancy._ + + +The spoon, as is well known to most readers, gave rise to a once +celebrated proverb, indicative of the advances of sin and the lengths to +which the wicked are led—“_He wants a long spoon who sups with the +devil._” The saying is now nearly obsolete, but it was formerly, like +the implement itself, in every one’s mouth. Thus Chaucer, in the +Squire’s Tale: + + What he answerd it nedeth not reherse; + Who can say bet than he, who can do werse + Whan he hath al wel said than he hath done. + Therfore behoveth him a ful _long spone_ + That shal ete with a _fend_. + +Shakespeare, in the Tempest, makes Stephano exclaim, oh beholding +Caliban, “Mercy! Mercy! This is a devil, and no monster; I’ll leave him; +I have no _long spoon_.” And in the Comedy of Errors, the whimsical +mistakes occasioned by the resemblance of the twins to each other, led +the parties to suppose Satan himself was in the performance. Antipholus +of Syracuse is invited by a female to dinner, his servant hints to him +the character of the hostess: + + _Dromio._—Master, if you go, expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a _long + spoon_. + + _Ant._—Why, Dromio? + + _Dromio._—Marry, he must have a _long spoon_ that must eat with the + devil. + +There was in Shakespeare’s time a more substantial reason why those who +supped with ladies as well as such as partook of Satan’s hospitality, +should have long spoons; and why ladies themselves should have been, as +they actually were, furnished with them. “Indeed!” exclaims some female +reader; “pray explain.” Certainly, madam; but before doing so, it is +expedient to allude to something else. + +From the times when primitive British ladies were clad in skins sewed +together with sinews and pinned on the person with thorns, to those when +Anglo-Saxon dames wore tunics and mufflers, and Norman females wrapped +themselves in broidered mantles and copes, and thence to the present +days, every age has been distinguished by innovations in _costume_, and +of a very marked character. Norman fashions were succeeded in the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by the English gown, bibs, aprons, +and corsets. Immense trains were attached to the skirts of gowns. Horned +and also steeple caps for the head made their appearance, thus +lengthening both extremities of the person to a monstrous extent. A +lady, on a visit of ceremony, is said to have sometimes been in the +centre of a drawing-room, while the tail of her dress was still in the +street. Chaucer is severe on this and other parts of female dress. In +the Parson’s Tale, he rails at “the superfluitee of the foresaide +gounes, _trailing in the dong_, and in the _myre_, on hors, and eke on +foot.” In Dunbar’s Poems, they are represented as performing the part of +a besom: + + Sic fartingaillis on flaggis als fatt as quhailis + Fattit lyk fulis with hattis that littel availis; + And sic fowill _tailis_ to _sweip the calsay clene_. + [_Poems by W. Dunbar, from the MS. of George Bannatyne. Perth, 1788, p. + 52._] + +Steeple caps towered about a yard above the heads which bore them, so +that ladies in full dress could hardly pass through an ordinary door, or +stand in a modern room. Queen Elizabeth, it is well known, carried her +head pretty high, in more senses than one, but she had sometimes to +bend. Visiting Burleigh, when he was laid up with the gout, she was much +incommoded by her head-dress in entering his dwelling. As the stateman’s +servant conducted her through the door, he cautioned her to beware of +the lintel, saying, “May it please your Highness to stoop.” The haughty +dame replied, she would not incline her body to the Spanish King, but on +this occasion would bend to see his master. For specimens of steeple +caps, see illustrations in current editions of Froissart, copied from +illuminated MSS. particularly Isabella, wife of Edward I. entering +Paris; the Dutchess of Montfort entering Nantes, and Philippa, consort +of Edward III. + +The sixteenth and part of the seventeenth century were characterized by +long bodices, puffed sleeves, the famous fardingale, and celebrated +ruff. The huge cylindrical petticoat was projected by hoops as much at +the hips as at the feet, so that the wearer seemed as if she stood +through an opening in the centre of a round table, the linen cover of +which reached down to the ground, and upon which she could arrange a +variety of apparatus, such as a lady’s work-bag usually +contains—strongly reminding one of Chinese pedlars of small wares, who +carry about goods on a somewhat similar looking contrivance. “The great +ladies at Genoa (observes Evelyn) go in horrible overgrown vertigals of +whalebone, which being put about the waist of the lady, and full as +_broad on both sides as she can reach with her hands_ bear out her coats +in such a manner that she appears to be as broad as long.” See a +portrait of Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. usually found in works on +costume. + +The stiff ruff round the neck sometimes projected so far that a +plumb-line dropped from its edge would nearly coincide with the +periphery of the petticoat. At other times, it was pinned up round the +ears, forming a fluted and inverted truncated cone or rather, it +resembled the outer leaves of a rose protecting the blushing beauty +within. Portraits of Queen Elizabeth exhibit both modes of wearing the +ruff. A smaller kind was worn by men in like manner, as may be seen in +portraits of Bacon, Dudley, Sidney, Cecil, and others of that and the +following age. See also Dutch portraits, of the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, and illustrated works of those periods—the ruff +is represented enormously thick and proportionally broad. Both it and +the fardingale are noticed by Cervantes. + +Few parts of female apparel excited more notice than ruffs, and on none +were bestowed more attention and regard. Cambric was first imported into +England, (from Cambray in Flanders, and hence its name,) for the purpose +of making them, and numerous were the devices for forming and stiffening +the plaits. About the year 1574, an invention of great merit, in the +estimation of ladies, was made, since it rendered the ruff much more +commodious to the wearer, and increased the facility of dressing and +putting it in shape. This was the famous “poking stick”—a polished steel +implement which, when heated, was used for stiffening and plaiting the +starched frills. The ladies had cause to rejoice that “setting pins” +(slips of whalebone, &c. formerly concealed in the plaits in the manner +of fans) were thus superseded. These uncomfortable adjuncts formed a +species of _chevaux de frise_, enclosing the neck, and not only keeping +other people, but in a manner themselves, at arms length. Ruffs were not +unlike the Chinese _cangue_, a thick board like a table, resting on the +shoulders of a criminal, his head being passed through a hole in the +centre—a device often compared to “a frill or collar.” It prevents the +wearer from reaching his mouth, so that unless fed by his friends he +would inevitably perish with hunger. + +Now, it has doubtless already occurred to our fair querist that, however +elegant and fashionable ruffs formerly were, they must have been +extremely incommodious at _meal times_. It is manifest no lady could +with an ordinary spoon convey food to her lips without crushing or +otherwise spoiling the most cherished part of her attire. The result +was, long-handled implements came into vogue, and were not disused till +“setting-pins” and “poking sticks” were laid aside, and the dimensions +of ruffs diminished. + +For ladies’ sakes, the following enumeration of fashionable articles of +costume is taken from a sermon preached in the fourteenth century to +worldly-minded misses: “Thus the devil farith with men and women: first, +he stirreth them to pappe and pamper their flesh, desiring delicious +meates and drinkes; and so they hop on the pillar of the devil’s +temptation, with their _horns_, _locks_, _garlands of gold and rich +pearls_, _cauls_, _fillets_ and _wimples_, and _riddled gowns_ and +_rockets_, _colors_, _laces_, _jackes_, _paltockes_, with their long +_crakowes_; and thus the devil beareth them upon the pillar to teach +them to fly above simple folk, and saith they shall not hurt +themselves—but he lieth falsely, for unless they are as sorry therefore +as ever they were glad, they shall leap down from the pillar into the +pit of hell!” Horned caps were too conspicuous objects to escape the +good father’s censure. The _wimple_ was a species of hood that covered +the head, neck, and shoulders. _Paltockes_—doublets, and probably +pantalettes; such as worn by Turkish females. _Crakowes_, long pointed +shoes. + +Of the homilies appointed by Queen Elizabeth to be read in churches, the +one on excess of apparel has some warm denunciations against wimples, +mufflers, head-bands, crisping pins, ladies mincing as they went, and +nicely treading with their feet. The gentlemen catch it also, with their +_velvets_, _furred gowns_, _corked slippers_, _trim buskins_, and the +multitudes of _changes of dress_—_one of this colour, another of that_, +one for _morning_, another for _afternoon_, this in _Spanish_, that in +the _Turkish fashion_, &c. The evil had risen to such a height that +“neither Almighty God by his word, nor godly and necessary laws, could +stop it.” “One spendeth his patrimony in _pounces and cuts_, another +bestoweth more on a _dancing shirt_ than might suffice to buy apparel +for his whole body. _Some hang their revenues about their necks, +ruffling with their ruffs!_” All the world knows immense wealth, in the +shape of jewels, is often pendant from a lady’s neck, but few persons +are aware that gentlemen formerly laid out fortunes on _frills_, and had +peculiar _shirts_ to dance in. + +George Heriot, goldsmith to James I. is figured with a ruff consisting +of plaits piled one over another, the whole being at least six inches +thick, and projecting in proportion. He never could have conveniently +fed himself with “cock-a-leekie,” or “crowdy,” the favorite dishes of +King Jamie, with anything like a modern spoon, without deranging if not +defiling his frill. Yet his and his master’s were of moderate dimensions +compared with those of the gallants of their days. + +Long spoons are common with the Turks, Persians, and most Asiatics. They +are mentioned by old travellers as “reaching a great way.” The proverb +associated with them no doubt arose from the primitive custom, still +prevalent over the greater part of the earth, of the inmates of a house +eating out of one dish. The tables on this account approaching a +circular form, so as to give every individual an equal chance at the +provision; like the knights at Arthur’s Round Table. In large +households, the tables were necessarily made in proportion, and as the +dish was placed at the centre, the implements were adapted to reach it +without rising. An idea has always prevailed that Satan’s household +never was a small one; spoons therefore much longer than common were +supposed to be required by those invited to a seat at his table. + +Other proverbs are connected with the subject. Henry IV. quoted one, +when rebuked for his clemency to his foes—“More flies are caught by a +_spoon_-full of honey than with a hogshead of vinegar.” Perhaps the best +description of a vain-glorious person is one in which he is represented +as taking in praise like porridge, and “_licking the spoon_!” + +Silver spoons, almost as much as anything else, afforded employment to +conjurers and wise women of yore. Frequently stolen, their disconsolate +owners had recourse to rustic oracles, who, with ‘wand,’ ‘magic mirror,’ +‘key and book,’ ‘sieve and sheers,’ or other cabalistic implements, +found out the rogues. Sometimes the more learned professors of occult +sciences were employed—men who consulted the stars on the fate of +kingdoms, stray cattle, lost keys, and goods of every description and +value. + + They’d search a planet’s house to know + Who broke and robbed a house below; + Examine Venus and the moon, + Who stole a thimble or a _spoon_.—_Hudibras_, _Canto_ I. + +Another class of men, whose glory has also departed, found a source of +profit in spoons, viz.: _Mountebanks_, who were originally travelling +venders of physic—a species of merchandise associated with rather +unpleasant ideas—one ill adapted to form the staple of a lucrative +trade. But, shrewd and observing, the itinerant quack knew the weak +points of the species, and that to succeed he had only to keep his +customers in good humor. Like a nurse coaxing sick children into love +with the doctor’s prescription, he tickled his hearers with the wonders +his nostrums had wrought, and sold pills out of the same package for +every complaint of man or beast. As people, however, are not always +sick, he reminded them that they were daily in danger of being so; and +hence the wisdom of buying pills which not only removed disease but +prevented its approach. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he +added to his stock various light articles, as tapes, rings, ribbons, +bodkins, scissors, spoons, knives, razors, tea-pots, trays, calicoes, +and eventually introduced them in lotteries—expatiating on their +superior qualities with a fluency which rivaled that of ‘Kikero’—as a +country pedagogue of our acquaintance insists on pronouncing the name of +the Roman orator. + +The poets of the last century often complimented these amusing artists, +as Gay in his Sixth Pastoral: + + The mountebank now treads the stage and sells + His pills, his balsams, and his ague spells; + + · · · · · + + Of lotteries, next with tuneful note he told, + Where _silver spoons_ were won, and rings of gold. + +The same gentry were very numerous in ancient Greece and Rome, and quite +as clever as their present representatives. They dealt in trinkets and +small wares, whose virtues were fully equal to modern ones. Eudamus, +mentioned by Aristophanes, peddled finger-rings, for protecting the +wearers from the bite of serpents or other venomous animals! Like recent +artists of the same profession, he probably sold razors so sharp as +would shave sleeping cats without wakening them, and spoons which +rendered loathsome food pleasant, and poisoned food innocuous. + +Modern mountebanks sometimes wound up the business of a lottery with +general satisfaction, by providing from two to six bowls of _hasty +pudding_, to partake of which an equal number of their patrons were +invited to step on the stage. The food was scalding hot, and being +retained in wooden bowls lost little of its heat ere passed to its +destination. He who transmitted the contents of one bowl to his stomach +in the shortest time was the victor, and bore off the prize; which was +sometimes the spoon he had used. When every thing was prepared, the +contest began on a signal given by the generous provider of the feast, +and instantly accompanied with acclamations of the bystanders. The witty +remarks of Mr. Merryman caused roars of laughter to become, like +approaching thunder, louder and louder, until the rain descended, and +the faces of the multitudes were fairly washed in their own tears. +Before the performers half finished the task, their visages acquired the +temperature and color of fire, in spite of streams of perspiration with +which they were flooded. + +This employment of the spoon was at one time so common as to have given +rise to the soubriquet by which the principal performer was, and still +is, distinguished—_Jean Potage_ in France—_Jack Pudding_ in England. + +Here we see the spoon taking an active part in the _public sports_ of +the people, as well as in furthering their private pleasures. It entered +into an _innocent_ contest, which the knife or the sword never did. It +achieved a bloodless conquest, and as an emblem of victory was often +stuck on one side of the hat, by way of cockade. And let not the +disciple of Chesterfield sneer at these rustic entertainments of +ignorant times, for the effects on both actors and spectators were more +beneficial in shaking off the gross humors of the system than cart loads +of physic or wagon loads of sermons. + +The spoon in another respect assisted old charlatans, and in that part +of their performances most interesting to themselves and trying to +spectators—viz. in making the collection. The morris dancer, at the +close of every act, put a large spoon or ladle in the mouth of the +hobby-horse and made it career round the ring to solicit donations, when +we may suppose few could resist the moving appeal. [_See Douce’s +Illustrations of Shakespeare._] + +The caldron and ladle have been employed in forbidden matters. Witches +made ‘hell broth’ in one, and stirred up the ingredients with the +other—making the gruel thick and slab—but the food entered no mortal +stomach, and hence no mortal spoon was wanted. This may be inferred from +older writers than Shakespeare—from Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus Magnus. +They tell us about the practices of ‘women witches of the North, where +the devil truly hath his seat’—of the ‘gruel’ and ‘earthen pot wherein +the juices, herbs, worms and entrails’ were boiled, &c. but not a +whisper about the spoon. Eventually the law of nature taught the Goths +to detest devils and their dams, for it often happened that famines +ensued when men obeyed them: ‘birds and beasts forsook the woods, and +fish the waters, and would not come back again [to be eaten] until such +time as the Divine Majesty was pacified by prayers and benedictions of +the sacred clergy.’ So says the Reverend Archbishop of Upsal. + +In satirical writings, allusions to _spoon-meats_ were formerly common. +When a passionate combatant had no other resource, he too often vented +his wrath in gross personalities. Thus Dryden: ‘Go back to where thy +infancy began, eat pap and _spoon-meats_;’ or when a fling was made at +people’s diet, as in the Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher: ‘Faith, +sir, here are no _oats_ to be got, unless you’l have ’em in porredge; +the people are so given to _spoon-meats_.’ A similar allusion to oatmeal +gruel is made by Du Bartas: + + And in a dish, for want of plate or glass, + Sups oaten drink instead of hippocras. + +In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries oatmeal gruel constituted the +regular breakfast and supper of children. Dryden has an allusion to it +in the ‘Wild Gallant’:—‘_Boy_: These last three weeks I have almost +forgot what my teeth were made for. Last night good Mrs. Bibber took +pity on me, and crammed me a mess of gruel _with the children_, and I +popt and popt my spoon three or four times to my mouth before I could +find the way to it.’ + +If the spoon was the first thing wanted in a morning, it was often the +last thing laid aside at night; for when youngsters broke their fast +with porridge, old people wound up the day’s labor with posset,—a hot +mixture of milk and mulled wine, and frequently taken in bed. The custom +is repeatedly mentioned in old writers. Page promised Falstaff a posset, +and Mrs. Quickly cheered Rugby with the hopes of another. Lady Macbeth +drugged the posset of Duncan’s grooms. Thomas Heywood, a contemporary of +Shakespeare notices the custom: “Thou shalt be welcome to beef and +bacon, and perhaps a bag pudding; and my daughter Nell shall pop a +posset upon thee when thou goest to bed.” + +Besides feeding boys and girls, the spoon has been known to remind them +when they do ill, its bowl being now and then applied to their pates, to +teach them better manners. Among refined people or with mild housewives, +this of course never occurs; but passionate cooks, when teased by young +impertinents, seldom stop to reflect on the impropriety of using the +same implement to baste a boy’s head and a roasting pig. In country +parts this practice is probably more frequent than in cities, _one_ +thing there being often necessarily put to _many_ uses. Like a faithful +nurse, the spoon goes out of its way to benefit young folks by +performing duties towards them that do not belong to it. + +In some regions, poor people are not over-nice in their tastes—it’s a +merciful dispensation they are not. When the Highland hostess took her +son’s cap off his head, and immediately boiled in it a pudding for Sam. +Johnson’s dinner, she made the most of her resources, did the best her +limited stock of dry goods would permit, and displayed as much ingenuity +in the application of an old thing to a new purpose, as one half of +those do who secure their inventions by patents. There is no doubt that +such a lady, when busily engaged in making “stirabout” for her family, +would hasten the movements of a desidiose boy by applying the implement +she was wielding to his sconce, as well as by threatening to withhold +the contents of the kettle from his lips. To be sure, such a practice is +not very cleanly; but what can a country matron in like circumstances +do? She cannot leave the porridge to “burn” or “boil over,” in order to +seek a suitable rod; if she did, in all probability the individual for +whose benefit it was sought, would be _non est inventus_ when she +returned. + +During the fierce contests between the advocates of faith and the +champions of works, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the +spoon was sometimes introduced. On one occasion it proved a powerful +weapon in the hands of Sir Thomas More. See how skillfully he wields +it:—“I would wene one _sponeful_ of good works should no more kill y^e +soule, then a potager of good wurts should kill and destroi y^e bodie.” +Wurts is the old name for unfermented beer—a sweet infusion of malt—and +is an aperient. This was an argument _ad hominum_, or rather _ad +stomachus._ In it the Chancellor administered, and in a very quiet way, +a medicine that could not help moving their bowels; and it did move +them—for those whom he thus addressed at length slew him. But such +occasions are not the only ones where the spoon was associated with +religious controversies or ceremonies, as the sequel of this essay will +show. + +The spoon, or ‘spoon meat,’ and ‘strong meat,’ have ever been typical of +infancy and manhood—of weak and vigorous intellects. Paul tells the +Hebrews they could only digest pap or spoon meats of children, instead +of the strong food of men. “Ye have need of milk, and not of strong +meat. Every one that useth milk is a babe, but strong meat belongeth to +them that are of full age.” Solomon has the same idea: it is in fact +common as the spoon. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + _Heraldic Emblems—The Spoon neglected—Families of Spooners—Dutch Coat + of Arms—Crest for Bishops—Warriors—Punishment of Death—Discontented + People subdued by the Spoon—Peace made by it lasting—A Teacher of + Military Tactics—Waterloo—Manual Exercise—The Spoon once a + Side-Arm—Ancient Tenures—Curious Deed of Land—Bishop of + Exeter—Sheep-Walk and Wooden Spoon—Tears collected by Spoons—Heaven + opened by them—Property given to the Church—Mahommedans use Spoons in + Paradise—Wash-Basin—Rebuke and Malediction._ + + +Looking over some works on Heraldry, we were surprised at the multitude +of culinary utensils adopted into that ‘heavenly science,’ as one of its +professors calls it. As we proceeded, the reason became plain; for +everything _eatable_, whether fish, flesh, or vegetable, being portrayed +on escutcheons or crests, nothing was more natural than to introduce +apparatus for cooking. As a symbol for beef, veal, mutton, lamb, pork, +or venison, a gentleman selected for his crest, (as his palate preferred +one dish or another) a bull or cow, a calf, a sheep, or goat, a lamb, +boar, or stag. Those who lived more delicately chose a fowl, hare, or +rabbit;—others, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, snipe, quails, wild +ducks, geese, herons, and every kind of game. Such as loved fish, +selected perch, pike, flounders, salmon, trout, and so on, up to +sturgeons and dolphins. Some had painted on their armorial ensigns, +cockles, muscles, crabs, lobsters, and turtles. Those who relished +vegetable diet, had sheafs of barley, rye, and wheat, beans, peas, +asparagus, celery, turnips, cabbages. People fond of pies and desserts, +had apples, pears, pomegranates, cherries, and grapes; and such as had +more pleasure in handling the tumbler than the knife or spoon, selected +for their crests, barrels [for beer], urns or vases [for wine], drinking +cups, horns, goblets, mazars, &c. + +Of devices taken from kitchen paraphernalia, we cannot name half; here +are a few: The hearth and fire, being essential for preparing dinner, +often occur; so do torches to light the fire, billets of wood to feed +and bellows to blow it. A spit to roast meat, and sometimes the roast on +it. Fire-dogs or andirons, caldrons, skewers and flesh-hooks. (Heads, +limbs, and joints of animals, ready for the spit or kettle, are quite +common.) Colanders, watering-pots, cleavers, carving-knives, plates and +dishes, salts, cups and tankards. Stools to sit on, tables to eat off, +hand-bells to call waiters, buckets of water, basins and ewers, to wash +after dinner; combs to dress the hair before sitting down, scissors to +trim the beard, and caps to place on the head. + +“Well, but where is the spoon?” To tell the truth, we have not been able +to find it! A disgrace to the science of heraldry it is not emblazoned, +or if it be, it has escaped our notice. The ingrates! Or, were they +ashamed of adopting it to conceal their love of spoon meats? As if the +world perceived not their design in concealing a round of beef under the +figure of an ox, a chine of pork under a boar, a haunch of venison under +a fat buck, a loin of veal under a calf—or as if the reverend gentleman +who adopted “two shin-bones” for his crest, could by such an affectation +of abstinence hide from a prying world his attachment to marrow and +strong broth. [_See Kent’s Grammar of Heraldry, Lond. 1724, and also +Guillim, where the above “devices,” and hundreds more, may be found._] + +There might be some excuse for Messrs. Fish, Flour, Bull, Bacon, Cook, +Sprat, Drake, Taylor, Miller, Smith, Potts, Sadler, Wheeler, Fisher, +Drinker, Baker, Carter, and others, rejecting from their coats of arms +the object of our research; but surely the ancient and honorable +families of the SPOONERS should have known better. They, at least, might +have had the grace to acknowledge and adopt the implement from which +their patronymic is derived. What could have been more proper? But alas! +the earth is as full of pride as ingratitude, and many besides the +Spooners are indifferent about inquiring into the condition and deeds of +their ancestors. + +In an ancient and imperfectly depicted coat of arms, the supporters are +a man and a woman: one flourishes what appears a ladle, and the other +holds something like a spoon; but Guillim, or some one else, explains +the hieroglyphics in a different manner. With this exception, the arms +of an old Dutch family come nearest the mark. Their crest was a +_Spoonbill_, the most singular looking of European birds, and a native +of Holland; but whether it was selected on account of its name, the form +of its mouth, or the length of its neck, we are not informed. If the +gentleman who chose it was a ravenous feeder on soups, and a believer in +the doctrine that the pleasures of eating and drinking are proportioned +to the length of the channel through which food reaches the stomach, his +heraldic ingenuity surpassed that of any gourmand on record; that is, +unless the musician mentioned by Aulus Gellius adopted it as an armorial +ensign, which is not unlikely, since he used to wish for a neck as long +as a crane, that he might _longer_ enjoy the victuals he ate. + +As an heraldic device, the Spoon is infinitely more becoming Christian +men than spears, daggers, bows and arrows, catapults, hatchets, clubs, +knives, and other murderous weapons, which knights and even bishops +sport on their plate and the panels of their carriages. To church +dignitaries it seems peculiarly appropriate—a symbol of benevolence, of +a disposition “to feed the hungry.” Charity, however, has always been at +a discount, and the spoon, as its emblem, is neglected by heralds and +bishops. + +O, that warriors would adopt it! It would be consistent with sentiments +many of them affect. Besides, the times are rapidly approaching when +conquest in battle—the subjugation of nations by brute force—will no +longer make a hero; when people cannot be treated by their rulers like +cattle, and slain in hordes by professional butchers; by men whose acts +fools vaunt and idiots gloze over. It had been well for the world had +soldiers never handled any weapon but the spoon. As kindness is, and, +from the constitution of the human mind, ever must be more effective +than compulsion to overcome the wayward, victories more glorious and +permanent than any attained by the musket and cannon would have been the +result. Is this doubted? Let the plan be tried: it is based on +philosophy, on principles implanted in man’s nature; whereas the other +conflicts with them all. + +Public sentiment is fast demanding the abolition of the punishment of +death in civil communities—a punishment which does not and cannot +protect society from crimes, because it is itself a violation of the +laws of humanity. Vindictive in its nature, it deliberately commits that +which it condemns. If one man kill another in a passion, who can +innocently put him to death in cold blood? But what, then, shall those +scenes of wholesale slaughter be deemed where human beings, reeking with +gore, are butchering one another—not that they are at enmity, but +because their employers require it of them? + +The murmurings of a discontented people may be silenced by thrusting +bayonets into their bodies—’twould be a better way to put spoons in +their mouths. Starving people have long enough been conquered by killing +them; why not stifle their complainings by feeding them—by killing them +with kindness instead of with cannon? The spoon not only subdues the +rebellious but makes them good citizens. While conveying food to their +stomachs, it transmits love of country, and admiration of its products, +to their hearts. This the bayonet never did and never will. No peace can +be lasting, and no people content, without the spoon. It is ridiculous +to expect patriots in those deprived of one, or, what is the same thing, +who cannot get sufficient employment for one. How can such dispose their +hearts or their throats to sing a Te Deum, or with what kind of stomach +can they join in a national anthem? + +Captain Shandy carried on the siege of Dendermond in his garden, using +pickets for men, and the dense volumes from Corporal Trim’s pipe for the +smoke of his cannon; but Joel Barlow, or some one else, has shown how +military tactics may be more agreeably taught with a spoon; a platter of +hot hasty pudding being the fortress attacked; and the citadel to be won +the lump of sugar or butter ensconced in the centre. + +After reconnoitering the thick circular wall to determine the point of +attack, the spoon is brought to play; when, like a battering-ram applied +to new buildings, it quickly makes an impression, and to keep the ground +clear, bears off the materials broken down. Repeating the operation, an +attempt is at length made to penetrate the centre in a radial direction; +but no sooner is a practical opening formed, than the adjoining masses, +as if endowed with instinct, rush down from both sides and make the +breach good. A short breathing spell follows, and then a furious onset +is made; the barriers give way, and a dashing effort carries the war +into the bowels of the besieged; but the heat of the smoking ruins +becomes insufferable, confusion ensues, and a retreat the only +alternative. The destructive engine is now brought to bear on one point, +and now wheeled to another, without any decided effects, till the fatal +plan is adopted of weakening the enemy uniformly all round; thus slowly +but surely diminishing the distance from the besieged. This is pursued +until, by a little manœuvring, a passage is suddenly forced to the +centre, and, by a _coup de main_, the greater part of the treasure borne +off at a swoop! Such are the innocent sweets which victory confers on +the spoon. + +If the horrible contest at Waterloo had been settled by the same weapon, +it had been well for blushing humanity. Had the opposing heroes been +seated on opposite sides of a sufficiently extended table, and entered +into battle in the manner of hasty pudding heroes on a mountebank’s +stage, the victors would have acquired as much _true_ honor as they +have, and indeed a great deal _more_. Such would be quite as +philosophical, and almost as Christian-like a way of ending national +quarrels as that of stimulating combatants to shoot cold lead into each +other’s stomachs. There is also reason to believe it would be an +acceptable one to a majority of troops; besides, kings, and even queens, +could safely fight with commendable eclat at the head of their armies, +and set them a royal example. Some, it is well known, could have rivaled +the best field-marshals, and given additional evidence of “_divine_ +right” to their crowns. There would be fine opportunities, too, for +military engineers to display their skill and secure promotion: _e. g._ +in devising the best means for diminishing the sensibility of the gullet +and thorax; or, in the language of old Morton’s cook, in “causewaying +the thrapples” of warriors—in ascertaining the shortest modes of +preparing ammunition, and the readiest methods of using it. + +The ‘manual exercise’ might be taught in a more gentle manner than by +the musket—in a way more agreeable to nine-tenths of living soldiers; +and, could they be consulted, to ten-tenths of deceased ones. Thus, +‘Prepare your spoons’—‘Charge your spoons’—‘Discharge and charge again.’ +How pleasant! Females could take part in the good work, to encourage the +timid and cheer the mighty. Officers might address them in the language +of Todelet, (in Davenant’s comedy, ‘The Man is the Master,’) “Ladies, +pray take your spoons.” Adopt this plan, and who would desert? Verily, +there would be few absentees at roll-call—few would wilfully neglect the +morning and evening parade, or be remiss in keeping their weapons in +trim. + +The spoon might with propriety be worn as a ‘side-arm.’ Enclosed in a +sheath and suspended from the belt, or stuck in the sash, it would be as +becoming an ornament for Christian heroes as a poignard. It would afford +equal room for variety in the qualities of its material and case: both +could be plain or enriched according to the rank of the wearer, from a +brigadier to a drummer. The fact is, it has often been efficacious as +the sword in securing victory, viz. by demolishing the provisions of an +enemy—the best way of fighting, and the only things worth fighting for. +Does some mustached martinet bluster, or do young Hotspurs feel their +pride wounded by the proposition? What will they say if we tell them, +one of the most warlike legions of ancient or modern times carried the +spoon in the way indicated, and afterwards stuck it in front of the cap +in place of a feather—that a soup-kettle was their banner, and the +titles of their officers derived from kitchen utensils and scullion +duties! But we are anticipating what belongs to another part of the +subject; meanwhile, we would recommend those who think of selecting war +as their profession—as the theatre of their labors through life, and who +long to rival the glory of successful plunderers of the species—to study +a certain chapter by Agrippa, upon the value of soldiers’ services to +mankind. + +The spoon is occasionally mentioned in the curious tenures by which land +was held in former times. Many domestic implements, duties, culinary +dishes, &c. are enumerated, as well as some singular customs. Let us +notice one or two: In the time of Edward I. a noble family held their +lands on condition of furnishing “rushes to strew on the king’s +chamber,” (in place of the modern carpet) and “_two green geese_” for +his dinner at Christmas. Under Edward IV. a manor was held by +furnishing, at the feast of St. Michael the archangel, “_a goose_ fit +for the lord’s dinner.” Others paid _twenty-four pasties of fresh +herring_. Some, _a mess of pottage_—_a mess of meat_. The yearly rents +of other rich estates were a _bottle_ or _jug_, a silver or maple +_cup_—a _whittle or little knife_—a _pair of spurs_—a _pair of tongs_—a +_washbowl_ and _ewer_—a _spindle_ and thread on it—a _tub of butter_—a +_silver tankard_, &c. + +The manor of Creswell was held by the service of carrying a _bottle of +wine_ for the king’s breakfast. Fulk Fitz-Warren held lands in +Gloucester by carrying a _hunting-horn_ whenever the king hunted in the +vicinity. The Hastings family held a manor in Sussex for this service: +they were to find _an oar_ by which to row the king over the haven at +Hastings. Henry VIII. granted to Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, the site +and precincts of a monastery, on condition of “finding the king a +right-hand _glove_ at his coronation, and support his right arm that day +while he held the sceptre.” To Walter de Marisco, was given a rich manor +in Nottingham, “on condition of his presenting the king yearly _a pair +of scarlet hose_.” Lord Stafford, in Edward the First’s reign, held land +in Warwick, for the service of _three shillings_ and a _pair of red +stockings_ yearly furnished to the king. One manor was granted by Henry +VIII. to whom the grantees were to pay one pound of cummin seed, _two +pair of gloves_, and _a steel needle_. Lands were held in Essex by +paying a _silver needle_ into the Exchequer. + +The rich manor of Hopton was given to the ancestor of the family of that +name by William the Conqueror, on condition of being supplied with _a +bow and arrow_, whenever he hunted in the neighborhood. The grant, in an +ancient black letter MS, is in verse, and is brief and curious. The mode +by which the king confirmed the gift, by leaving the impression of _his +teeth_ on the seal, instead of “making his mark”—his sign _manual_—may +be considered characteristic of the grantor and of the times. + + _“To the heyrs male of the Hopton,” &c._ + + “To me and to myne, to thee and to thine, + While the water runs, and the sun doth shine, + For lack of heyrs to the king againe, + I William, king, the third year of my reign, + Give to the Norman Hunter + To me that art bothe line and deare, + The Hoppe and Hoptoune, + And al the bounds up and downe, + Under the earth _to Hell_, + Above the earth _to Heaven_: + From me and from myne + To thee and to thine, + As good and as faire + As ever they myne were. + To witness that this is sooth, + I _bite the white wax with my tooth_. + Before Jugg, Marode, and Margery, + And my thirde son Henry, + _For one Bow and Arrow, + When I come to hunt upon Yarrow_.” + [_Blount’s Ancient Tenures, Lon. 1679._] + +Sometimes a lord acted once a year as hostler, “holding the king’s +stirrup till he mounted;” others performed the duties of butler, +cup-bearer, carver, valet, cook, taster, &c. + +Sir Hugh Courtenay, in the fourteenth century, held lands of the Bishop +of Exeter. Some controversy having arisen respecting the service, it was +determined, A. D. 1308, that when a bishop first came to take possession +of the see, Courtenay or his heirs should ride to the east gate of the +city to meet him; and at the feast in honor of his installation, carry +the “first mess to the table. In consideration of which service, +[besides the lands,] the said Courtenay and his heirs shall have, for +their fee, four silver dishes of those carried to the table with the +first mess—two salt cellars, one cup, wherein the bishop shall drink at +that meal—one wine pot, _one spoon_, and two basons, wherein the bishop +shall then wash—all which vessels are to be of silver.” + +In one old English tenure, by which a right of sheep-walk was held, the +spoon was indispensable. Every shepherd presented on New Year’s Day an +apple-pie, (the crust of which contained a peck of flour) and a sweet +cake to the lord of the manor, and carried with him “_a wooden spoon_.” +The bailiff of the manor provided furmenty in a large dish, sunk level +with the ground, on an open space near the manor house. Each shepherd +was required to sit down and eat of the dish—taking a spoonfull in his +turn. If any neglected to bring his spoon, he was required to lay down +on the grass and put his lips into the dish, or forfeit the right of +pasture. [_See an account of this ‘Jocular Tenure,’ in Hone’s Every Day +Book_, vol. ii. 24.] + +Another alleged application of spoons is too singular to be omitted in +this enumeration of their uses. Every person has read of the ancients +collecting _tears_, shed by friends of a deceased person, and burying +them in a bottle with the corpse. The custom is alluded to by the +Psalmist: “Put thou my tears in thy bottle.” (Ps. lvi. 8.) Now, it is +very natural to enquire—In what manner was the fluid collected and +conveyed into lachrymatories? as the little bronze and glass or +earthenware phials were named. Many of these are extant; all have narrow +necks, but some have in addition a concave mouth or lip, intended (as +has been alleged) to embrace the eye, and consequently to catch the +tears as they gushed forth. Other antiquarians think the precious drops +were gathered first in narrow _spoons_ and transferred by them into the +phials! Pennant has engraved a figure of one. It resembles a marrow +spoon, (_See Plate VIII._) and from its form was well calculated for the +purpose. Perhaps both modes were in vogue—if either. + +Something odd is forcibly associated with ideas of the custom. Suppose +it were revived—would it not be a hard matter sometimes to get a +moderate spoonfull of genuine tears? and would it not at all times be a +curious sight to witness their accumulation? We know not how the +ancients acted; whether, when the friends of the deceased were +assembled, a slave handed round to each a lachrymatory on a salver, that +every mourner might bottle his own tears as he brewed them—or whether an +attendant waited with a spoon, and, on a signal from a weeper, applied +the instrument to the cheek and neatly caught the descending pearl. It +is very certain no mourner could use the spoon himself, because he could +not direct it with sufficient celerity and precision to intercept the +limpid stream—he would lose more than he could secure. The whole +subject, although about tears, is fraught with matter for enticing +speculation. We must leave it, however, lest entering farther upon it, +we should forget or be unwilling to return. + +The spoon has greater claims on the gratitude of mankind than any yet +named. Not satisfied with comforting its owner through life, and +assuaging his pains at death, it used to assist in opening the gates of +heaven to his spirit! Churches were formerly crowded, like pagan +temples, with altars, dedicated to different saints or demigods, and +many are so still. On the walls were suspended every variety of votive +offerings, exhibiting an assortment of goods not much unlike those in a +modern pawnbroker’s shop. A vast amount of plate, jewels, table linen +and furniture was accumulated by officiating priests. Spoons often +figure in catalogues of this holy merchandise; hence they not only fed +the bodies of men, but were believed to contribute to the salvation of +their souls. If there are people now-a-days who doubt the efficacy of +such donations to the church, on their own heads be the effects of their +infidelity. Houses, land, mines, manors, fish-ponds, and all kinds of +real estate, were given to the church with the same view. + +Thomas Caupemanura gave “to God and Saint Mary of Furness an oxgang of +land,” A. D. 1269. “Radulph de Bethum gave to the Abbey of Furness, for +the good of his own soul, and his wife Ingrith’s soul, a saltwork,” +&c.—Adam de Asmunderlawe left funds to provide two pounds of wax for the +church, at the feast of the Purification, for ever. Margaret de Boyvill, +with the consent of her children, confirmed to the monks of Furness a +rent of eight shillings “for the good of the soul of Robert her +husband.”—[_Antiquities of Furness_, 1774.] + +Richard Qwykke, surgeon, by will, dated November 18, 1501, ordered his +body to be buried in the cathedral, before the image of St. Ursula; and +bequeathed (_pro salute animæ_) “to the altar of St. James, in the said +church, a cloth of diaper; to the altar of St. Ursula, a plain towel +marked with black silk; to the altar of Jesu and of St. Ursula, to make +either of them an altar-cloth, a fyne shete; to the gentlemen’s table in +the hall, to wash daily therein, a bason of laton [brass] and an ewer +with a rose in the middle. Item, _three sylver spones_, an ownce of +broken sylver and three shillings in money, to make the _spones_ in the +fratrie, an _honest dosyn_:—item, to our Lady Jeson, a purse of gold and +beryl, and coral stones to be broidered about it, and five pence in +money:—item, six shillings and eight pence to buy a marbyl stone to lye +upon his grave.”—[_History and Antiquities of Rochester, Lon. 1772._] + +The vessel with a rose in the middle was probably similar to the brass +basins still used in Egypt and other parts of the East. At the bottom is +a cavity, covered by a rose or strainer. At the beginning and conclusion +of a meal, a person washes his hands by holding them over it, while a +servant pours water upon them. The liquid instantly disappears beneath +the strainer, and the attendant presents the purifying apparatus to the +next person, who makes his ablutions without perceiving any of the fluid +used by his predecessor. + +According to the Koran, the spoon is not confined to the earth, but +contributes to the joys of the faithful in heaven. The disciples of the +Prophet are to imbibe nectar, and take electuaries from it there as they +do here:—but it is time to end the chapter; and if the reader’s anger +will not be excited, we will close it with a malediction. + +Every person who handles a pen is indebted to the spoon—indebted to it +for his daily food; and yet, who among them has ever written a line in +its praise? Shame on ye editors, poets and moralists, who prate against +ingratitude while wiping your mouths, and superciliously pushing aside +the old servant that feeds you—preaching against that which you practice +in the act of your preaching! How long has this industrious and +unobtrusive contributor to your health and your comforts been sailing, +like an argosy, from you empty, and returning laden with treasure! +Treasure which you have eagerly seized and enjoyed, without bestowing a +thought on the bearer! May you, then, have the grace to peruse these +pages with profit, and may your improvement be made manifest by +appreciating other household slaves to your pleasures, for whom you have +never spoken a good word, nor even thought of the obligations you owe +them. If you do not this much, may you never eat rice or any other +pudding again, except _a la Turke_—with your fingers; and when sore +pressed with hunger, pick up single grains with a Chinaman’s chopsticks! + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + _Trifling—Publishers’ Rebuke—Habits of Animals and Men—Their + Organization—Man designed for a Mechanic—Arts—Origin of + Spoons—Descended from the Ladle and Caldron—Original pottage—Defects + of Recorded History—Spoons coeval with Soup—Adam and Animal + Food—Artificial Forms—Natural Utensils—Spoons of Marine Shells—Who + first beheld the Ocean—Primitive Spoon-Handles—Devices common to all + Times—Chowder Parties—Visit to the Sea—The Cockle an ancient Symbol._ + + +It is now time to attend to the more serious part of the subject. When +schoolboys have consumed their allotted hour at noontide in sport, their +attention is required to less diverting studies in-doors; and we, after +wearying grave readers with trifling, must endeavor to gain their +forgiveness by closer attention to the lesson before us. We confess +proceeding to the remainder with reluctance, and a wish that it was +over; because we regret to part from those congenial spirits with whom +we have hitherto frolicked. It were unreasonable to hope for their +company to the end of our task, and presumptuous to press them to stay, +lest entering on the following chapters should be to them like passing +into school after play. We hope, however, like a veritable truant, to +meet them again ‘as soon as school’s out,’ and sooner, if the master’s +back should be turned. + +While closing the last sentence, the bell wires suddenly lashed the +walls of our humble domicil, making one start like an idler whose back +unexpectedly tastes the pedagogue’s cane. A presentiment came over us +that all was not right; and sure enough, the postman handed in a note +from the publishers, reminding us that they dealt in sterling works, and +had no intention of vending ephemeral brochures—and that unless the rest +of ‘the copy’ was divested of such volatile matter as pervaded the pages +already printed, they should not risk any more of their money in setting +up the type, and none of their reputation in selling the work! As there +is no withstanding these men, the reader will bear in mind, when the +subject becomes remarkably dull, that it is so in obedience to orders, +and whenever a little life or pleasantry appears, the writer has for a +moment slipped off the shackles so cruelly imposed upon him. + +The history of man is more fluctuating than waves or the wind; its +aspect is never the same for an hour. That of animals is uniform, +because they pursue the even tenor of their way undiverted by unnatural +or visionary speculations; they live, rear and educate their young, and +die, as they ought to do; hence the annals of a tribe serve for the +species wherever located, and for that species forever. Their ideas of +propriety, (they certainly have such, for a matronly cat slaps her +kitten when it does wrong, as neatly, and frowns on it as demurely as a +lady correcting her boy—so a monkey pinches the ear of its baby and +grins its rebuke as intelligibly as ever did M. Picard,) their manners, +customs, vocations, and devices, never vary, except where climate and +peculiar circumstances require slight modifications. Pursuing the same +course through life, one which experience has established as the best, +the present races enjoy the blessings of existence in a degree equal to +their ancestors, nor will their descendants partake of them in a +greater. + +But not so with man. Here, one people riots in luxury; yonder, groans +another with the pangs of penury. There, science develops new motive +forces to supercede human labor; here, men toil like cattle, and not +even for themselves. This community is enlightened; the inhabitants of a +thousand others are ignorant almost as the beasts among which they +dwell. In one place, man is a philosopher; in another, a savage. Yonder, +he exists in primeval forests, clothed with skins, sheltered in huts, +and destitute of the commonest conveniences; here, he rolls through +streets in chariots, his raiment silks and brocade—he banquets in +palaces, taking his food from plates of porcelain, with forks of silver +and spoons of gold. + +The _origin_ of spoons, like that of every primeval device may be traced +to man’s organization. Though lord of this planet, he is destitute of +many physical endowments conferred on inferior beings; but, in the +superiority of his reasoning powers, he finds a thousand substitutes for +every deprivation; hence, with a tender, a comparatively feeble, and a +naked body, one unfurnished with defensive or destructive weapons, he +overcomes the largest animals, subdues the fiercest, overtakes the +fleetest, and brings to his feet both the feathered and finny tribes. +Except him, all things living have natural apparatus or appendages to +seek and seize their food. Such as live in liquids, or which frequently +imbibe them, are equally provided for every emergency. The leech tribe, +and myriads of insects, extract blood by natural lancets and cupping +implements. Dogs, and the feline race, lap or scoop up water with their +tongues. The elephant draws it through his trunk, as through the hose of +an engine, while other quadrupeds plunge their mouths into a stream. +Some birds pump it up as by a sucking syringe, and others hoist it +mechanically in their bills—that is, in spoons attached to their heads. + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 3_ + + _Roman_ + + _Lith of E. Jones 128 Fulton S^t N.Y._ +] + +There is, then, a marked line of separation between man and other +inhabitants of the earth, in this—he fabricates for himself artificial +tools; they possess in their bodily organs natural ones. In other words, +he was intended to be, _par excellence_, a mechanic—an inventor and +maker of machines. Here we see the arts in their origin and design are +of God; being based on the deficiencies of our natural organs, and on +our capacities for devising substitutes. No truth shines so clear on +Nature’s page. Without arts, man could not, as an animal, exist; the +wolf, lion and bear would hunt him as their certain prey; but if none of +these prowled in forests, the simplest of his wants could not be +realized without implements of some form or other; he could neither +procure water from pits, nor fruit from trees—nothing beyond the reach +of his hands. He could have no beds to repose on, no clothes to cover +nor fire to warm him. He would be the most loathsome and helpless of +beings. THE ARTS make him what he is. Essential to animal life, they +also form the ladder by which alone he rises in the scale of +intelligence. They are the foundation of all his greatness; and while +the world endures, those people who cultivate them the most will be +found the most wealthy, powerful, and intelligent. + +Man has no natural appendage for carrying fluids to his lips. The +half-closed hand is at best a leaky and a poor substitute for a ladle or +spoon; consequently never made for either. With hot liquids, it is +wholly inapplicable. If the Creator, therefore, designed our species to +cook food and feed on warm fluids, he also designed us to invent ready +means of heating and convenient apparatus from which to receive them. +Let us see how this duty has, in part, been performed; for the history +of the spoon, so far as it goes, is, as well as that of the caldron, the +history of man. + +There are two views in which the origin of the implement may be +considered: 1st, as a convenient device for taking a mouthful of hot +fluids; 2d, its like employment for cold ones. Though now often used +with food at natural temperatures, the spoon proper was not invented +till victuals were boiled. It is a genuine descendant of the caldron: +but comes more directly from the ladle. Another member of the family may +here be mentioned—the basin or bowl—for the spoon is to the latter what +the ladle is to the kettle or pot. The spoon is known in some countries +as the bowl-spoon, and the ladle as the pot-spoon—‘_cuiller à pot_.’ + +These cognate companions are so proverbially fond of each other’s +company that wherever one is, the others are sure not to be far off. +When one is mentioned, the rest are implied—a fact of material benefit +to us in pursuing the subject. Thus, when the servant of Elisha put on +the great pot, as directed, ‘and poured out the pottage for the young +men to eat,’ we are as certain he furnished each with a spoon, as if the +fact had been particularly detailed. The order of precedency, then, +according to seniority or birth-right, stands thus: the kettle, the +ladle, the bowl, and the spoon. + +Is it asked—When was the first pottage made? We cannot tell. All similar +questions bring antiquarians and historians to a stand, and for the +simple reason, the annals of the early ages are lost—or rather, were +never written. If we look back three thousand years—and what are thirty +centuries in this planet’s history?—we find little else than monstrous +fables, puerile legends, and incredible traditions, in which scarcely a +ray of truth can be perceived. The early history of man is a blank; that +of succeeding ages, a chaos. The mythologic or legendary lore of +antiquity is of the same character as modern barbarians give of their +ancestors and country, and about the same reliance may be placed on one +as on the other. All savages are ignorant of their origin as a people, +and on the same subject enlightened nations are little better informed. + +Take what is called ancient history, and what is it but a few isolated +scraps relating to minute portions of the earth, and, comparatively +speaking, extending back but to yesterday? What men were doing +elsewhere, absolutely nothing is known—there is not a whisper about +them. Unheard of nations have agitated the surface of this planet, have +been tossed to and fro by political and civil commotions, and have sunk +into the fathomless depths of the past. Of them, neither we nor all who +come after us can learn anything. In fact, we are wholly ignorant of the +early adventures of our species. Oblivion has swept away all memorials +of the first races of men, while the arenas of their exploits are, for +aught we know, covered by the ocean. + +If the first chapters of Genesis are to be taken in their literal sense, +and the first pair of Moses for the original progenitors of mankind, +(_i. e._ not of a race only, as some writers suppose,) spoons may be +dated from the epoch of Adam. They are certainly coeval with soup, and +soup with the boiling of liquids. ’Tis true the idea of flesh meats not +having been used in Adam’s time is commonly entertained, notwithstanding +animals were offered in sacrifices, their skins used as clothes, and the +strange fact of his second son being a breeder of cattle, (strange, +indeed, if vegetable food, only was used); but we are fully persuaded +the old gentleman, at least during the latter part of his life, ate +venison with a relish equal to Isaac’s, and conveyed pottage to his +mouth with a spoon, in the manner of Esau. Meat broth was a favorite +dish with the patriarchs, and there is little reason to suppose +antediluvian farmers and keepers of sheep were not as fond of it as +Abraham, Jacob, or Job, or those who in later times prepared soup for +the ‘sons of the prophets.’ + +The same instinct which leads man to seek food leads him to cook it; +that which induces him to quench his thirst suggests the means of +carrying fluids to his lips. Every close observer knows that the +primitive contrivances of men were counterparts of Nature’s. In all he +received the first hint from her, while in many she supplied him with +the object he wanted ready formed, or nearly so, to his hands. This +might have been expected _à priori_; for, as an ignorant pupil, placed +in her school, it was necessary that he should have examples to +imitate—patterns to copy. Without these, what could he have done or +known? He might have felt wants, but could not tell how to remove them. +If natural objects had not, like types, impressed their images on his +mind, and their adaptation to various purposes become obvious to his +senses, a knowledge of the properties of matter, of the principles of +fusing, forging, modeling and carving it, and the influence of _figure_ +in its modifications, would have been slowly acquired, if acquired at +all. The development of the intellect depends on external things; +without these the mind would be a receptacle of dark and shapeless +visions—a chaos. If innate ideas existed, they would have been useless, +for they could have no relation to physical creation unless derived from +it. + +It would be a curious speculation to inquire what might have been the +forms of the current productions of our workshops, if the Creator had +molded every object after one figure. Could the human mind have produced +the exquisite goblets and vases of Greece and Etruria, if beauty in +these and endless other shapes had not been displayed in the vegetable +kingdom? Where would have been the stately column, the wreathed shaft, +Corinthian capital, and their appendages? And but for mineral and marine +productions, could the primitive savage have developed the implements +upon which his existence depended—tools, the parents of those on which +the happiness of civilized society rests? We believe he could no more +have invented the bow or sling than the musket—the spoon than the +smokejack. + +In utensils adapted for culinary purposes, nature is lavish of her +gifts. Vessels of capacity, from a mug to a barrel, she supplies in +abundance; leaving man simply to determine the uses to which to put +them. Pitchers, pipkins, ladles, buckets, plates, &c. of all sizes, are +derived from the vegetable world—from husks of cocoa-nuts, joints of +bamboo, from the calabash and other varieties of the gourd. In the East +Indies, says Dampier, ‘cups, dishes, ladles, spoons, and in a manner all +eating and drinking vessels, are made from the shell of the cocoa-nut.’ +Marine shells are distinguished by naturalists, from their resemblance +to artificial devices. One genera is named Patella, from their likeness +to a _dish_; another is known as the _Dippers_. Of species, there is the +Haustrum or _Bucket_, Urceus the _Pitcher_, Trocus the _Cup_, &c. Others +are named after the _Razor_, _Rasp_, _Lancet_, _Awl_, _Bell_, _Bodkin_, +_Needle_, &c. [_See Wood’s Catalogue, Lon. 1828._] + +The first spoons were all natural ones. A large class of prototypes were +shells of the limpit, (a univalve) those of the cockle, muscle, clam, +and similar bivalvular inhabitants of salt and fresh waters. They are so +obviously adapted to convey small quantities of liquids to the mouth, so +numerous and accessible, so neat and cleanly, that people in all ages +have used them for such purposes. [_See Plate I._] The choicest liquors +of the old Picts and Scots were served in cockle shells; hence, +“rejoicing in the shell,” was a term with them equivalent to modern +expressions respecting the glass. Till recently Highlanders drank +whiskey in the same way, holding the shell with the thumb on the thick +part. Of late years, natural shells have given place to artificial ones. +[_See Scottish Gael, 349._] Pearls were formerly found in fresh-water +muscles of the River Ban, in Ulster, Ireland. The shells, says an old +gazetteer, “are used by the poor as spoons.” + +People now sip tea with a spoon to which the name of the decoction has +been given; but formerly northern ladies took it from the same kind of +vessels as their lords used for usquebaugh. Scott has an allusion to the +practice in ‘St. Ronan’s Well’—the old nabob ungallantly describes the +ladies as sipping catlap out of cockle shells. + +An interesting question, could it be answered, is here suggested: Under +what circumstances were shells originally used for artificial purposes? +Perhaps not till the ocean had been seen by human eyes; but no one has +told us where, nor at what epoch, this took place, nor who the +individuals were. In fact, we are ignorant of the physical condition of +the earth at the time, and of the location of the progenitors of our +race with regard to the sea. Ages may have elapsed ere the grand +terrestrial reservoir was made known. Who can imagine the feelings of +those who first approached the coast, and their amazement when they +reached it! How intent they gazed upon the rising and receding waves, +and marvelled at the breakers—at the roaring surf, as it rushed in foam +towards them! But when their emotions had somewhat subsided, with what +rapture did they bound along the white and glistening shore, and seize +the strangely formed and variously colored objects! With what volubility +did they descant upon them, and the uses to which to apply them! And how +gladly were these primeval travellers hailed on returning to their +homes, laden with knives, saws, cups, spoons, and other natural +utensils! Immense treasures must have adorned the virgin borders of the +oceanic basin at the birth of man. Shells of every shape, and size, and +hue, accumulated through unknown periods, had laid undisturbed until our +species came. + +Shells have been incorporated with the arts. Vessels for a thousand +purposes are modeled and decorated after them. Some are perfect spoons, +including the handles. [_See Plate I._] Such are used where they abound, +and of course were much more in demand in early times. When a muscle, +cockle, or similar shell, was required for scooping up heated fluids, an +artificial handle was necessary, to avoid scalding the fingers: now, of +what material were the handles, and in what manner were they attached to +the bowls? These questions may appear unanswerable, but we think we can +solve them as certainly as if we had lived among the first spoon-users: +Man, under the same circumstances, always adopts the same or similar +devices. This is a general—a universal truth. It is the result of a +species of instinct, invariable in its impulses as in the lower tribes; +and hence, we are sure the original mode of putting handles to limpit, +cockle, and clam shells, was identical with that now practiced by +African negroes, American Indians, Arabs, Malays, and mountaineers, viz. +by forcing the split-end of a short stick over the edge, as represented +in the plate. Shells of the cockle and soft clam thus make capital +spoons, and fastidious indeed must he be who cannot relish his food from +them. + +Such contrivances are common to man—made patent from the beginning, and +repeated in every age and clime. In them the origin of many useful arts +and devices may be traced. They are among the ‘early lessons,’ the ‘easy +problems,’ printed by nature in her horn-book for mechanics; and simple +as they are, they offer delightful matter for reflection on the process +by which man was led, step by step, to explore and beneficially employ +the wonderful sources of pleasure and wealth placed at his disposal—in +other words, to accomplish his destiny here. + +Civilized parties of pleasure, when thrown upon their own resources to +prepare food on the beach, or inland, &c. insensibly copy the devices of +untutored children of the forests—making spoons of shells, forks and +flesh-hooks out of pointed sticks, knives of flint or sharp-edged +shells, and handling hot coals with tongs formed of a couple of twigs. +By placing ourselves in such situations, we can study our species in +times of which no record remains, and perceive how invention began and +progressed. A sketch of an Indian “chowder party,” to illustrate more +fully the use of shell spoons, was prepared, but subsequent arrangements +required its exclusion and our lucubrations with it. + +Perhaps no recreation, for people whose lives are spent in cities, is so +beneficial as occasional fishing trips to the sea. The fresh air, the +new feelings which floating on water gives rise to, the excitement +produced by sly fish nibbling, the palpitation consequent on ravenous +bites, and the fluttering at heart when the biter is fairly hooked, &c. +salutarily agitate both body and mind. The appetite created by the sea +breeze and the exercise—the hoisting of the anchor and sailing to the +shore to cook what is caught—one preparing the pot; another gathering +fuel; a third, head cook; and a fourth converting shells into spoons, +&c.—is real enjoyment. On such occasions the blessings of life are felt, +uncontaminated with drawing-room rules and parlor distinctions. + +To persons dwelling far inland, a visit once in their lives to the ocean +constitutes an epoch in their existence, and a never-failing theme of +grateful recollection and discourse. If such do not now wear scallop +shells in their hats as emblems of having had a glimpse of the wonders +of the deep, they retain vivid impressions of the scene in their heads. +The adventure forms a pleasing reminiscence—its history a little romance +and the gem of fire-side tales. + +Much learning has been expended on the cockle as a badge of pilgrims in +the middle ages. Worn in the hat, it indicated that the wearer had +visited the shores of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. But it was an +emblem of Astarte, the famous Syrian goddess. Possibly its symbolical +application originated from its primitive use as a spoon, and as such, +carried about the person. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + _Other natural Spoons—Debris of Animals—Horns—Ancient uses of + them—Horn Spoons—The Earth given to Mechanics—Indian + Spoons—Laplanders—Custom at Highland + Christenings—Horners—Proverbs—Ivory—Wood, and its importance to + Man—Wooden Spoons—Invention scarcely a human attribute—Wooden Spoons + from Africa and Oceanica—American Indian Spoon._ + + +Another class of natural spoons was, and still is, derived from the +animal kingdom; from _horns_ of goats, sheep, the bison, buffalo, ox, +&c. Animals are the oldest occupants of this planet, and man the +youngest. Their previous existence through countless ages was necessary +to prepare the earth for his reception; to impart to it a suitable soil +for the growth of grain and every kind of vegetable food—to put it into +a condition, that when he appeared, he might become “a tiller of the +ground.” Having done this, unknown multitudes retired forever from the +scene: probably the changed condition of the earth was no longer fitted +for their continuance. + +Bones, horns, and other organic debris must have been exceedingly +numerous at the birth of our species. Scattered on mountains, strewed +over prairies and forests, they were met with every where, for ere man +appeared they lay unmolested till dissolved by the elements. At first, +they would be viewed as mementos of death—curious relics of beings which +had careered in life, and had laid down and died. Strange must have been +the remarks made on them, singular the reflections they suggested. But +when time and familiarity with them overcame a natural repugnance to +handle such relics of mortality, the properties of buffalo and other +horns would become obvious, and eventually implements and utensils be +formed of them. The ancients had altars built wholly of horns, and +Plutarch (in Theseus) mentions one formed of “_left-sided_ horns.” + +Horns were the first trumpets: perhaps the first musical instruments, of +which some are still named after them, as the French-horn, bugle-horn, +&c. Primeval cups were natural horns. The Greeks, Romans, Celts, and all +the people of antiquity drank out of such. To ‘take a horn’ was, and +still is, an expression equivalent to quenching the thirst. Tumblers and +other drinking vessels are yet occasionally called horns. Bows were +anciently made of horn, and archers wore ferules of the same material on +their thumbs. Ink-_horns_ have been used since writing was practiced, +while combs, pins, needles, lanterns, knife-hafts, and spoons, &c., have +been formed of the substance since such things were invented. As with +other materials, its adaptation for one purpose quickly suggested its +appropriation to another. + +Little art was required to cut or carve spoons out of horn. The +substance is soft, and by holding it to the fire, or immersing it in +warm water becomes more so, and susceptible of being bent into any +position or receiving any impression. From its plastic properties, it +was well calculated for man to practice on in the beginning of his +apprenticeship to the arts. The lessons he learned by it prepared him to +undertake less pliant materials, as bone, ivory, wood, metals, &c. Every +advantage gained from one acted as a stimulus to proceed to others. In +this way the useful professions began and progressed till they became +what they are at this day. + +Horn spoons are small matters, but their material was the first animal +substance employed in the fabrication of implements, and they themselves +were among the first things made of it. When it is remembered that man’s +existence and improvement through all time was to depend on the +development of his character as a mechanic; that this was to be his +distinguishing attribute, one in which he approaches the nearest to the +Creator—for what are the useful and ornamental arts but sources of +physical and mental refinement, and what the universe but tangible, +beneficent mechanism—it certainly is not useless to recur to those early +lessons which contributed to form that character. + +If the earth was given into the charge of one class of men more than +others, it was to intelligent artisans—a term including farmers—they +support all. Without them no other class could exist, and nature would +resume the phase she wore before our species came. If our first parents +were located, as generally imagined, at a distance from the sea, horn +spoons were probably in use before those made of shells. Dispersed over +the earth wherever animals roamed, horns were always at hand, and no +doubt were often used in their natural forms, as exhibited in _Figures +1, 2, 3, Plate I_, or with slight alterations. The _Figures_ marked _4_ +and _5_ are American Indian spoons, in the Philadelphia Museum. They are +made of buffalo horns, but present nothing remarkable. The first is +plain and about seven inches long. The other is much the same in size; +the end of the handle being the natural termination of the horn, which +was probably that of a cow or calf. The horns of the buffalo cow are +much smaller than those of the bull. The bowls of both implements are +shallow. Northern Indians have spoons, which hold several quarts, +obtained from the animal named _Gros Corne_, or “Big Horn.” In +travelling they scoop up water with them to quench their own thirst and +that of their dogs, which drag their sledges or carry their packs. Pliny +(xi. 37,) mentions barbarians of the north drinking out of buffalo horns +which contained several gallons, and were probably used as with our +Indians, for buckets, scoops and spoons. + +The natives of Nootka Sound prepare a species of broth by putting flesh +of the dolphin in a square wooden trough containing water. Heated stones +are then thrown in, by means of cleft sticks, till the meat be +sufficiently stewed. They sup the broth “with a large spoon or scoop, +made of horn.” [_Cook’s Voyages._] The Greenlanders boil meat in wooden +dishes of fir wood, and “drink the soup or eat it with spoons made of +horn or wood.” In the regions of Behring’s Straits flesh is stewed in +cylindrical caldrons, formed of the rind of the birch, the only tree +that withstands the rigor of arctic winters. The liquid is heated by +stones, and the decoction supped with “large horn spoons.” + +Laplanders carry a little bag hanging over the breast. Divided into two +compartments, it contains in one tobacco and a pipe, a tinder-box and a +spoon in the other. Some of the rich possess two or three pewter dishes +and a few silver spoons, but the general household furniture consists of +a brass or copper kettle, often a stone one, wooden bowls of birch wood, +a basket, “and horn spoons.” Infants are fed with milk through a small +opening made in the end of a horn. The flesh of the rein-deer is the +principal food, and generally boiled: it is previously cut into small +pieces, which, when eaten, are dipped into liquid fat and “washed down +by a ladleful of broth taken occasionally during the repast.” + +An old account of the Scotch Highlanders states that when a child was +christened, it was put in a basket along with bread and cheese, and +handed across the fire or suspended on the pot-hook or trammel! +Immediately afterwards a dish of “crowdie” (a mixture of oatmeal and hot +water) was handed round, and each person present “took three horn +spoonfuls.” This was designed to counteract the power of evil spirits +and witches! The custom of passing the child over a fire is analogous to +one common in China. When a bride first reaches the residence of her +husband, she is lifted by matrons over a brazier of charcoal. Horn +spoons were considered in old times as “the meetest instruments to eat +furmenty and porage withall.” [_Nichol’s Progresses of Elizabeth._] + +The working of horn is one of the old professions descended to us +through the Romans. Pliny enumerates a variety of uses to which the +material was put in his time; one was inlaid work, for which purpose it +was stained with different colors. It was also, he says, much used for +lanterns, being “cut into thin plates:” (xi. 37.) In the early acts +passed by the English Parliament for the protection of trades and +handicrafts, ‘horners’ are often mentioned. At their solicitation the +importation of ‘horns for lanthorns’ was expressly forbidden by an act +of Rich. II. A.D. 1480. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, speaks of +the exportation of horns being prohibited for the benefit of two +insignificant trades—that of the _horner_ and comb-maker. + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 4_ _Middle Ages_ + + _Lith. of E. Jones 128 Fulton S^t. N.Y._ +] + +The antiquity of proverbs goes back to the infancy of our race. One of +the oldest extant, though only occasionally now met with, may here be +mentioned, as it shows how common horn spoons at one time were. ‘_To +make a spoon or spoil a horn_’ was an ancient mode of expressing a +determination to accomplish an object at whatever risk or however +thwarted. The incident on which it is based must have been constantly +occurring in primitive times, and to some extent it occurs in all times. +In attempting to make a spoon, the horn was often frittered away by +bunglers, until sufficient material was not left for the smallest +object. A farmer selected a log of timber to make a gate, but he sawed, +chopped, and planed, until what barely sufficed for a rail was +left—hence the saying, ‘To spoil a tree or make a rail.’ Spaniards have +the idea in another form: they say, in shaping the skirts of a gown, the +material was cut down to a sleeve—cloth for a coat to a cuff. The Romans +took the maxim from a potter, who, undertaking to make an enormous jar, +turned out a small saucer. + +The leisure incident to rural and pastoral life elicited the art of +carving—one of the earliest of human arts, and what can be said of few, +one that has been practiced in considerable perfection by most savages. +It necessarily developed the peculiar properties of solid materials, and +in so doing, must have originated many inventions. It is the most +prominent mechanical profession mentioned in the Old Testament, and was +carried to a wonderful extent by people of old. After horn, _bone_ and +_ivory_ were used for personal ornaments and useful implements in the +first ages; for pins, knives, spoons, and a hundred other matters. + +Ivory formed a large item in the commerce of Tyre. (Ezek. xxvii.) +Solomon imported it from India. We read in both sacred and profane +authors of beds, thrones, and even houses built of it. It seems to have +been as much used for _spoons_ as it is at this day. Some ancient +Egyptian ones will be shortly noticed. The famous Curule chairs were + + Wrought from those valued tusks Syene lends, + Which the swart Moor, or swarthier Indian sends + From Nabath’s forest, where the unwieldly beast + Drops his huge burden of its weight released. + [_Juvenal_, xi. _Sat._—_Badham._] + +A material difference in the properties of horn and ivory must quickly +have been seen by the patriarchs of the arts. The former softened by +heat, retains when cold, impressions stamped on it; but the latter and +bone must be carved in detail. Spoons formed of marine shells are not +used by all people, but those of bone, ivory, or horn, are everywhere +met with. + +How beneficial to men have the horns, &c., of quadrupeds been. More +durable than the rest of their bodies, and possessing peculiar +properties, they would seem to have been ordained as a material for +useful manufactures. We forget half the obligations we owe the lower +tribes, when we forget the numberless uses to which their skins, hair, +bones, &c., are put. + +Another substance of primitive spoons was _wood_. + +The earth, as one of Nature’s workshops, is stored with every kind of +stock its occupants can require. It is the same throughout the Universe; +for all physical beings are artisans, and every orb an _atelier_ in +which they are at work. The proprietor of these wonderful establishments +employs, we may presume, in each a distinct order of intelligent +laborers, and supplies them with materials adapted to their capacities +and wants. Compared with the magnitude of others, this globe is one of +the Creator’s minor establishments, and we, in whose charge it is +placed, may be among the least intellectual and skillful of his +artificers. When first man took possession, the development of his +energies, and the direction given them depended upon the natural +productions around him. These necessarily arrested his attention, +excited his curiosity, and became identified with his existence, his +habits, thoughts and pursuits. + +Of terrene substances, none has exercised a greater influence over human +destiny than _wood_. None is more indispensable—hence we find it +diffused over all lands. Its consumption is enormously large, and as an +indication that it was designed to be so, provision is made, in the +reproductive powers of plants and trees, to secure a supply for all +generations. Without wood, man had probably never used fire, nor known +what artificial light and heat meant. He would have been a troglodyte. +The metals had not been worked: for want of fuel ores had not been +reduced. Wood is the basis of the arts, savage or refined. It is the key +which first unlocked the agricultural and mineral treasures stored away +in the vaults of this terrestrial factory. No substance is more +extensively used, and few, if any, possess so rich a variety of +qualities, or have been applied to such a multitude of purposes. +Essential in the construction of the palace as the hut; the primitive +bridge as well as ship or canoe; the great agent of domestic +conveniences to rich and poor; it constitutes the elaborate furniture of +the one and the homeliest utensil of the other—_the spoon_. + +Unlike those made of vegetable, of horn, or marine shells, every feature +of wooden spoons is brought out by art. Still they can hardly be deemed +a human _invention_, since they are but imitations (in another material) +of natural types. Indeed, so far as relates to _figure_ man has little +claim to originality—it is not in his power to produce a purely new +form—all that he has done or can do is to copy, modify, combine and +apply those which nature has given. Every artificial object, no matter +how irregular or uniform its contour, is a proof of this—the stately +column or elaborate capital, an ordinary goblet, a pipkin, a pyramid, or +a spoon. + +As regards natural utensils, little mental effort was required to +determine or extend their application. Their fitness for certain +purposes—as shells for cups, scoops, and spoons; gourds for buckets, +bottles, vases, ladles, caldrons, &c.—was so obvious that they were +adopted at once; and when artificial ones were introduced, they only so +far deviated in figure and dimensions as change of circumstances +suggested. All our vessels of capacity retain a resemblance to their +originals—art may disguise the likeness, but cannot obliterate it. +Invention in its strictest sense is applicable only to God—with man it +merely signifies imitation and combination—all his works are reducible +to these, and he can never exhaust them. + +We have no accounts of wooden spoons in very remote times. History +descends not to such things, and no important fact is recorded with +which they were associated. But what could history have told us about +them which we do not know? We are sure they bore a general resemblance +to those now made, were applied to the same uses, and fabricated, +chiefly, by the same class of men. Specimens of Egyptian and Roman ones +are extant, but before referring to them we shall notice a few produced +by modern barbarians, to serve as samples of those made by uncivilized +man in the first ages. In mechanical devices, in tools, modes of +operating, taste for, and style of ornament, the untutored child of +nature is ever the same. + +_Figures 6_ and _7_, _Plate I_, are African wooden spoons. The first is +from _Tome V._ page 188, of _Histoire Générale des Voyages, Hague, +1748_. It is represented along with jewelry, furniture, pots, knives, +&c. made by negroes on the western coast of Africa. + +_Figures 8_ and _9_ are from the Fejee Islands, They are made of a light +wood resembling beech, and are as neatly finished as the ordinary wooden +spoon of civilized countries. The bowls are nearly circular and 2½ +inches over—the handles 6½ and 7 inches long. Both are ornamented, but +_Fig. 9_ the most. The front and back part of the handle are stained of +a dark brown color—the effect of scorching the surface by drawing a hot +stone or other smooth body over it. Waving, dotted, and other lines of a +light color are then produced by cutting through the dark surface—a +species of ornament affording room for great variety of patterns, and +skill in working them out. + +_Fig. 10._ Another spoon from the South Sea Islands, and preserved in +the Philadelphia Museum. The bowl is round; the handle of a peculiar +form, and not inelegant. The ornamental spots, at the lower part, are +openings cut entirely through—a feature common in Persian spoons. The +entire length is about six inches. + +_Fig. 11._ A very neatly made spoon, deviating considerably from ours +both in the bowl and handle. The former is oblong, pear-shaped, and 3½ +inches in length; the latter, attached to the smaller end, is an inch +longer. This spoon is of sandal wood. Both it and _Figs. 8_ and _9_ are +from Dr. Chilton’s cabinet, New-York. + +_Fig. 12._ A singular specimen of American Indian spoons in the +Philadelphia Museum. It is of a dark colored wood, and about eight +inches in length. The handle terminates in a wolf’s head, upon which +stands a human figure with a high cap, in a bent position, and with the +arms raised in front of the breast, somewhat as in the attitude of +prayer. It has been supposed that the natural form of the root or branch +of which the spoon was made, suggested the figures. This may have been +true; but there is a beautiful moral in the characters given them, +whether intended or not. The animal, whose head is here carved, is the +universal emblem of hunger. To ‘keep the wolf from the door,’ is to keep +famine from a house. Now, no people on earth are more familiar with the +literal and metaphorical wolf than the Indians of North America, and +none are more accustomed to invoke the ‘Great Spirit’ for power to keep +them at bay. What device, then, more expressive, and, of all things in +the world, more appropriate for a _spoon_, than a man praying for bread +on the head of a wolf! The idea is in character with the symbolic +imagery of the aborigines, and we question if a more comprehensive and +beautiful one can be drawn from the works of classical artists. + +The few spoons on _Plate I._ are, of course, mere specimens. Savages are +known to vary their forms, proportions, and ornaments, as much almost as +educated artists. In some respects they display a tact and resource +which enlightened mechanics would hardly think of. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + _Spoons unknown in Polynesia—People of Guinea at Dinner—Spoons of the + Peruvians and Astecs—Caldron and Spoon indigenous to Northern + Climes—Hot Fluids and Ultra Dietists—Warm Drinks sold in + Pompeii—Chinese Opinion—Natural Aliment of the Esquimaux—A Fuegian + eating Fresh Fish—Cooking—Original Sin—Sacrifices—Athenian Boiling + Feast—Anglo-Saxons—Unsavory Superstitions—Persians—Guatamalian + Kitchen—Tartar Cookery—Laplanders—Greenlanders—Cosmetics and Domestic + Economy in the Polar Regions._ + + +It should be remarked that, notwithstanding the preceding specimens of +spoons from the South Seas, there is no question of the implements being +in many parts of Oceanica a modern innovation. In the Sandwich and other +islands of Polynesia they were unknown till introduced by whalemen or +national navigators. The inhabitants did not use them, because they had +no use for them. They had no idea of heating liquids, and no vessels +(except a small wooden bowl) in which to heat them. It was the same with +most if not all the people of Australasia. Their cookery was confined to +roasting and baking. Rutherford says the New Zealanders never drank any +thing hot or warm. Their only vessel for holding water was the calabash +which they never dreamt of turning to a boiler or skillet. + +Some African tribes use the spoon, but many do not; yet all are +acquainted with the process of making pottage. Villault, speaking of +Negroes on the coast of Guinea, says: ‘Ils mangent avec beaucoup de mal +propreté. Leurs ongles leur servent de couteau; et n’ayant ni +fourchettes ni cuillers: ils se lancent avec les doigts chaque morceau +dans le gozier. On les voit porter tous ensemble la main au plat, et +prendre leurs ragouts a poignées.’ [_Histoire Générale, Tome V._ 197.] +To take up solid and even semifluid food (as boiled rice) with the +fingers, is of great antiquity. The custom prevails universally in the +Eastern world, except China; but this is not owing to ignorance of the +spoon, either with Africans or Asiatics. If neither use the implement in +eating rice, it invariably assists them to cook that great pabulum of +life. + +Perhaps it may be doubted whether the aborigines of America had the +spoon previous to the arrival of white people: most of them certainly +had. Here, as in other parts of the earth, wherever the caldron was +known, spoons were in use. The Peruvians had them of silver and gold; so +had the Mexicans. The Astecs, in their feasts, ablutions, and table +furniture, approached in many respects to Asiatic customs. They kept +meats warm with chafing dishes. The tables of the wealthy were +ornamented with vases of silver and sometimes of gold; ‘their drinking +cups and _spoons_ were of the same costly materials.’ Montezuma took no +other beverage than chocolate flavored with vanilla and other spices, so +prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which +gradually dissolved in the mouth. This beverage, if so it could be +called, was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the same metal, or +of tortoise-shell, finely wrought.’ [_Prescott’s Mexico._] + +But the less refined people, of both continents were found in possession +of the caldron and spoon. The brutalized Brazilians boiled victuals in +earthen vessels, and used knives of flint and spoons of wood and horn. +[_See Lafitau’s Mœurs des Sauvages, Tome I._ 572, _Plate 19_, and _Tome +II._ 114.] The Virginia Indians had clay pipkins of a very superior +quality, and wooden bowls, &c. of their own manufacture. [_Phil. Trans. +Abrid. III._ 572, and _IX._ 474.] The Mandans, a tribe now nearly +extinct, still fabricate earthen caldrons as their ancestors did. They +alone, of those occupying the Missouri valley, are believed to make +them. + +The boiler and spoon would seem to be indigenous and indispensable to +northern climes. The former, made sometimes of a skin, at other times of +wood, and the latter of horn, bone, &c. are used at this day, as they +ever have been since man first took possession of the arctic regions. A +few Indians about Hudson’s Bay purchase brass kettles at the factories, +but the greater part prepare their food in the large upright boilers of +birch already mentioned. When animal food is scarce, and it often is so, +they have no resource but to make pottage with a species of moss that +collects on stones. To render it palatable or nutritive boiling is +essential. + +The utility of hot fluids is a mooted point, but it is not our intention +to discuss it. If they are not natural to people in high latitudes, they +are to none, and the caldron and spoon, as vehicles for preparing and +receiving them, must be denounced as injurious devices. If heated +decoctions are violations of nature’s laws, warm or hot food of every +description must be deemed such, whether taken in sickness or in health; +but who, except the most ultra of dietists, will believe this—men that +not only reject animal food but every artificial preparation of +aliment—who insist that we should eat only raw fruit and unground grain, +and drink nothing. Of course, mills then should be abolished as +enervating inventions, preventing people from grinding their own grist +with their natural grinders. On the same principle, clothing, dwellings, +and fire might be dispensed with; for within the tropics people make +little use of the first, and not much of the second; while the Terra del +Fuegians can endure their severe climate apparently without the other. +Abandon the use of fire in cooking, and there would be little demand for +fuel even within the temperate zones. Probably three-fourths of the arts +connected with the working of metals are more or less allied to the +dining-room, kitchen, and toilet. + +Nearly every device characteristic of civilization might with equal +propriety be abolished; not trifling things only, as knives and forks, +in place of teeth and fingers; plates and dishes, for leaves and slabs +of slate; napkins, instead of wiping the mouth with the hand; but +articles of dress, as shoes, that supersede the thick and more elastic +soles which nature bestows on those who go barefoot; straw, beaver and +other fancy coverings for the head, when she is ready to furnish gratis +matted or felted caps to all who have no dealings with the hatter. + +Beneficial or not, the ancients had shops expressly fitted up for the +sale of hot drinks. Several _Thermopolia_ have been discovered in +Pompeii, with the urns in which the decoctions were made, and furnished +with metallic heaters and cocks, like our tea and coffee urns. The +Chinese (a pretty good authority as far as relates to antiquity of +customs connected with domestic life) drink all their beverages warm. +Cold liquids, even pure water, they say, engenders disease. Ice is +employed by them to cool meats and fruits, but not to refrigerate water. +[_Chinese Repos. III._ 464.] + +Animal diet and warm fluids may be dispensed with in some countries, but +not everywhere. It is as absurd to suppose that man can in civilized +society live in the manner of the savage, as that he could in all +climates exist on the same food. Under the influence of science and the +division of labor consequent upon an advanced state of the arts, the +physical as well as the mental constitution is changed, and a different +aliment required to sustain the one as well as the other. If the Creator +designed the arctic regions of our planet to be inhabited, he designed +man to sustain himself there on animal food, since, generally speaking, +no other is within his reach, and in some parts absolutely no other. +Besides food, the Esquimaux derive material for clothing, dwellings, +light and fuel from the whale, seal, and a few land animals. Olaus +Magnus, speaking of the wild people of the north in his time, says, +“they dwell in caves made of the bones and ribs of sea-monsters; they +live without bread, but only on fish and deer.” Pulse, grain, fruit or +roots are not to be had; but if they were actually produced by the soil +the natives could not live upon them there. + +With these people, then, the use of animal food cannot be wrong, nor the +cooking of it a crime. Indeed, so far as they are concerned the kettle +and spoon may be considered of divine origin; though like more valuable +gifts in more favored climes, these implements are too often neglected; +for the brutalized men and women of the north frequently feed, like the +bear, on raw flesh; while at the opposite extremity of the continent, +the Fuegian, on catching a fish, is in the habit of taking it by the +gills and instantly making a repast on the struggling victim—lowering +the tail into his mouth somewhat like a Neapolitan swallowing strings of +macaroni: thus literally obeying the injunctions of those reformers who +denounce “every species of cookery as polluting the food which the God +of our natures has provided for the sustenance of man.” + +So far as history goes, people without cooking have ever been savages, +and no refined nations ever eat their food raw. Individual and partial +exceptions may of course be found. Cato, the censor, seldom drank +anything but water, and often ate dinner prepared without fire. Epicurus +is slandered as a voluptuary, for his ordinary diet was bread and water, +pulse, milk and cheese. The cynics lived austerely, water being their +beverage, and the ground their bed. Diogenes, it is well known, lived +more like a brute than a gentleman: his manners too were allied to those +of a Hottentot. But some modern ascetics leave the most eccentric of the +ancients behind, for they reject not merely flesh meats, but bread, +salt, milk, and even water itself! contending that juices of fruits and +herbs yield fluid sufficient for the human system; and as animals bake +not nor boil, make neither puddings, porridge nor pies—they conclude +such things are superfluous to us: nay, some look on cooking as original +sin—as the very crime for which Adam and his consort were driven out of +Eden!—not satisfied with celestial food, it is said they began to +improve (_i. e._ to spoil) it by art, and were therefore expelled, that +they might carry their wicked devices elsewhere. Hence the nature of +their punishment, and why so large a portion was inflicted on Eve; she +being the original transgressor and the greater sinner of the two, just +as all her daughters, in the same respect, have been since; for where +food is spoiled by cooking, it is woman generally who still commits the +crime. + +Boiled meats have been common from the earliest periods which history +has noticed, and according to the scriptures, with divine approbation. +Sacrifices were so frequently boiled that capacious caldrons were +permanently erected near temples for the purpose. As the virtue of the +flesh was extracted by the soup, spoons must have been in as great +demand at Jewish and heathen festivals as knives, fleshforks, or any +other implement of the table. [_See Ewbank’s Hydraulics_, p. 392.] + +The Athenians had an annual boiling-feast, dating back to the times of +Theseus and the fabulous Minotaur. It was instituted, according to +Plutarch, to commemorate the return of the hero and his companions from +their perilous adventure at Crete, and arose from the fact of their +having made a species of olla-podrida the moment they got safe +ashore—mixing the remains of their provisions, “and boiling them in one +pot.” Theseus is supposed to have been contemporary with Gideon, and to +have flourished 1350 B. C. about 1400 years before his ancient +biographer. + +The Anglo-Saxon and contemporary people chiefly boiled their meat. Large +houses had “a boiling place for small meats and a boiling house for the +great boiler.” One resistless argument that nature designed men to +prepare food by fire is derived from the fact that some roots, upon +which large portions of mankind live, are positively noxious if eaten +without being cooked—the _potato_ is a sufficient example. In some parts +of the earth water for drinking requires to be boiled to render it +wholesome. Several ancient people besides the Persians found this +necessary. + +Most northern nations have been noticed for a want of cleanliness, +especially in cooking. The further northward we proceed, the less regard +for this virtue appears. It diminishes with degrees of longitude, and +within the arctic may be said to have vanished. But it is not confined +to one people or one continent. We shall conclude this chapter with a +few examples of unsavory superstitions, of which some have direct +reference to the ladle and spoon. Let not the reader who is particular +in his tastes turn sick at the manners of his species, for not many ages +have elapsed since his forefathers became freed from practices as filthy +and foolish as any about to be noticed. + +The polite and effeminate Persian grandee, so scrupulous in his +ablutions and personal purity, takes up his food with his hands, and +dreads to change his table cover. “On the ground before us,” observes +Mr. Morier, in describing a dinner given to the British embassy by the +governor of Bushire, “was spread the _sofra_, a fine chintz cloth, which +perfectly entrenched our legs, and which is used so long unchanged that +the accumulated fragments of former meals collect into a musty paste and +emit no very savory smell; but the Persians are content, for they say +that changing the sofra brings _ill luck_.” + +Irish women were formerly described as very “unmannerly [unwomanly] in +making butter,” because they held it extremely unlucky to wash their +milk-vessels! But the daughters of St. Patrick were not alone addicted +to this filthy superstition. In some parts of Scotland the same +prejudice to soap and water exists or did recently exist. It is +humorously referred to in the Cottages of Glenburnie: “‘Don’t you clean +the churn before you put in the cream?’ asked Mrs. Mason. ‘Na, na,’ +returned Mrs. McClarty; ‘that wadna be canny ye ken. Naebody hereabouts +wad clean their kirn for ony consideration. I never hard o’ sic a thing +in a’ my life!’” + +‘Dirt bodes luck’ is an old Scottish proverb. + +In the middle ages in Europe, candle-bearers in large houses were +allowed, among other perquisites, the broken meat which the _king_ or +_lords_ spilt on the floor from their plates! No wonder that kings’ +houses were then littered with straw like modern stables. + +Most travellers complain of South American cookery. Among others, Dunn, +in Guatamala, observes, “The whole of these messes were prepared under a +shed, in a large dirty yard, which served as a kitchen, and was full of +filth of all kinds. The knowledge of this, with the sight of the +servants had no tendency to quicken our appetites. The _spoons_, cups, +knives, and forks were of silver.” + +Bell, in passing through Tartary, in the suite of the ‘Russian +Embassador to Pekin,’ mentions a hospitable matron, whose cooking was +not quite to his taste. Entering a tent, the mistress immediately set to +work to make him and his companions some tea. After placing a large iron +kettle over the fire, she wiped it out with a horse’s tail which hung in +one corner of the tent. Then some water was put in, coarse bohea tea, +and a little salt. When near boiling, she took a large brass ladle and +tossed the tea till the liquid became quite brown. It was next taken off +the fire and poured into another vessel. The kettle was now again wiped +out with the same implement as before, and a paste, made of meal and +butter, put in and fried; some cream taken from a sheep-skin was added. +The tea previously made was poured in, and the whole beat together with +the ladle. After being allowed to cool, it was handed round in wooden +bowls. + +Maundeville, who 500 years before, seems to have passed through Tartary +on his way to or from China, says: “The Tartarienes han gret conscience, +and holden it for a gret synne to casten a knyf in the fuyr, and for to +drawe flessche out of a pot with a knyf.... Thei eten but littille bred, +but zif it be in the courtes of gretr Lordes. And thei han not in many +places nouther pesen ne benes, ne non other potages, but the brothe of +the flessche. For littille ete thei ony thing but flessche and the +brothe. And whan thei han eten, thei wypen hire hondes upon hire +skirtes; for thei usen non naperye ne towayelles, but zif it be before +grete Lordes.... And whan thei han eten, thei putten hire dissches +_vnwasschen_ in to the pot or cawdroun with remenant of the flessche and +of the brothe, til thei wole eten azen.” [_Travels_, _cap._ xxiii.] + +The cookery of the Laplanders is generally performed by men, and in the +dirtiest manner possibly. It is said “the dishes and spoons are seldom +washed, or at most, only by squirting water upon them from the mouth, +and rubbing them with their fingers!” A favorite dish is made by boiling +in a deer’s paunch a mixture of minced meat, blood, and fat; “but the +fat is previously chewed by the men and boys to prepare it for mixing +more intimately with the other ingredients!” [_Ed. Encyc. Arts. +Lapland—Hudson Bay._] + +With the Greenlanders, “the color and odor of the last dish are left to +remove those of a former one.” When a stranger is present, the woman of +the house takes a piece of meat from the kettle, _licks_ off the scum +and blood, and presents it to him in her hands. This is considered a +mark of respect—to decline on his part an insult! The inhabitants of the +Marquesas are still more polite: at San Christina it is considered an +act of civility to offer the food already chewed, to a friend, that he +may have no other trouble than that of swallowing it! Verily, there is +no accounting for tastes. The aboriginal women of Brazil prepared an +intoxicating drink by masticating manioc, and boiling the substance thus +reduced to a pulp. So the ladies of Otaheite made a beverage for their +lords by chewing yava and spitting the juice into a bowl, when it was +mixed with cocoa-nut liquor, and left to ferment. + +All the inhabitants of the polar regions resemble each other in their +manners and customs. Their bodies are coated with a varnish of dirt and +grease, the accumulation of years—the color of the surface beneath being +as effectually concealed as in articles covered with paint or japan. +With regard to the kitchen, Esquimaux dames would seem to bear off the +palm, since they cleanse every culinary utensil, the caldron as well as +the spoon, with their tongues; continuing the operation as long as a +particle of blubber remains. When Captain Parry bought a lamp of a +matron, the economical owner _licked_ it quite clean, devouring the soot +and oil with which it was covered, as forming no part of the bargain, +and too precious to be given away. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + _Antiquarian Value of Ancient Table Furniture—People of + Egypt—Specimens of their Spoons—Humorists—Other Spoons of Ivory, + Bronze and Wood—Salt and Salt-Cellar—Roast Goose in Egypt—Golden + Spoons of the Tabernacle and Temple—Simpula of Wood, Bronze and + Gilt—Reflections._ + + +Having given samples of primitive spoons formed of shells, horn, and +wood, we might proceed to the introduction of those made of pewter, +brass, iron, silver and other metals—of which some were undoubtedly made +in ages anterior to those of history; but all would be sheer conjecture. +The fortunes of the first races of men have not been recorded—much less +the adventures of their spoons. We shall therefore confine our future +observations chiefly to actual specimens, arranged in chronological +order and beginning with the oldest extant. + +It would have been an agreeable task to have traced a connection in the +table utensils of the famous nations of old—in those exported from Tyre, +and such as were produced in the silversmith shops of Persepolis or +Troy; but no pattern-card of Tyrian or Sidonian spoonmakers has reached +us, nor, any specimens placed on the sideboards of Priam or +Nebuchadnezzar. The blank might indeed be in a great measure filled by a +few from the neighborhood of Memphis and Thebes—such as old Egyptian +artists supplied their own and other countries with, when the useful and +ornamental arts flourished in the Nilotic valley. Such would have given +us an idea of prevailing tastes in the forms and decorations of the +implement. We could at a glance have compared them with our own, and +told in a moment whether Moses and Joshua, Nehemiah or Ezra—whether +Egyptian gentlemen or Jewish maidens took pottage with implements +fashioned like ours. How interesting would a sight of such spoons have +been! What would not lovers of antiquity give to behold them, or for +drawings and descriptions of them! Does the reader enter into the spirit +and feelings of such philosophers? Does he take pleasure in tracing the +characters of remote people in vestiges of their arts—ascertaining their +domestic manners in their culinary utensils, and the state of the useful +professions among them in products of their workshops? Well, spoons made +and used by the old inhabitants of Egypt _are_ in existence! The +assortment is limited, but it might have been less; and small as it is, +we are enabled to produce drawings of ‘a round dozen.’ + +What a wonderful people were these children of Ham! The greatest +benefactors of their race the world ever saw, they seem to have lived +only for posterity—to perpetuate the useful arts—to hand to their +successors their knowledge; and lest future physiologists should dispute +about their persons, they have come down themselves, and submitted their +bodies to our inspection—not in small numbers, but in millions! The +catacombs have for ages been quarried like coal mines for fuel, and are +yet said to contain more mummies than Egypt living men. How surpassing +strange is it, then, that we should have before us spoons used (perhaps) +three or four thousand years since, with the men and women they +nourished—the identical hands that handled them—the very mouths they +entered! What people but one ever did this much for posterity; and what +people will ever repeat it? Four thousand years hence (or even one +thousand) antiquarians, on referring to our days and our arts, might as +well search the soil for our souls as our bodies. + +Is the reader anxious to look on spoons made under the Ptolemies or +Pharaohs? Let him exercise a little patience, and, ere he casts his eyes +on the next illustration, think within himself what can they be like—of +what forms are the bowls—do they resemble shells—are all of one +shapes—how decorated, if decorated at all? Then the handles—are they +flat like modern ones, round or square, plain or carved? And of what +materials are these relics of ancient days? + +[Illustration: + + ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS. +] + +See! there is half a dozen—each of a different pattern, and of assorted +sizes, too; unless, as is most likely, the artist who copied them has +not drawn all to the same scale. The originals are in the British +Museum. Do not they, few as they are, present about as much variety as +every species of modern spoons? But if they do—if these stragglers, +picked up among tombs or ploughed out of the soil, exhibit such +fertility of design, what rich displays of the article must the shelves +of goldsmiths, hardware and fancy stores in Memphis, Thebes, and On have +afforded! + +[As we have unfortunately little or no specific information respecting +the originals of several of our illustrations, the reader will, we +presume, be better pleased with some reflections than with absolute +silence. It is awkward to introduce specimens without comment; hence, +where descriptive data are not within reach, we shall occasionally offer +such remarks, serious or otherwise, as the figures themselves may +suggest.] + +Not two of the bowls in the preceding spoons are alike; and as for the +handles, they are as different as they well could be. In _Fig. 1._ the +bowl represents a slightly scolloped shell, supported on the head of a +human figure, which serves as a handle, and whose feet rest on the +capital of a column. The handle is short compared to the size of the +bowl, (a remark applicable to others,) but it was no doubt proportioned +to the particular purpose for which such spoons were made. The pattern +seems to have been borrowed from architecture; but there is something +bizarre in making Atlantes bear spoons instead of entablatures or domes +of temples. The Egyptians were great humorists, and freely indulged in +burlesque. If we could suppose a joke was intended in the design, the +figure might be taken for a caricature of Atlas or Hercules bearing the +celestial or terrestrial sphere, as an intimation that the spoon was all +the world to gastronomes, its effects a heavy burden fat men groaned +under, and its pleasures their highest delight. In this respect the +figure is not an inapt representation of some people’s achievements in +life. + +In _Fig. 2._ the handle appears as if turned in a lathe: where it joins +the bowl it assumes the form of the lotus flower, out of whose leaves +the bowl like a ripe fruit is seen to rise. The shape of the bowl is +precisely like that of ours, viz: a longitudinal segment of an egg +shell. + +_Fig. 3._ is of wood, and very unlike a modern one in shape, unless +compared to a marrow spoon. The bowl resembles the cartouche or royal +oval, in which the names of the kings of Egypt are inscribed in +hieroglyphics on the monuments. It obviously could only have raised +fluid matter from shallow dishes or plates. The ornaments may be +arbitrary, but we should rather suppose they had an allegorical meaning. +The ibex or gazelle, an animal which supplied the chief material for +broth; and the fish, with sprigs of parsley or other herbs, in their +mouths, as if ready for the table, were certainly not inappropriate +decorations of an implement employed in transmitting portions of these +victims to the human palate. + +_Fig. 4._—a bronze spoon, and more nearly resembling the modern one than +any of the preceding. The shank is made to represent the human hand and +arm—a copy of the _first_ spoon handles, when cockle and muscle shells +only were in use. Perhaps there is an allusion to that custom in this +ancient implement; but the artist did not forget to introduce a victim +of the caldron or spit: he has made the handle terminate with the head +of a goose, a bird in much repute with the Apician literati of Egypt, +and as such often figured on spoons. + +_Fig. 5._ Here we have a spoon representing a fish swimming into a +kettle, as if anxious to be macerated and served up at table. The +material is wood, and the bowl circular. One part of the fish is made to +turn on a pin near the tail, so as to expose a small cavity or box in +the thick part of the body. This was probably a sportman’s or +traveller’s portable spoon, and the cavity occupied with salt or other +condiment—a feature of some interest, since it shows us that ingenuity +in such matters dates back to remote periods. In _Plate V._ is a spoon +with a concealed toothpick, an instrument more appropriate to a knife or +fork. The Egyptian artist adhered more closely to propriety in +introducing a receptacle for seasoning, especially in an utensil +employed only with fluid aliments. + +_Fig. 6._ is the plainest of the whole, but not devoid of ornament: the +handle, which is long and stout, having one extremity carved into a +horse’s head, and the other a projecting piece or shoulder that unites +it to the bowl. + +Another group, taken from Wilkinson’s ‘_Manners and Customs of the +Ancient Egyptians_,’ will be found on the following page. + +_Fig. 1._ is of ivory, about four inches long, and preserved in the +Public Museum at Berlin. It was discovered at Thebes along with a deep +stand or chest containing a number of small jars or bottles—supposed to +have been part of the stock of an apothecary, or to have belonged to the +toilet of a Theban beauty. The style of the handle of this spoon is +unique, and independent of the carved head, displays much taste. + +[Illustration: + + ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS. +] + +The implement itself is not unlike some of our small spoons—possibly it +belonged to an ancient salt-cellar. Salt, it will be remembered, was +used at table in remote antiquity just as it is at this day, and several +superstitions were associated with it. Omens drawn from spilling it, +observes Fosbroke, are equally antique with its use. The salt-cellar was +placed on the table with the first dish containing offerings to the +Gods. Its presence was supposed to sanctify the food, and great +importance was attached to keeping it bright and clean. Fabricius, the +conqueror of Pyrrhus, was distinguished for the simplicity of his +manners: history informs us that a small salt-cellar, with horn feet, +was the only article of silver in his house. + +_Fig. 2._—of bronze, eight inches long, and with a flat handle; perhaps +the common table-spoon of the people, occupying the place of the modern +iron or pewter one. The form of the bowl is very like that of wooden and +pewter spoons of the last century. Here we have the head of the goose +again, one of the favorite, though certainly not most healthy viands of +both priests and people. The occupants of the temples, says Herodotus, +were not obliged to live on their private means, but each individual had +sacred victuals ready dressed assigned him, and in addition a daily +allowance of beef and _goose_, (ii. 37.) In the tombs near the pyramids +are representations of dinner parties, at which the goose figures as a +prominent dish. Other scenes exhibit Egyptian cookery in detail, where +the victim is undergoing the various operations preparatory to its +appearance at table. The end of the handle of _Fig. 2._ being curved was +doubtless designed to suspend the spoon over the edge of a vessel, or +over a nail or cord. Several utensils are seen hanging from lines in an +Egyptian kitchen, portrayed in the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes. + +_Fig. 3._—another bronze table spoon. The handle is round and tapered, +partly formed in the lathe, enriched with carving, and having on the +whole a tasteful appearance. + +_Fig. 4._—also of bronze, found at Thebes by Mr. Burton: smaller than 2 +or 3, it was probably a child’s spoon. It is the plainest of Egyptian +spoons yet found. + +_Fig. 5._—a small wooden spoon, formed like a spade—a shape so singular +that it has been refused a place at the dining table. It is, however, a +genuine spoon. The Romans used such, (_See Plate II._) and similar +formed implements are not uncommon with the Chinese, as will be noticed +in a future page,—a people among whom many primitive arts and implements +are preserved in their purity. + +[Illustration: + + ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS. +] + +In the first two figures above we have another elegant variety of the +spoon. They represent the back and front of a wooden one. The handle is +round, straight, and short, and handsomely set off with a wreath, +terminating with leaves at the junction with the bowl. The latter is +long and pointed, and seems well calculated for a pap spoon for +infants—a purpose for which it was probably designed. In comparing this +implement with those which have preceded it, some readers will be +agreeably surprised at finding so great a diversity of forms in so +simple a thing; but ere they arrive at the end of these pages the +feeling will probably rise into wonder; and yet the whole of the +illustrations embraced in this essay are but part of what might have +been introduced. + +_Fig. 3._ resembles one figured on page 126; but it is not like that +formed of metal, but of ivory—a circumstance from which we may infer +that the goose and human hand were staple ornaments of Egyptian spoons, +and frequently adopted with every material of which the latter were +made. + +[Illustration: + + ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SHELL AND SPOON. +] + +The relationship between spoons and their natural originals is exhibited +in the above figure. The shell is an artificial one, of alabaster, and +is among the antiquities preserved in Alnwick Castle. Its dimensions are +those of an ordinary mussel shell or table spoon. The minikin spoon +figured within it is supposed to have belonged to a lady’s toilet. Where +the handle unites with the bowl it assumes the form of the favorite +lotus. + +No better proof could be adduced of the refined taste of Pharaonic +artists than this copying after nature; for it is the perfection of +skill to follow her instructions. In the infancy of the arts man runs +from her, preferring puerile conceits and monstrous figures; but as the +mind ripens and the judgment matures, he returns to the only true +teacher and guide. + +We are not aware of any _silver_ or _golden_ spoons having been +disinterred. It is certain the wealthy classes had such, and as the +richest taste and greatest skill were lavished on them, it is to be +regretted that none have been discovered. The first spoons mentioned in +history were golden ones, made by Egyptian artists, viz: those furnished +for the Tabernacle. (Exod. xxv. 29.) So were those presented by the +princes of Israel at the dedication of the sanctuary. (Numb. vii.) Is it +said they were fabricated by Aholihab and Bezaleel, or workmen employed +by them, that is, by Israelites? True, but in every sense of the word, +except as regards religion, and even that need hardly be excepted, these +men were Egyptians—natives of the land, both they and their fathers, for +many generations. What did the people whom Moses led out of Egypt know, +except what they learned there? And what had they, but what they got +there? If he himself was learned, it was with ‘the wisdom of Egypt.’ +Neither had they nor their ancestors any other country. In Egypt they +were born and brought up, and when they entered Canaan, it was to them a +foreign land. + +The Jews always neglected the useful arts. The splendid mechanics who +left Egypt with Moses died, and all their generation, in the wilderness. +With them the arts were buried, and were never resuscitated on the other +side of Jordan. When Solomon built the temple he had workmen from Tyre; +it was a Phenician founder who made the bronze and golden bowls, basins, +snuffers, spoons, &c. required. (1. Kings vii.—2. Kings xxv.) Both +spoons and ladles, or simpula, were extensively used in Pagan worship. A +few of those of ancient Egypt are figured below. + +[Illustration: + + EGYPTIAN LADLES OR SIMPULA. +] + +Simpula have been found of great variety of forms and materials. Those +of bronze were frequently _gilt_, which made them richer in ornament, +and prevented wine or acids retained in them from being contaminated +with solutions of copper. They were used chiefly for dipping fluids from +amphoræ or jars. The two upper ones in the cut are of bronze, in the +Berlin Museum. The first has a _folding joint_ in the middle of the +handle; and the next one has its handle lengthened or shortened +(according to the depth of the vessel) by one part sliding behind the +other. _Fig. 3_ represents an extremely small wooden ladle; the fixed +part of the handle being only five inches in length, and the sliding rod +which rises and falls in a groove extending down the centre, about the +thickness of a darning needle. The last (_Fig. 4_) in Mr. Wilkinson’s +possession, is eighteen inches long, the bowl three inches deep and +nearly the same, in diameter. It is of bronze and has been gilt. + +In taking leave of Egyptian spoons figured in this chapter, one can +hardly avoid thinking of the persons they belonged to, of the families +of their owners, the mouths they fed, the food they assisted to cook and +serve up, of the scenes of festivity, of sickness and sorrow, of high +life and low life, in which they took a part; of the workmen who made +them, the merchants who sold them, and the many strange conversations +held in their presence! In their forms we have the turns of thought of +old artists; nay, casts of the very thoughts themselves; such as +inspired the cunning artists, companions of Bezaleel or of Hiram, and +like them, skilful to devise curious works in gold and silver, brass and +iron, ivory and pearl. We fancy we can almost see a Theban spoonmaker’s +face brighten up as the image of a new pattern crossed his mind; behold +him sketch it on papyrus, and watch every movement of his chisel or +graver as he gradually embodied the thought, and published it in one of +the forms portrayed on these pages—securing an accession of customers +and a corresponding reward in an increase of profits. We take it for +granted that piratical artisans were not permitted to pounce on every +popular invention which the wit of another brought forth. Had there been +no checks to unprincipled usurpers of other men’s productions, the +energies of inventors would have been paralyzed and the arts could +hardly have attained the perfection they did among some of the famous +people of old. + +What a transient, ephemeral being is man! How short is his life compared +even to that of a spoon! Notwithstanding his pride and his power, the +grasp of his intellect, the noise he makes in the world, and the lasting +wonders he works, he is himself a bubble—no sooner inflated than burst! +The meanest of his labors survive, while he vanishes as vapor. Probably +not less than one hundred generations, including some of the mightiest +spirits of Egypt, have passed away since the implements delineated above +were made! Strange that a thing should endure longer than the head which +conceived and the hands that formed it; that a pot should live longer +than a potter. Here have we the identical spoons which, twenty or thirty +centuries ago, men, women, and children handled at dinner!—individuals +perhaps contemporary with those who encamped with Moses at Elim, or +fought under Joshua at Jericho; or, it may be, such as were acquainted +with Plato or Solon, with Helen and Herodotus, when these Grecian +wanderers were in the land of Mizraim. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + _Roman Spoons—Useful Arts in Athens, Sparta and Rome—Mamurius the + Brazier—Downfall of the Romans—Military and Mechanical + Professions—Discovery of Herculaneum—Silver Spoons—Pompeii + Disinterred—Kitchen Utensils and Spoons of Silver, Brass, Wood and + Ivory found—Reflections on Pompeii—Street of the Silversmiths—Few + Ancient Spoons described in Print—Antique Plate—Description of Plates + II and III—Latin Name of the Spoon—Shell Spoons and Garum + Sauce—Mercury Spoon—Soldiers’ Iron Spoons—Specimens from + Piranesi—Simpula—Indian Ladles, &c._ + + +Having noticed a few spoons made under the Ptolemies or Pharaohs, let us +next refer to some fabricated in Rome or its provincial towns, under the +Cæsars. We have no particular specimens from ancient Greece to lay +before the reader, but the deficiency is not material, since a manifest +conformity prevailed in the social economy of the Greeks and Romans. + +The ancients generally paid little respect to mechanical professions; +where one people fostered them a hundred treated them with contempt. +This was the case even in Greece; the Lacedemonians and others despised, +the Athenians alone respected them. Lycurgus forbade his countrymen to +become artisans, but Solon made a law that no son should be compelled to +support a destitute parent, if the latter had neglected to teach him a +trade. The Athenian lawgiver rendered the useful professions honorable; +the goddess of the arts was adopted as the protectress of the city, and +a distaff and spindle placed in her hands. Every school boy knows how +much more the world is indebted to Athens than to Sparta. It is the same +now—the most enlightened people are those who cultivate the arts most, +and the weakest and rudest such as neglect them. There can be no science +where there are no arts, and for the future there can be no national +power but in proportion as they are cultivated. The age of the sword and +brute force is passing away; that of the arts and intellectual power +beginning to dawn. + +In the infancy of their career the Romans promoted the useful +professions. Numa, their second king, was incomparably the best they +ever had. A philosopher, he preferred peace to war, and set himself to +tame the ferocity of the people, by infusing into them a taste for +agriculture and the arts; to induce them to rely on the fruits of honest +industry rather than on the plunder of their neighbors. The people, says +Plutarch, were divided into classes or corporations, according to their +trades. Those of each profession had their respective halls, &c. a +practice derived from the East. He mentions goldsmiths, dyers, tanners, +coppersmiths, &c. Publicola also fostered domestic manufactures by +exempting artificers from tribute. + +That workers in metals were expert in Numa’s time is evident from the +story of the buckler reported to have fallen from heaven, and the eleven +copies of it made by Mamurius. But mechanics in those days were not the +ignorant and sordid beings their enemies have generally represented +them. Pliny, deploring the deteriorated workmanship of his time, +observes, that every man labored only for money; whereas, in the days of +our forefathers, says he, they worked for _fame_. The celebrated brazier +just named asked no other reward for making the sacred shields, than to +have his name mentioned in the hymns sung during the feasts of the +Ancylia. Plutarch intimates that an ode was chanted to his memory by the +Salians along with the Pyrrhic dance. + +Twenty centuries have elapsed since the Romans were in the height of +their power. As a nation war was their profession, and pillage their +wealth; they rose by the sword and by it they fell—a righteous +Providence having meted to them the measure they meted to others. +History is full of recitals of their conquests, of the victims they +slew, and the terror their armies spread among nations, the triumphs +accorded to their generals, with kings and spoils of kingdoms dragged in +their trains; but not a page is devoted to those arts and professions +which contribute to the permanent happiness of men. The world yet +resounds with their feats of arms; but of the more useful and honest +occupations of the _people_, all writers are silent. Of the click of the +hammer, speed of the shuttle, creaking of the file, buzzing of lathes, +roaring of bellows, of manufacturing machinery driven by men, horses, +water or wind, Tacitus and Livy, Sallust and Suetonius have nothing to +say. Ancient annals may be said to give no more idea of the manners and +customs, social habits and general employments of the people, than +descriptions of modern battles do of the nations to whom the contending +idiots belong. What Olaus Magnus said of the Goths was true of all +nations, and is still true of too many: “They supposed all other arts +nothing, when compared with military arts.” The world is yet crowded +with Goths. + +Although the Romans formed the last link in the chain of nations, which +connects us with the people of remote times, and as such should be +somewhat familiar to us, yet so long and dark a night of turbulence and +barbarism set in on their fall, that the knowledge of their arts and +manufactures has in a great measure been lost. From the number of their +colonies, a few products of their workshops have occasionally been +picked up in various parts of Europe; but with all the collections and +labors of antiquarians, comparatively little is known of the extent, and +less of the processes, of mechanical manipulations among the classical +ancients. + +A very trivial circumstance occurred in the beginning of the last +century (in 1711) which led to a discovery unexampled in the annals of +our globe—one which reflected more light on ancient private life and on +some branches of the useful arts than any thing else:—An Italian +peasant, digging a well near his cottage, found some fragments of +colored marble. These attracting attention, led to further excavation, +when a statue of Hercules was disinterred, and shortly afterwards a +mutilated one of Cleopatra. These were found at a considerable depth +below the surface, and in a place which subsequently proved to be a +temple situated in the centre of the ancient city of Herculaneum. This +city was overwhelmed with ashes and lava, during an eruption of +Vesuvius, A. D. 79, being the same in which the elder Pliny perished. +Herculaneum therefore had been buried 1630 years! and while every +memorial of it was lost, and even the site unknown, it was thus +suddenly, by a resurrection, then unparalleled, brought again to light; +and streets, temples, houses, statues, paintings, jewelry, professional +implements, kitchen utensils, and other articles connected with ancient +domestic life, were to be seen arranged, as when their owners were +actively moving among them. + +There are some interesting letters in the early volumes of the +Philosophical Transactions, from which it appears that slow progress was +made in excavation at Herculaneum for several years. One from Mr. +William Hamilton, dated Naples, March 1731, runs thus;—“At _Resina_, +about four miles from Naples, under the mountain, within half a mile of +the sea-side, there is a _well_ in a poor man’s yard; down which about +thirty yards there is a hole which some people have the curiosity to +creep into, and may afterwards creep a good way under ground; and with +lights find foundations of houses and streets, which, by some, it is +said, was in the time of the Romans, a city called _Aretina_, others say +Port Hercules, where the Romans usually embarked for Africa. I have seen +the well, which is deep, and a good depth of water at the bottom that I +never cared to venture down.” + +Signor C. Paderni writes from Rome in November, 1739, to Allan Ramsay, +that the king of Naples had appointed an artist to take charge of the +articles found. Of these there were thirty or forty paintings, a chariot +and horses in brass, several statues and basso-relievos, eight rings, +containing engraved cornelians, a golden bracelet, a large brazen dish, +&c. “They enter the place by a pit, like a well, to the depth of 88 +Neapolitan palms, and then dig their way under the bituminous matter.” + +M. Geo. Knapton says, the ancient city of Herculaneum is now under a +town called Portici, a quarter of a mile from the sea, at the foot of +Vesuvius, and has no other road to it but that of the _town well_, [the +same begun by the peasant in 1711] which is none of the most agreeable, +being in parts very straight, in others wide, and cut in a most rude +manner. Towards the bottom, where you go into the city, it is very +broad, which they have made so to turn the columns which were brought +up.... The entrance is 82 feet from the top of the well.... It is +difficult for the first person let down to get in, but when once landed +at the opening, “he pulled us in by the legs as we came down.” This +writer does not mention how far above the bottom of the well the opening +into the city was, but the depth of water was considerable, for on +account of it, excavations were not made to the foundations of the +buildings. + +Mr. Crispe, writing from Rome in April, 1740, after mentioning +paintings, houses, statues, busts, &c. observes: They have found several +antique rings, with cameos and intaglios set in them, a case of surgical +instruments, a triumphal car of bronze, vessels full of rice, mouse +traps, several kitchen utensils, a fork, and a _silver spoon, made in +the handle like a modern one_, and the bowl pointed like an olive leaf. +[_See Phil. Trans. Vols._ xli. xliv. xlix.] + +Excavations were continued for several years, and vast treasures found, +with which several museums have become enriched, besides those of Italy. +As it would have been an immense undertaking to raise through the well +all the materials displaced, the plan was adopted of filling up old +excavations with the rubbish of fresh ones, and thus no series of +buildings or streets are to be seen. The theatre only is open, and it is +very imperfectly viewed by torch light, at so great a depth below the +surface. + +In 1755, another city, overwhelmed at the same time with Herculaneum, +was discovered. This was Pompeii, the very name of which had been almost +forgotten. As it lay at a greater distance from Vesuvius than +Herculaneum, the stream of lava never reached it. It was inhumed by +showers of ashes, pumice and stones, which formed a bed of variable +depth from twelve to twenty feet, and easily removed; whereas the former +city was entombed in ashes and lava to the depth of from seventy to a +hundred feet. With the exception of the upper stories of the houses, +which were either consumed by red hot stones ejected from the volcano, +or crushed by the weight of the matter collected on their roofs, we +behold in Pompeii a nourishing city nearly in the same state in which it +existed eighteen centuries ago! The buildings unaltered by newer +fashions; the paintings undimmed by the leaden touch of time; household +furniture left in the confusion of use; articles even of intrinsic value +abandoned in the hurry of escape, yet safe from the robber, or scattered +about as they fell from the trembling hand which could not stop or pause +to pick them up. + +The work of disinterment has been prosecuted to the present time, and +every year adds to the treasures of the Portician Museum. Cooking +utensils and kitchen furniture in great abundance, found in both cities, +are very similar to our own, but generally of more durable materials and +better finish; sauce-pans being lined with silver instead of a thin +coating of tin; colanders, strainers, fish-slices, water-pails, of +brass, and elaborately finished. Some sauce-pans have been found wholly +of silver. Fire grates like ours were not used, but large braziers +placed in the middle of the kitchen; and ranges of small furnaces, of +brick-work raised breast high, in which charcoal was used; identical +with those often seen in the kitchens of the wealthy, and which have +been almost universal in Europe to the present century; fixed and +portable ovens, oil-flasks, bottles and glasses of every variety, glazed +plates of earthenware packed in straw, cups and saucers of silver, like +those now used for tea, gridirons, frying-pans, dripping-pans, molds for +pastry, caldrons, graters, mortars, knives, and SPOONS of _bronze_, +_ivory_ and _silver_. + +Here is a female’s toilet, essences, tortoise-shell combs, bracelets, +mirrors, needles, a box of pins, ear and finger-rings, broaches, &c. as +she left them, perhaps to visit the theatre, whence, with hundreds more, +she never returned. (It was an opinion of the ancients that the +inhabitants were surprised by the volcanic storm while in the theatre.) +Few of the antiquities possess so melancholy an interest as those +relating to children. It is obvious from Pliny’s letters to Tacitus, and +from the nature of the catastrophe, that numbers of these innocents +perished; trod down by distracted crowds rushing out of the city, and +seeking to fly from the supernatural darkness that enveloped it; killed +by showers of falling stones, from which some few grown people +fortunately protected themselves by tying pillows on their heads; +suffocated by an atmosphere of ashes and cinders; their shrieks after +their parents, as well as their mothers’ cries after them, were +gradually stifled with noxious vapors and dust. _Toys_ have been found +in some houses—the domicils, we may suppose, of benevolent couples, who, +like Plutarch and his wife, were delighted in beholding their young +offspring play and chatter ‘with babies and dolls.’ These, only relics +of their romping little owners, thrown down in alarm when the terrors of +the calamity entered each dwelling, have been picked up where they were +left. The Pompeians moreover had not only toys to please their children, +but pictures and stories to frighten them, similar to such as have +reached us through the middle ages. There is a dark looking personage +roughly drawn with black paint on a wall; he has horns, cloven feet, and +altogether resembles modern portraits of the wicked one. + +A solitary wanderer in the avenues and alleys of Pompeii might almost +anticipate the feelings of the “last man.” It is awful to walk alone +through a city in which no human being has moved for so many centuries; +through dwellings fitted up with every convenience for large and small +families, for rich and poor ones; through streets deeply rutted with +carriage wheels, and on side-walks worn by foot passengers; to read the +names of tradespeople on the doorposts and observe articles on counters; +enter palaces of patricians and apartments of plebeians, the studios of +sculptors and painters; and find every where household goods, utensils +and tools, arranged as if their owners had just stepped out, and might +be expected every moment to return. + +In one house we find the chief rooms decorated with exquisite paintings +and statuary; sleeping apartments appropriately adorned, and the kitchen +furnished with every requisite; loaves of bread in one oven, a pie in +another, flour in the kneading-trough, pickles and sauces in jars and +glass bottles, oil in flasks, wine in amphoræ, and wine-glasses in +abundance; here a pail half full of water, there a row of small furnaces +with charcoal in them ready for kindling: a caldron close by, a sauce +pan, a frying pan for eggs, a knife, a silver bowl, several ladles and a +spoon;—all laying as if the cook, about to prepare dinner, had stept +into the adjoining garden for esculent roots or pot herbs. It is almost +impossible to look on, think on or handle such things, without being +startled by the least noise, turning round and imagining the owner +rushing into his dwelling and demanding the cause of one’s intrusion. + +In 1826 were found in an arched cellar the skeletons of two or more +persons who had taken refuge there, carrying with them four gold rings, +a pair of ear-rings, many coins of gold and silver, and _four silver +spoons_. Subsequently we, find enumerated vases, basins with handles +formed of the wings of swans, pateræ, bells, inkstands, locks, an oval +caldron, hundreds of common glass bottles, besides decanters, fluted +tumblers and cups of green glass. In another place were found an oval +ball, a pair of golden ear-rings, together with a _silver ladle_ or +_spoon_.—[_Gell’s Pompeiana, I._ pp. 6, 41–2.] + +The handsomest avenue yet discovered in Pompeii is known as the ‘street +of the silversmiths,’ a designation given it from quantities of plate +found in the shops. The practice was universal of old for mechanics of +one profession to locate together, and it is still kept up throughout +the east. It would have been better to have named the street after ‘the +goldsmiths,’ for under this designation workmen in the precious metals +have always been included. They are so in old French and English +statutes and in the Scriptures. ‘The goldsmith spreadeth it over with +gold, and casteth silver chains.’ [_Isaiah._] ‘They lavish gold out of +the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith’ +[_Ibid._]—literally exemplified daily in Cairo and other oriental +cities. That this class of artisans were influential and wealthy in +Pompeii may be inferred from a notice of a gladiatorial show, got up at +their cost, in honor of ‘Caius Cuspius Pansa, the Ædile.’ + +We believe few silver and other spoons found in Herculaneum and Pompeii +have been described in print. Gell complains bitterly in his preface and +appendix of the difficulties thrown in the way of foreign artists, and +the unworthy policy of prohibiting sketches to be taken of antiquities +found. They have yet to learn at Naples, he observes, that the only use +or glory in the possession of these things consists in the promulgation +of them to the world. The examination of antique works in metal by +practical men can alone determine the modes of their manufacture. For +want of this, the question whether sheet iron, copper, &c. was laminated +by _rollers_ is not determined, nor whether dies were used in producing +ornamented hollow-ware; besides other questions of interest. + +Allusions in classic authors to table furniture, and specimens extant, +are calculated to impress us with high ideas of the skill of Roman gold +and silver smiths. Besides models furnished by Etrurian, Grecian and +oriental workmen, luxury and a general taste in the patricians for +objects of _virtu_ tended to foster these professions. The younger Pliny +speaks of the frugal repasts of Spurinna being served ‘in antique plate +of pure silver,’ which he preferred to a more fashionable and ‘complete +service of Corinthian metal’ in his possession. (The composition of this +alloy is wholly unknown. It was esteemed vastly more precious than +gold.) That spoons were elaborately wrought, so as to keep pace with +more splendid appendages of the beaufet, there is no doubt; but few, if +any such, are extant. Perhaps the best of those to which we are about to +refer were in no respect superior to silver ones in ordinary use. + +DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II.—_Figures 1, 2, 3_, are Roman _pateræ_, or +rather scoops. They clearly show how the classical ancients preserved +the form of shells in utensils allied to the ladle and spoon. But the +marine origin of the latter was preserved by the Romans in its _name_, +for _cochleare_, a spoon, is derived from _cochlea_, a shell or cockle. + +_Fig. 4_—an antique spoon fashioned after a peculiar shell, and having a +row of minute dots or openings as a border—perhaps in imitation of those +in the haliotis and kindred productions of the deep. The short handle is +modeled after the tail of a fish, and the interior of the bowl +ornamented with a figure of a dolphin swimming in his native fluid—an +indication perhaps that the implement was used at table with fish; for +the ancients were often exceedingly happy in rendering their ornamental +devices appropriate. This spoon could only have been employed for +removing fluids from shallow dishes or saucers. It was probably an olive +spoon, or belonged to the small dish or cup containing anchovy or the +famous _garum_ sauce, both used at Roman tables, and the latter one for +the manufacture of which Pompeii was celebrated. It was, says Pliny, (B. +xxxi. 7, 8) the most exquisite and dainty of all condiments, “so costly +and so much in request that every two congii thereof might not be bought +under the price of 1000 sesterces,” [about five dollars a quart.] + +_Fig. 5_—another Roman spoon with a handle little longer than the bowl, +but one displaying much taste. It is unique of its kind, and equals any +other in elegance we have seen. The bowl is perfectly modern in its +outline. Montfaucon is remarkably barren on this and _Fig. 4_: three +words, ‘found at Autun,’ comprehend all he says. Hence we know neither +their dimensions nor materials, nor how they were made. From the general +appearance of _Fig. 4_, one might suppose it was struck up in a die from +sheet metal. + +_Fig. 6_—a very elaborate silver spoon—the bowl pointed like a French +one, and the turned handle not unlike such as formerly prevailed in +Europe. The notch or bend near the bowl is a common feature in Roman +spoons—supposed to have been designed to rest the implement against the +edge of the dish. The ornaments in the bowl are mythological. Mercury, +seated on a rock, holds in his right hand a purse, and in his left the +caduceus. His winged hat lays at his feet, and before him stands a cock, +a goat, and a tortoise—animals often represented on temples and +monuments dedicated to him. The whole of this spoon must have been cast +unless the bowl and the figures on it were chased or stamped. The handle +is short but strong, increasing in substance as it approaches the bowl. +Chinese spoons were noticed by Van Braam as having very short handles. +From the great beauty of ancient medallions, we may be sure articles of +plate, if ornamented with the die, were sometimes equally well finished. + +_Figs. 7_ to _12_, inclusive, are from the second volume of Montfaucon’s +antiquities: 7 and 8, spoons four inches long, and hence about the size +of modern mustard spoons; their handles plain and tapered to a point; +their section a square. Their material is not mentioned; but in the +second volume of his supplement the learned father has figured three +similar spoons which he says were of silver, and used, as he supposed, +for taking incense out of vases. In Recueil d’Antiquities Egyptiennes, +Etrusces, &c. Paris, 1752, p. 325, a similar spoon is described. It was +of _silver_, and between six and seven inches in length. _Fig. 9_—a +utensil more like a shovel than a spoon, and from that circumstance +conjectured by Montfaucon to have been employed in putting incense on +the altar. He does not seem to have known that spoons of this shape have +been used in the east from remote times. Modern salt and mustard spoons +of the same form are quite common. In _Fig. 8_ the handle is attached to +the smaller end of the bowl—a very common feature in ancient spoons. + +_Figs. 10, 11, 12_—ordinary household spoons. The handles are all square +or nearly so, and the tip of No. 11 is molded into a minute spoon, +perhaps designed to extract marrow from bones—a good idea and one worthy +the attention of modern manufacturers. Of what substance these spoons +were made we are not informed. _Fig. 13_—an iron one from the first +volume of the Antiquarian Repertory, Lon. 1775. It was found with other +antiques in Gloucestershire, Eng. and is perhaps the same kind as used +by Roman soldiers. The long pointed handles, Grose thinks, were designed +to open shellfish and doubtless for several other purposes. Stuck in the +wall, or side of a tent, they answered for nails or pins, on which the +inmates hung their armor or arms, and when required at meals performed +the part of our forks in toasting or handling hot morsels. + +_Fig. 14_—from Stukely’s Stonehenge, and supposed to have been used for +measuring small quantities of liquids—perhaps the cyath, which held the +contents of an ounce vial. As a vehicle from which to take medicine, as +well as to determine the quantity, the spoon was as much used by the +ancients as by us. For both purposes it is repeatedly mentioned. To +remove pains in the abdomen, Pliny says, “two spoonfuls of plantain, and +of poppie one spoonful, mixed with four cyaths of wine,” and taken night +and morning, is an effectual remedy. [B. xxvi. 8. _Holland’s Trans._] + +The figures in this and the following plates being derived from +different sources, and the articles themselves having been discovered at +various times and portrayed on every scale, it is impossible to present +them properly proportioned. Generally speaking, the _form_ is all for +which we must be held responsible. + +DESCRIPTION OF PLATE III.—_Fig. 1_—a silver table spoon ‘found at +Autun.’ The bowl is almost a fac simile of _No. 6_ in _Plate II_, both +in form and decorations. The handle is peculiar, consisting of two +separate bars, suggesting an idea that the smaller and lower was +intended to stiffen the upper one. Both terminate in a neat button or +cap. This implement we may suppose, was named a ‘Mercury spoon.’ If it +did not belong to some temple of that god, it would seem as if a variety +with staple ornaments and designs were kept on hand by manufacturers, so +that every purchaser could select his spoons (and other utensils) +decorated with the established emblems of his patron saint or deity. If +such was the practice—and there is much in history to confirm it—it must +have been a great source of profit to gold and silver smiths, and may +serve to account for that amazing variety of design and decorations +which characterized their works. A similar custom was continued down to +mediæval times, as will be seen in our notice of ‘Apostle spoons.’ + +_Figs. 2_ to _7_ are from Piranesi’s great work, the ‘Antiquities of the +Kingdom of Naples,’ Paris, 1804. The first three are beautiful +specimens. The handles of two are elegantly turned, and in quite a +modern style of ornament. They present the remarkable bend near the +bowl, before alluded to; the metal is there made deeper than at any +other place, thus imparting strength where it is required. Plain and +modern in the bowls, they might be almost taken as products of a living +silversmith. It is not improbable that handles formed like these will +again be in fashion. _Fig. 5_ more resembles a patera than a spoon, and +one like it is figured by Montfaucon; but it is impossible to determine +in all cases where the one ends and the other begins. It is more like a +spoon than some utensils acknowledged to be such. The general form is +pleasing. The handle terminates in a ram’s head. _Figs. 6_ and _7_—small +bronze spoons for unguents. They are the only ones figured in the last +French edition of the Antiquities of Herculaneum, in eight volumes +octavo. + +We have occupied the remainder of the plate with a collection of ancient +ladles, spoons, &c. from various authorities, principally Piranesi and +Montfaucon. The originals were chiefly bronze. Nothing is said +respecting them, so that the forms only are left to remark on. Those +with perpendicular handles were generally used to draw wine from +amphoræ. Some of the smallest were liquid measures, &c. One with a +cylindrical bowl or cup, marked 18, is identical with those used by our +milk men, and with Egyptian simpula on page 135. Those numbered _13_, +_14_, _15_, and perhaps _16_ and _17_, are mere variations of the spoon. +_Fig. 8_—a rich ladle, while 9 is nearly a literal copy of a modern +cream spoon. _Figs. 10, 11, 12_—other varieties; _19_ is remarkable for +the turn of the handle, and _20_ has so clumsy an appearance as to +suggest the idea of its having been carved out of wood by an ancient +Calabrian peasant. We know the ancients had simpula of earthen ware, and +also of wood as well as of metal. + +American Indian ladles of considerable antiquity are not very rare. An +oblong one with a short pointed handle, and rudely carved out of wood, +and excessively deformed, is in the Boston Museum. They are occasionally +met with of _stone_, and so are spoons. Of the latter some are neatly +formed and well polished, while others have a bowl at each end of the +handle. Canadian Indians frequently make the bowls of their spoons and +ladles out of _bark_—folding smooth pieces into the form of the common +tin scoop, and tying to each a short stick as a handle. They carve +spoons of the same shape out of solid wood. + +By the way, it is not a little singular that beautifully formed spoons +have been made for ages by people who never thought of employing such +things in connection with food. They developed them for a very different +purpose. Specimens are now before us—to be sure, their dimensions render +them more suitable appendages to the breakfast table of Polyphemus, or +for Goliath to take his porridge withal, than for feeding modern +gentlemen or ladies. Has the reader never observed in public or private +collections of curiosities, elaborately wrought wooden spoons, the bowls +of quite a modern shape, but varying from 12 to 18 inches in length, +from 4 to 6 in width, and of a proportionate depth—the handles also +tastefully designed, richly ornamented and two or three feet long? Such +are the _paddles_ of many South Sea islanders—the concave side of the +bowl holding the water and more effectually propelling a canoe than the +ordinarily formed blade of an oar. Certes, if these paddles had been now +unknown, and a few specimens were dug out of the soil, among other +relics of past ages, archeologists could hardly avoid receiving them as +samples of the kitchen furniture of the Titans. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + _Description of Plate IV—Anointing of Kings and the Process—Miraculous + Utensils—Oil Bottles brought from Heaven—The Spoon among + Regalia—Relics of Becket—Coronation Spoon described—Its + Antiquity—Spoons of Henry VI—Cadenat—Apostle Spoons—Ancient Customs at + the Naming of Children—Christening Shirts—Scripture Biography taught + by Spoons—Anecdotes of Henry VIII. and Cranmer, of Ben Jonson and + Shakespeare—Plate presented to Guests—Spoons carried off—Sacramental + Spoon—Sanguisuchello—Snuff Spoons—Chinese, Scotch and Malagasy Snuff + Takers—Snuff an Ingredient used in Witchcraft._ + + +It may not be generally known that the spoon takes part in the most +pompous of national pageants. We have spoken of exhibitions of +mountebanks, wherein it amused common people: let us now refer to the +part it performs in the hands of political raree-showmen for diverting +another class of spectators. + +_Anointing_ monarchs at their coronation has always been deemed +indispensable. Barely to touch royal sconces with the holy unguent, as +sometimes now practiced, was formerly insufficient. Baker, in his +Chronicles, says Richard I. the hero of the Crusades, “put off all his +garments from his middle upwards but only his shirt, which was open on +the shoulders, that he might be anointed. Then the Archbishop of +Canterbury anointed him in three places: on the head, on the shoulder, +and on the right arm.” The same writer gives the particulars at the +ceremony of crowning Richard II.—a child of eleven years: “After a +sermon the king took his oath, (!) and then the archbishop blessed the +king, which done, he took off his garments and stripped him into his +shift; then he anointed his hands, head, breast, shoulders, and the +joynts of his arms with the sacred oil.” Henry IV. (of England,) says +Froissart, was “stripped of all his state before the altar, naked to his +shirt, and was then anointed and consecrated at six places, that is to +say, on the head, the breast, the two shoulders before and behind, on +the back and the hands.” [chap. cxvi.] Henry’s title to the crown was a +very dubious one—perhaps on that account a greater quantity of the +consecrating ointment was expended on him and a larger portion of his +body exposed to its influence. + +It seems that much the same process was gone through with in the case of +queens! Mary, of Smithfield memory, was crowned and anointed by Gardiner +“with all rites and ceremonies of old accustomed.” Similar language is +used by Baker in the case of Elizabeth; so also of King Jamie and his +wife: they were “crowned together and anointed at Westminster.” The +pageant of Charles I.’s coronation, got up by Laud, was, as may be +supposed, a great affair. Obsolete customs were introduced, as well as +old forms of prayer. When the king had taken an oath “to protect and +defend the bishops and the churches under their government,” his robes +were taken off “and _offered at the altar_; the king stood for a while, +stripped to his doublet and hose of white satin; then, led by the +archbishop and the Bishop of St. David’s, he was placed in the chair of +the coronation, having a close canopy spread over him; and while the +archbishop anointed his head, shoulders, arms and hands with a costly +oyntment, the quire sung an anthem of these words: + + ‘Zadock, the priest, anointed King Solomon.’” + +So Charles was stripped to his hose and doublet when the crown was put +on his head, as well as when he lost both his head and his crown. In him +the magic shield which the scriptural passage ‘touch not mine anointed’ +had for ages thrown around kings, and which some of these gentry used +with effect in silencing the murmurings of their oppressed people, was +shattered to the winds. + +The blasphemous application of such passages of scripture as the +foregoing to the vilest tyrants, was but a small part of that atrocious +system of ecclesiastical delusions which prevailed through the dark +ages. The monarch swore when crowned to ‘protect bishops,’ and they, +from Dunstan downwards, returned the compliment. To preserve their +immunities and extend their influence, they performed the part of pagan +priests and made the oracles speak what they and the king pleased. But +they did more: through their instrumentality it was that almost every +utensil employed in coronations had a miraculous origin—was fabricated +in heaven by angelic artists or beatified saints, and sent direct for +the use of ‘his sacred majesty’ by a special embassy, consisting of one +or more celestial messengers! The _ampoule_ or small bottle containing +the holy oil seems to have been most distinguished in this respect. + +When Clovis of France embraced Christianity, he was baptized in the +Church at Rheims in a consecrated lavatory, (on Christmas day, A. D. +496.) Three thousand of his people followed his example, and with him +wore white robes for eight days. Now so great was the joy in heaven at +their conversion that an angel appeared to a holy hermit, and deposited +with him for the king’s use, “a royal standard adorned with the +oriflamme, a shield sown with the fleur de lis, and an ampoule of sacred +oil.” This celestial bottle is (or was in the last century) preserved in +the cathedral church of Rheims, and is still used in the coronation of +French kings. “On appelle la Sainte Ampoule, certaine petite bouteille +venue du ciel, où il y a de l’huile qui sert à sacrer les Rois de +France, laquelle on garde bien soigneusement dans l’Abbaye de saint Remi +de Rheims.”—[_Dict. de Trevoux and Mazeray._] + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 5_ _Middle Ages & Oriental_ + + _Lith of E Jones 128 Fulton S^t N.Y._ +] + +When Charles was conducted by the Maid of Orleans to Rheims and crowned +in her presence, the holy oil and miraculous ampoule performed their +part in the ceremony, as historians have taken care to inform us. + +Hincmarc, Archbishop of Rheims, in the time of Charles the Bald, +declares (in his life of St. Remi) that the precious vial was sent from +heaven by a white dove. Many French disputations have been written on +the miracle, pro and con! The English ampoule (still used) was also of +celestial origin, having been brought down by the Virgin Mary herself, +and presented by her ‘to St. Thomas of Canterbury [Becket] when he was +in France.’ It was, observes Mazeray, of lapis, with a golden eagle on +the top and enriched with pearls and diamonds. + +Now the consecrated fluid was not poured directly from the ampoule on +the candidate for royalty, but into a _spoon_, whence it was transferred +to its destination. As we presume our readers may gather a few facts +from these speculations, with which they were not previously acquainted, +it may be that some now learn for the first time, that besides crowns, +orbs, sceptres, swords, globes, spheres, staffs, cups, plates, rings, +and other royal rattletraps, which constitute what is known as ‘the +regalia and crown jewels,’ the spoon holds a distinguished place! To +those who admire such things it is shown, with the articles enumerated +above, in the Tower of London at a shilling a head, and indeed to those +who admire them not, at the same price. + +Lord Herbert in his history of Henry VIII. mentions among other ‘notable +trumperies’ by which the public were deluded, ‘the _penknife_ and +_boots_ of Becket, with a piece of his _shirt_.’ Large sums, it seems, +were received from ladies in a certain condition for permission to +handle the last article. + +The reader will now turn to Plate IV. _Figs. 1, 2_, represent the +English coronation spoon, [from Shaw’s splendid work, “Dresses and +Decorations of the Middle Ages, from the seventh to the seventeenth +centuries.”] If drawn by Shaw to the full size, its length is 9 inches, +that of the bowl 2¼, and its width 1¾ inches. The whole is of gold, and +whether made by a mortal goldsmith or not, a fine piece of work. The +bowl is thin, with an elegant arabesque pattern engraved on its inner +surface. At the broadest part of the handle are four pearls. The enamel +with which it was once enriched is destroyed. There is a slight +elevation or ridge dividing the bowl. When used a portion of the +consecrating fluid being poured into it, the officiating bishop dips two +fingers, one into each cavity of the bowl, and transfers what sticks to +them to the head and other parts of the royal neophyte, who thus +receives unction as a sign of investiture of regal power. + +Hence the spoon is not the least useful of the numerous insignia +employed on such occasions, and we may fairly presume it performs a more +laborious part than any of them when the ceremonies are over and the +actors are seated at dinner. In unison with this there is one feature in +the official implement which we must be excused for noticing. It will be +seen that the upper part of the handle is twisted and the end terminates +with a hemispherical button precisely like a punch spoon. This beautiful +specimen of ancient art is in truth the oldest spoon of that kind known. +Whether the maker designed a practical joke or not, it is not a bad one, +considering the history of royal carousals, from Belshazzar and +Alexander to George IV—the accomplished companion of modern Falstaffs, +Pistols and Quicklys. Of all men, kings have been least stinted with +punch or sack; few persons are known to have indulged more in it or got +it on easier terms. + +There is some uncertainty respecting the date of this royal spoon. +Cromwell and the Long Parliament made sad havoc among ‘the baubles,’ as +that irreverend man named the regalia. It seems most of them disappeared +during the civil wars—probably melted down and the proceeds applied to +the public service. When Charles II. returned, it is said, his +inauguration was delayed on account of the absence of these necessary +articles belonging to the ceremony! Shaw thinks some of the old ones +were concealed and recovered, and among them the spoon. Its antiquity he +says is undoubted. He supposes it to have been in use since the twelfth +century. + +Of coronations, their expense, inutility and puerilities, an English +writer has well remarked, that they are only calculated to superinduce +in the individual vanity upon vanity, and are characteristic of +imperfect civilization. + +We have not done with royal spoons:—In 1422, Henry V. the Hal of +Shakespeare, died, and was succeeded by his son, an infant. As Henry VI. +grew up he exhibited indications of a feeble mind. Harmless and passive, +he was wholly unfit for controlling the destinies of his country and the +ambition of its warlike nobles. His reign was one of perpetual domestic +war. He had, says Sir R. Baker, virtues enough to make him a saint, but +not to make him a god, as kings are said to be gods. He was fitter for a +priest than a king, and for a sacrifice than a priest. A mere instrument +in the hands of the ministers and his masculine wife, Margaret of Anjou, +his fate was that of a shuttlecock, tossed to and fro and treated with +contempt by the adherents of both the white and red roses. Repeatedly +taken prisoner by one party or the other in battle, he at last ended his +melancholy life in the Tower. + +After the sanguinary battle of Hexham, in Northumberland, the fate of +his family was distressing. Margaret with their son fled into a wood, +where they were rudely seized and plundered of their jewels by thieves. +While the robbers quarreled about the division of the plunder, the +miserable captives crept unperceived into the thickest of the forest, +where they sank down overcome with darkness, distress and fatigue. One +of the robbers subsequently found them; to him Margaret made herself +known, and appealed to his generosity for protection, especially for the +son of the king. He was amazed at the strange occurrence, swore to +protect them, and kept his word. He concealed them until an opportunity +offered for conducting them to the coast, whence they sailed to +Flanders. + +How Henry escaped is not very well known. By the vigilance of friends he +lay concealed in different parts of the country for twelve months. +Shifting from place to place, he at length was seized while at dinner at +Wadington Hall, in Lincolnshire, and carried to the tower. Ere being +taken away he left with his host his _inkhorn_, one of the last articles +retained about his person. It is of leather, like a knife sheath, with +three cells, one for the ink and two for pens. It is ornamented with +much elegance, and was worn suspended from the girdle. Before reaching +Wadington, he was hid nine days at Bolton Hall; and here he left with +the proprietor, as a token of his friendship, his boots, one glove (or a +pair) and _his spoon_. [_See Antiq. Repertory, III._ 168.] + +_Fig. 3_, _Plate IV._ represents this interesting relic of the fifteenth +century. It was we presume of gold, though the account does not say so, +but merely that its length was 6¼ inches. The handle is short, and in +its union to the small end of the bowl resembles both Roman and Egyptian +spoons. The handle is a plain cylinder capped at its extremity with a +molding and a hexagonal finial. Although void of ornament, this spoon +exhibits considerable taste in its contour. Its dimensions, as will have +been perceived from its length, did not exceed those of a modern dessert +spoon. If made for Henry, it dates from the time of Jack Cade, Joan of +Arc, the great Earl of Warwick, and the introduction of Printing. The +circumstance of a king carrying his spoon about with him may strike some +readers as singular, but the practice was not uncommon in olden times. +Almost every wealthy individual had a portable case containing one and a +knife, to which in after times a fork was added. Even guests took their +own implements when invited to a feast. Kings more than other people +have always been particular in having feeding apparatus exclusively for +their own use: the custom is an eastern one. Spoons which nourish royal +palates must not enter meaner mouths. _Cadenat_ was the old French term +for the portable case in which was secured a prince’s knife and spoon. +It was afterwards written _cadenas_. The case was often of gold or +silver gilt, and contained minute receptacles for salt, pepper, and +other condiments. From the following extract it will be seen that kings +and nobles used such pocket conveniences in the beginning of the last +century, as well as in the previous ones:— + +“Cadenas est aussi une espèce d’assiette carrée ou l’on serre la +cuillière, la fourchette et le couteau. Un des côtés est retroussé et +élevé de deux doigts, avec un petit courvercle où l’on met du sel, du +sucre et du poivre. On s’en servoit _autrefois_ chez les Rois et les +Princes. C’est _maintenant_ une espèce de coffret d’or ou de vermeil +doré, où l’on met le couteau, la cuillière, la fourchette, &c. qu’on +sert à la table des Rois et des Princes.” [_Old Dict. de Trevoux._] + +_Figs. 4_, _5_, and _10_, _Plate IV._ are from ‘Ackerman’s Designs for +Gold and Silver Smiths,’ publish-without any description. We know not +the source whence they were derived, but as they were associated with +‘Apostle Spoons,’ known to be ancient, we suppose they are of the same +character. The handle of _Fig. 4_ is of twisted wire, folded into two +knots, as in _Fig. 6_. The bowl, of a fanciful form, differs from every +other we have met with. _Fig. 5_—an elaborate specimen, and well suited +to a monastery or abbot. The heart at one extremity and the cross at the +other are quite in character with the ecclesiastical tastes of the +middle ages, and would afford matter for interesting reflections. _Fig. +10_, a salt spoon, partakes of the same religious character. It presents +a motto, the initial and arms of the owner—acknowledged features of many +ancient “=spuuns=.” Moral sentences and maxims of prudence are painted +by the Chinese on most of their furniture and utensils—on tea pots, chop +stick cases, combs, apparatus for striking fire, cups, lanterns, vases, +&c. and might be advantageously imitated. _Fig. 6_—an ivory spoon of the +sixteenth century. It is French, and preserved along with a knife and +two pronged fork in the collection of the Louvre. + +APOSTLE SPOONS.—_Fig. 7_, _Plate IV._ represents a class of implements +intimately allied with the social and religious customs of former times. +Nothing smooths the asperities of life like friendship. When evinced by +kind offices and gifts, it unlocks the human breast and excites within +it the holiest affections. All people learn this truth, and no lesson is +more readily understood by juveniles; the pure and buoyant joys they +feel on receiving novel or rich presents, may be portrayed on the mental +tablet but not on paper. Now it is a fact that for ages the very _first_ +gift which boys and girls received, consisted of one or more +spoons—these being the established presents of sponsors at christenings; +hence the implements may be said to have not only fed the bodies of +children but to have given them a taste of the sweetest of mental +pleasures—indicating to the young travellers that enter this rugged +world one of the pleasantest means of passing through it. + +The Greeks, Romans, and older people than either, held family feasts +when a child was named. Relatives and friends attended as witnesses, and +made presents of various articles to the little stranger. The pouring +on, or immersion in, water, (baptism) at the nomination of children, is +also of heathen origin. It was practiced both in the old world and the +new. When a child among the Astecs was to be named, a priestess +sprinkled its lips and bosom with water, and invoked the goddess +Cioacoatl that original sin might be thus removed and the child born +anew. On these occasions friends and relatives brought presents of +dresses and ornaments suitable to the circumstances of the parents and +wants of the child. + +In the earlier ages of Christianity sponsors provided a frock or shirt +in which the infant was christened—hence named the ‘christening shirt.’ +Its value of course depended on the circumstances of the donor: when he +or she was wealthy, it was often trimmed with silk and gold. The Anglo +Saxons continued this custom for many ages, but it subsequently went out +of fashion, and the older one of giving small articles of plate +succeeded. + +When spoons were given they were called _Apostle spoons_, because the +handle of each was carved into the figure of an apostle with his +appropriate symbol, as Peter with the keys, Andrew with his cross, &c. +Wealthy godfathers generally gave a _dozen_, each being named after one +of the twelve it was designed to represent. People, whose circumstances +did not admit of giving so many, or who were penurious, compounded by +sending the _four_ evangelists; while those who could not do better +ingeniously presented a _single_ spoon, with the effigies of the saint +after whom the infant was named, or under whose protection it had been +placed by its parents. + +This practice was in imitation of the heathen, who introduced figures of +their gods upon almost every utensil—spoons, as we have seen, as well as +the rest. The idea as adopted in the middle ages was excellent. A child +no sooner learned to feed himself—to use his own spoons—than he began to +acquire a knowledge of scriptural and ecclesiastical biography. Every +spoonful of food he received, conveyed, or might convey a useful lesson +to his mind. The custom might be revived with advantage—at any rate +important truths or facts connected with scientific individuals or with +science and the arts, might thus be communicated to, and indelibly +impressed upon the minds of the young. + +Allusions to Apostle spoons are common. In the play of _Henry VIII. Act +5, Scene 2_, Shakespeare makes the king say to Cranmer that he must +stand godfather to the young princess, Elizabeth. The Archbishop +expresses his unfitness for so great an honor, upon which Harry, +bantering him, says he is afraid of the expense of the usual gift to a +godchild: “Come, come, my lord, you’d spare your _spoons_.” In _Scene 4_ +the directions are, “Enter trumpets, lord mayor, Cranmer, dukes, &c. two +noblemen bearing great standing bowls for the _christening gifts_.” + +In a manuscript of L’Estrange, preserved in the British Museum, an +anecdote is related of Shakespeare himself and Ben Jonson directly in +point. Shakespeare was godfather to one of Ben’s children; and after the +christening, being in a deep study, Jonson cheerily asked him why he was +so melancholy? “Ben,” said he, “I have been considering what would be +the fittest gift for my godchild, and I have resolved it at last.” “I +pri’thee, what?” said Ben. “I’ faith, then, Ben,” answered Shakespeare, +“I’ll give him a good dozen of _latten spoons_, and thou shalt translate +them;” an example of friendly pleasantry betwen the two wits—the word +‘latten’ being a play upon Latin. Latten, sometimes written _laton_, was +formerly applied to tinned iron, or articles made of it, but more +generally to brass, of which examples will be found in these pages. + +Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, and other dramatic writers, refer to +christening or Apostle spoons. Thus also Congreve:—“_Angelica_—Will you +lend me your coach or I’ll go on—nay I’ll declare how you prophesied +popery was coming, only because the butler had mislaid some of the +Apostle’s spoons, and thought they were lost—away went religion and +spoon meat together.”—[_Comedy of Love for Love, Act 2, Scene 1._] + +Mr. Hone, in his Every Day Book, [vol. i. 177,] has given a +representation of a dozen in his own possession, and besides the +anecdote of Shakespeare just recited, quotes the following lines from a +poem published in 1666, in which the custom of giving spoons is stated +to have been on the decline: + + “Formerly when they used to troul + Gilt bowls of sack, they _gave_ the _bowl_, + _Two spoons_ at least—an use _ill kept_; + ’Tis well if now our own be left.” + +The spoon figured on Plate IV. is in the writer’s possession. It is +larger than those described by Hone, the bowl being 2¼ inches wide and +nearly 3 inches long. The handle is 5¼ inches in length, including the +figure of the apostle which is _gilt_. The hat or flat cap is common to +this class of spoons, and was probably designed, as Hone suggests, to +preserve the features from effacement; but this was not its only use; +when the figure was not sufficiently characteristic of the particular +_one_ of the twelve whom it was intended to represent, an additional +symbol of him was impressed on the crown of the cap; as an eagle, a +dove, an ox, &c. emblematical of the evangelists. The weight of this +spoon is 2¼ ounces. The only mark stamped on it is an X with what appear +the remains of a crown above it, but it is very illegible. The face of +the punch was a circle three eighths of an inch in diameter. The +impression has been struck twice on the back of the handle and once +inside of the bowl, (the usual place in old spoons.) The implement was +forged, except the image of the apostle, which was cast and soldered on +the handle. It is not of English manufacture, since neither three +leopards, the ancient government stamp, nor a rampant lion, the modern +one, is impressed upon it. + +These implements are interesting, as showing the influence of religion +on the arts in mediæval times—how ingeniously ecclesiastical matters +were interwoven with almost every thing—how even a spoon was made to +infuse religious truths into the minds of children while it conveyed pap +to their mouths. + +Without being aware of the origin of the custom, says Hone in his +entertaining miscellany, many persons in Europe continue to present +spoons at christenings, though no longer adorned with imagery. + +One remark more ere Apostle spoons are dismissed: It was a custom of +remote antiquity to get up convivial feasts at the common expense of the +guests, each individual contributing his proportion either in money or +victuals. There is an allusion to it in the first book of the Odyssey:— + + * * * * * Behold I here + A banquet or a nuptial? For these + Meet not _by contribution_ to regale.—_Cowper._ + +The custom may be traced down to present times. There is a direct +reference to it in the Spanish proverb: _Huésped tardio no viene +manivacio_—‘a late guest comes not sluggishly nor empty handed;’ the +presents he brings will account for his delay. In the middle ages +donations were invariably sent by friends to feasts, whether social or +religious. Another pleasing trait of primitive manners was the exchange +of tokens of friendship between a host and an esteemed guest at parting. +Sometimes a piece of money or other small article was broken in two, one +piece being retained by each individual as a symbol and pledge of mutual +hospitality. From wealthy houses a stranger of rank was seldom allowed +to depart without a valuable gift, such as his condition or the +disposition and ability of the donor might suggest; as a faulchion, a +walking stick, vest, or tunic, &c. but more generally a golden or silver +vase or cup. Instances abound in Homer. + +It was also a practice for princes to present to each guest the goblet +he drank from at table. Of the nine thousand individuals who feasted +with Alexander at Susa, every one received a golden cup. The Roman +emperors and patricians occasionally complimented their friends in the +same way. Suetonius informs us that Claudius having suspected a visitor +of stealing a golden cup, caused him to be served at another time with +an earthenware one. Sometimes the plate used by visitors at a feast was +sent home to them on the following day—one of the most acceptable tokens +of the host’s regard. + +In later times guests did not wait to be presented with, but actually +helped themselves to articles of plate! At entertainments given on the +installations of civil or ecclesiastical dignitaries, scrambles for +silver cups, dishes, salt cellars and spoons occurred just as they have +in recent times at coronations. The practice became so common that it +was at last claimed by the robbers as a right, and was positively +recognized as such by law! It became interwoven with the tenures by +which lands and privileges were held! We have an example at page 80 of a +lord of the manor being entitled to carry off four dishes, two +salt-cellars, a cup, a wine pot, a spoon, and two wash bowls (all of +silver) from a bishop’s table; to which may be added a much later one: +When Dudly North was elected Sheriff of London (in the last century) and +knighted, he gave the usual official banquet, and selected for the +purpose one of the largest halls in the city. Several public bodies +contributed to the expense. The Middle Templars presented one hundred +guineas. In North’s life it is said, “he had diverse very considerable +presents from friends and relations, besides the compliments of the +several companies, inviting themselves and wives to dinner—dropping +their guineas, and _taking Apostle spoons_ in the room of them; which, +with what they ate and drank, and such as came in the shape of wives, +made but an indifferent bargain.” + +Another application of the spoon will hardly be anticipated by every +reader—its employment in the administration of the sacrament. The +introduction of the implement for this purpose is ascribed by old +ecclesiastical writers to St. Chrysostom; who, it is said, designed it +to prevent effusion of the chalice. The Greek Church does not allow of +_pouring_ wine into the cup; it is therefore transferred in _spoons_. +The practice is different at Rome, but as the pope claims to be the head +of both Greek and Latin churches, he combines in his person the peculiar +customs of both. + +_Fig. 11_, _Plate IV._ represents the golden spoon used when he +celebrates high mass ‘in both languages,’ and with the ceremonies common +to both churches. It is from the first volume of Motraye’s Travels, +where it is figured of full size. The bowl is 2¼ inches wide and 3 long; +the length of handle and bowl 11½ inches. With this spoon the deacon and +sub-deacon, who are generally cardinal priests, sup what remains in the +chalice after the pope has communicated. + +There can be no harm in stating here how the pope conveys the wine to +his own mouth, since he neither puts the spoon nor the cup to his lips. +As the wine is believed to be transubstantiated into real blood, it is +deemed more seemly to suck than drink it; and hence the ‘sanguisuchello +or blood-sucker,’ a small golden and highly ornamented tube, 13 inches +long, through which his holiness imbibes the consecrated fluid. [See its +figure and description in Ewbank’s Hydraulics.] At the celebration of +high mass in the cathedral church of Paris, a similar instrument is +used. [_Dict. de Trevoux, Art. Chalumeau._] But the honor of using it is +deemed so great that permission to do so is scarcely ever obtained. +Motraye tells us the king of Portugal was exceedingly zealous in +promoting the splendor of the church, but it was not till after many +solicitations that Clement XI. consented that the Archbishop of Lisbon +should celebrate mass pontifically with papal paraphernalia, but the +spoon and sanguisuchello were expressly excepted! + +This curious instrument is not of modern date. The Queen of Oviedo and +Asturia, A. D. 777, presented to one of the churches in Spain, dedicated +to St. Thyrsus, ‘a silver chalice and paten, a wash hand basin and a +_pipe_;’ which last, says Butler, in his lives of the Saints, was ‘a +silver pipe or quill to suck up the blood of Christ at the communion, +such as the pope sometimes uses; it sucks it up as a nose draws up air.’ +The use of the instrument was not formerly confined to priests; _i. e._ +not until the council of Constance took away the wine altogether from +the laity and gave it exclusively to the clergy. Peter Martyr, +complaining of the wealth and pride of the Roman clergy, quotes Beatus +Rhenanus respecting ‘certaine silver pypes, by the which prophane men, +whom they call the laitie, sucked out of the challice in the holy +supper, as though, forsooth, out of the challice itself the faithful +might not drink.’ The device was probably designed as a check—and an +ingenious one it was—to rude and ignorant converts in the dark ages, to +prevent them from taking too freely of the cup. + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 6_ _Middle Ages & Modern_ + + _Lith of E. Jones 128 Fulton S^t. N.Y._ +] + +We have seen the spoon treasured up among the regalia of kings, and here +we find it with crosiers, tiaras, sacred slippers, pastoral staffs, the +sword of St. Peter, keys of heaven, and other holy matters belonging to +the head of the church. + +The next spoon was for a different purpose than any yet described; and +so far from being a religious application of the implement, many persons +consider it a wicked one; but sinful or not, it is our duty to notice +it. Perhaps the reader’s attention in arriving thus far in this long +chapter begins to flag, and he mentally exclaims ‘would it were ended.’ +Well, there is little to add, and if he will but imitate some drowsy +people at church, by taking a sternutatory, he will arrive at the close +without feeling fatigue or ascribing his heaviness to the writer. There +are persons whose physical constitutions are so delicate that mere +thoughts of taking snuff, (and medicines generally,) produce the same +effect as inhaling the powder itself: now, if the imagination of the +reader has a similar influence over his system, he can have no +disposition to oscitate while finishing the chapter; on the contrary, +the greatest obstacle to his progress will arise from a disposition to +sneeze. + +Spoons were formerly much in vogue for taking _snuff_! Gentlemen carried +the powder in a small bottle, the neck of which was closed by a cork or +stopper, through which passed the shank of a small spoon. Sometimes the +handle of the spoon formed the head of the stopper. See _Figs. 8_ and +_9_, _Plate IV._ for a specimen of these precursors of the snuff-box. In +those days the expression was, ‘take a _spoonful_,’ instead of ‘a +_pinch_.’ Old people yet living remember this use of the spoon. The +stopper in the cut was screwed into the neck. + +The practice was most probably derived from China, for snuff is there +generally carried in vials or cruets by the wealthy, and drawn out with +a spoon. In Mr. Dunn’s celebrated Chinese collection, recently in +Philadelphia, but now in London, there is a porcelain snuff bottle of +great beauty, with a stopper of red cornelian, and a spoon of tortoise +shell. [_Descriptive Catalogue, Phila._ 1839, p. 68.] ‘A mandarin,’ says +Staunton, ‘is seldom without a small ornamented vial to hold his snuff, +of which he occasionally pours a quantity equal to a pinch upon the back +of his left hand, between the thumb and index, and carrying to his nose, +he snuffs up several times a day.’ Powdered cinnabar is often employed +for the same purpose, as opium and odorous ingredients are for smoking. +The emperor of China distributed among other presents to the members of +the Dutch embassy (of 1799) ‘little bags for tobacco, and little glass +bottles to hold snuff.’ One of these would be taken by an American or +European as a smelling bottle. With the spoon, says Dunn, they take out +the pungent dust and place it on the back of the left hand, near the +lower thumb joint, whence it is snuffed up by the olfactories to perform +its titillating office.—[_Catalogue_, p. 11.] + +With the bottle, snuff-taking was a more cleanly practice than the +present one of thrusting the finger and thumb into a box, and besmearing +the person and pockets with the contents. Laws had not then been thought +of, by which, as was subsequently enacted in some parts of Europe, those +were to lose their noses who ‘fed them with the prohibited food.’ + +Howell mentions in his letters that rustic laborers and even +maid-servants in his time were accustomed to snuff, taking out their +boxes of ‘smutchin’ and conveying it to their nostrils by a _quill_. The +Scotch highlanders take great pride in the ‘mull’ or spiral horn, which +is supported as a personal ornament from the neck or belt, and from +which they take the snuff either with a pen, quill, or _spoon_ of tin, +brass or silver, suspended by a small chain from the mull. + +Pocket handkerchiefs were never very common with the Gael, and yet +something of the kind seems indispensable to inveterate snuff takers; +but men in every clime, when destitute of artificial conveniences, are +soon furnished by nature with appropriate substitutes. It is so with the +people of North Britain. Along with the spoon there dangles at their +breast a _hare’s foot_, with which they brush off superfluous particles +from the regions of the nostrils and lips. The sensations produced by +the use of this natural duster, it is said, are far more delicate and +pleasing than the application of a bandana. + +The people of Madagascar use snuff, but in a manner very different from +inhabitants of the western world. These take it at the nose, but the +Malagasy prefers the mouth. Putting a spoonful between the under lip and +the teeth, he sucks it at leisure, affirming that a more lasting and +exquisite pleasure is derived from it _there_ than from momentary +sniffs. Snuff was used by the ancient Mexicans. + +_Nose powder_ or snuff is mentioned in an ancient burlesque poem, on the +laying of a ghost, inserted by Walter Scott, in the appendix to his +introduction to the minstrelsy of the Scottish border. The ingredients +required by the exorcist were as numerous and select as those used by +the witches in Macbeth. Besides plants and holy water, there were +fox-tails, teeth of an old horse, crabs’ claws, a dog’s ear, blue wool, +a pig’s tooth, the tail of a sow, &c. and “of _neis powder_ ane grit +loik.” + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + _Old Pocket Spoons—Costume—Cutlers and Tailors. Pockets—their Origin, + History and Influence—Derived from the Poke. Pocketing Sleeves. + Valets. Ladies’ Pockets—Reticules—Capacity and Strange Contents of Old + Pockets—Material and Manufacture. Curious Old Folding + Spoon—Conjectures respecting its owner. Forks—Of Uncertain Origin and + Date—Ancient Egyptians at Dinner—Boarding Schools—Washing before and + after Meals, and why—Anglo Saxons at Dinner—Forks denounced by the + Clergy—Combined with the Spoon—Historical Notices of them._ + + +PLATE V. _Figs. 1_ and _2_ are French spoons of the sixteenth century. +The style of _Fig. 2_ (a shell and wreathed handle) is occasionally +adopted in modern specimens. _Fig. 1_—of silver gilt, and designed for +the pocket. It consists of three distinct pieces, which joined together, +form a spoon as in the figure, but when separated each serves a +different purpose. The lower part of the handle forms a _fork_, the +prongs of which fit into loops soldered on the back of the bowl; the +upper extremity unscrews, and when taken off, presents a toothpick. A +little above the bowl there is a joint by which, on removing a small +ring that covers it, the whole may be folded up so as to occupy a very +small space. + +‘Folding spoons,’ as they were named, were not rare in the 16th and 17th +centuries. In the Progresses of Elizabeth we read of a golden one, and +numerous specimens are still extant. They were, we believe, like clasp +or folding knives, one of the results of a change in costume. Does the +reader smile at this, and ask what they could have to do with dress? At +the first glance we admit the connection is not obvious; nevertheless +they really were, and are, as much allied to POCKETS, as ever were +long-handled ones to ruffs. In other words, if pockets had never been +known, folding spoons like folding knives had never been made. + +When knives had no joint at the junction of the handle and blade, they +were worn pendant in sheaths at the side, as cooks, stevedores and +sailors still wear them. Rich men and scholars sometimes attached them +to silver or gilt chains that went round the neck. Chaucer thus carried +his penknife, as seen in some of his portraits. Ladies now wear watches +much in the same way, and so do gentlemen reading glasses. But when the +tunic and toga gave place to the coat, and the modern vest superseded +the doublet, multitudes of portable implements were expressly designed +for and named after the novel receptacles which the new garments brought +into vogue—as pocket-books, pocket-glasses, pocket-knives, pocket-combs, +&c. &c. Then came in also snuff-boxes in place of the old bottle, with +hundreds of other pocket devices, which a dealer alone can +enumerate—devices that never were thought of before. Where pockets have +been made for one thing, a thousand things have been contrived for +pockets. To the _tailor_, therefore, manufacturers of small articles in +hardware, tortoise shell, ivory and pearl, are more indebted than they +probably imagine. As for spoons, it is clear the same artist had a hand +in bringing jointed ones into fashion, just as mantuamakers once caused +the handles of ordinary ones to be lengthened. + +One might almost suspect collusion between knights of the file and those +of the scissors! Did ancient Sheffield workmen furnish contemporary +shapers of apparel with bodkins, needles and thimbles, with shears and +smoothing irons _gratis_, on condition of bringing pockets into fashion, +and multiplying their variety? The offer of such a bribe would have been +a proof of far-seeing sagacity, since every species of pocket, from +those of an overcoat to the latent watch-fob, has made fortunes for +fancy cutlers, for ages, and will make them for ages to come. + +POCKETS.—In noticing pocket-spoons, perhaps we are expected to say +something on pockets. Of all tasks, such an one would be to our taste; +but it would be digressing too far to enter on so diverting, instructive +and copious a subject; or even give a sketch of these curious +contrivances, of which it is supposed the classical ancients knew +nothing. Still it is scarcely proper to pass them wholly without notice, +since their connection with spoons is already apparent, and must as we +proceed become more so. Shades of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Quintilian +and Burke! what a subject for eloquence and sublimity is here! One +fraught with materials for the richest paper ever read before a society +of Chiffonniers—one charged, like pockets themselves, with entertaining +miscellanies with gems and gimcracks, treasures and trifles, antiques +and uniques! A dish flavored with spices, one over which the eyes of +literary gourmands would glisten and their pulse throb quicker as they +seated themselves to enjoy it! + +We know not how sufficiently to admire the ingenuity displayed in the +origin and disposition on the person of these flexible little cupboards, +for hiding what we wish to conceal, securing what we are anxious to +preserve and for having always at hand what may every moment be wanted. +To deduce their descent from the primitive girdle, oriental sash, +philosopher’s red scrip, pilgrim’s wallet, and beggar’s unctuous +pouch—to trace them through every shape and disguise, and enumerate the +diverse uses to which they have been put, would indeed be a feast of +good things and of queer things. But, alas! no literary cuisinier can +now procure the necessary ingredients. Such has been the inconsistency +of historians that the annals of pockets have never been written, while +memorials of old pocket-makers have been suffered to perish. Some +valuable matter may of course yet be collected, and among other sources +from Newgate calendars—from the lives and exploits of scientific +analyzers of pockets—a class of men profoundly versed in their +capacities, secret locations, approaches and uses. This branch of +biography, we opine, must be studied ere a standard and luminous +treatise on the subject can be written. + +The history of a pocket would be a journal of the owner’s thoughts—a +record of his motives; for in this adjunct to his dress lies coiled up +the spring of his actions—the secret power that moves him. ‘The pocket’ +is every thing to man—from it comfort and consequence proceed. He who +hunting the dark recesses of one finds nothing, is nobody; but to the +pocket of the rich annuitant all do reverence. Strange that this little +sack should be the fount of men’s hopes and despair, the source of their +sorrows and pleasures, the subject of their thoughts by day and dreams +by night—they flourish with it and sicken as it dries up. When it +expands so does their joy; when it shrinks their pleasures are fled. The +highest enjoyment is to fill it—the deepest distress to feel it void. + +All the excitement in the world is about pockets! One party putting +their hands in, and the other striving to keep them out—some going +deeper than the owners think right, and others appealing to the law to +make them submit. Yonder fat publishers laugh at the profit they make, +and here sits a lean author, shedding tears over the pittance they give +him. The former are at peace with themselves and the world; the latter +is at war with his tailor and dreads the sight of his butcher and baker. +A history of pockets would make startling disclosures and correct many +errors. Some would be found empty which rumor crams full, while in +others supposed not to contain a maravedi a plum lies concealed. + +Abolish pockets and the world will stand still, for every man lives by +putting his hand into his neighbor’s. It is his business—the only one by +which he gets breads. To facilitate this reciprocal attention to each +other’s purses, merchants meet on ’Change, shops are furnished, stores +erected, markets established and ships put afloat. For this, worshippers +of Mercury adore him, and disciples of St. Nicholas pray. All the +inequalities in human condition arise from the various modes of +performing the operation: to do it adroitly is the science and +apparently the sole purpose of life. Few minds can comprehend the +multiplicity of devices by which pockets are exhausted, replenished and +made to run over; nor is the genius yet born who can unravel them +all:—but a truce to such thoughts and let us glance for a moment at +pockets themselves. + +Their name, as every body knows, is derived from the _poke_—a sack for +carrying grain to feed cattle, and sometimes small animals to +market—hence the expression “to buy a pig in a poke.” Reduced in +dimensions, it was adopted for holding victuals for men, and +subsequently implements to eat with. It soon assumed a great variety of +shapes, sizes and names. As a wallet both ends were closed, with an +entrance through a slit in the middle, so that when slung over the +shoulder, one moiety of the contents was suspended before and another +behind—a species of biped saddle-bags. As a simple purse it was still +more reduced and carried in the hand like a satchel or hung over the +wrist. The next form was by far the most common, and we may safely infer +the most useful—that of the _pouch_. This ancient and most favored of +all forerunners of pockets was located at a different part of the +person. Suspended from the girdle by strings or over the shoulders by a +strap, it hung at the hips, either on the right side or left, (though +sometimes in front,) so that the hand could enter, remain in, or be +withdrawn, without inconvenience and with little effort. It is to the +pouch we are indebted for outside coat pockets and ‘poches des +culottes.’ + +As a bag or purse, the material was commonly linen or silk, and the +mouth drawn close with strings; but as a pouch it was leather, sometimes +prepared with the fur on, and the entrance left _open_—a serious +inconvenience, since the opening became wider as the contents +increased—inviting the notice of inquisitive people, and leading the +patriarchs of pickpockets into constant temptation; moreover, in wet +weather rain dripped in from upper parts of the dress, as into a gutter +from the eaves of a house. These evils were removed by the invention of +covers or _flaps_—an ingenious device for turning off water and shutting +out from public gaze the treasures within. + +The epoch of flaps is not well ascertained, but their antiquity is +beyond cavil. In old cuts they are not always distinguishable, because +artists were ignorant of the importance of delineating them distinctly. +Clovis, who flourished in the fifth century, is represented with a purse +or pouch at his girdle, very like a modern lady’s work bag. In 1285 we +find a French gentleman with one shaped like the curved blade of an axe +or a leather-cutter’s knife. Another specimen of the same century is +plain, six or seven inches deep and nearly as many broad. A Parisian of +A. D. 1400, sports one of a hemispherical shape, handsomely fluted or +crimped; but these, belonging to fashionable people, deviated from +flapped pouches of the commonalty. [See _Art du Tailleur, par Gausault_, +published by the Academy in Arts et Metières, and numerous examples of +the Anglo-Saxon pouch in Strutt.] Leather pouches were staple articles +of the shoemaker or cordwainer’s art. In the ‘Orbis Pictus’ of +Commenius, the professor of those mysteries is at work, making them with +pointed and other fashionable formed flaps and bodies. They were +universally worn by people in the middle ranks of life, down to the +seventeenth century, and by the poor in the eighteenth. We believe they +are not yet wholly laid aside. + +The next improvement was to secure the flaps. This was sometimes +accomplished by a simple button: careful people had often two, and at +one time three were quite common, just as outside coat pockets were +fitted fifty years ago. These were indeed literal pouches fastened near +that part of the person where they formerly hung, and with covers larger +than those of a cartridge-box. Flaps were often edged with wrought +borders and adorned with a row of gilt buttons. The pouch was sometimes +provided with a minute padlock, like those used with valises, a +precaution for keeping strangers’ hands out, which we do not remember +having seen adopted by tailors. + +As coats, vests, and culottes rose into favor, wallets and pouches died +off; but they left ere they vanished a prolific brood of hybrids behind. +These are now classified under the generic names of the garments to +which they belong; as cloak, coat, waistcoat and overcoat pockets, +pockets for jackets, pantaloons, &c. Some are named from their location; +as outside, inside, right and left handed pockets; and others again +after the articles they are intended to hold. One is devoted to the +handkerchief, a second to the gloves, a third to an eye or ogling glass, +a fourth to a tooth pick, pencil case and knife. Some are for money and +memoranda, watches, snuff boxes, small change, and indescribable +sundries. Professional men have professional pockets; as surgeons, +mechanics, and sportsmen; the first for their instruments, the second +for rules and measuring tapes, the third for ammunition and game. +Pockets for the last article are as capacious as knapsacks, and when +full often weigh down the owner, like Issachar’s ass under a couple of +panniers. Ere pockets were invented, sportsmen were content with less +elaborate arrangements. Strutt has engraved the figure of an Anglo-Saxon +gentleman, scouring the fields without a hat or any covering to his +head; his arms are a quiver and bow, while his game (which he shot +flying) are strung round his belt, forming a picturesque fringe composed +of brant, snipe and quail. + +Instead of the solitary pouch of our forefathers, pockets have become so +very numerous that it is difficult to tell how many some gentlemen +carry; always a pair, but often from three to five in the coat, two to +four in the vest, as many in the pants, while in stormy weather an equal +number in the great coat or surtout—and yet these are not enough, since +we often see people stow away in their hats what they cannot find room +for any where else—imitating prudent skippers who pile freight on deck +for want of room in the hold. A person is now enveloped in pockets; they +are suspended so thickly about him, that he would formerly have been +taken for an itinerant ‘pochetier,’ or a merchant of new-fashioned +‘escarcelles.’ + +As fashion is governed by whim, some whimsical pockets have come into +fashion—as the ‘pocketing sleeves’ of the eleventh and twelfth +centuries. These did not resemble the modern ‘bishop sleeve,’ but were +long pendant pokes, which hung from men’s arms like orioles’ nests, and +from ladies’ wrists like carpet bags. Modifications of them are yet worn +by Spanish and Portuguese monks. Head, in his notes on the Pampas, +mentions supping at an apology for an inn with a travelling priest. +After finishing the meal, the reverend gentleman thrust his hand “into +the large sleeve of his white serge gown and pulled out some cigars.” +Old writers state that these pockets were usually searched before their +wearers could be admitted into kings’ houses, and in some cases before +retiring; the conveniences which they presented for concealing things +surreptitiously acquired, gave rise to some strange petty larcenies. + +Richard Brathwait, in his ‘Rules for the government of the house of an +Earle,’ charges the usher of the dining hall to give a sharp look out, +lest those who wait at table pocket the victuals; ‘and I very well like +the order I have seene in some noble houses, that neither yeoman, +groome, nor gentleman’s man, must be suffered to wait in a cloake, but +in their livery coates, [garments fitted close to the body,] for so were +they easier to be seene if they carried forthe any meat that they ought +not to doe.’ Hence there was after all nothing very extraordinary in +Hudibras securing bread, black-puddings and cheese in his trunk hose, or +Sancho stowing away in similar cavities boiled capons and sausage. Those +who kept porters’ lodges, [entrances to castles,] Brathwait observes, +“should be men tall and stronge; they are to looke diligently that none +filch and carry out at the gates meate or any thing else.” For the same +reason Roman slaves who served at table were clothed only in tunics and +girt with a towel. Visitors used their own napkins which a servant +carried to the feast and took back, and in it generally part of the +victuals—sometimes they were detected carrying off articles of plate. + +So much for men’s pockets: those of the ladies are more interesting +affairs; but having been admonished to let them alone, at least to +refrain from all remarks on modern ‘poches des dames,’ we shall only +take a peep at such as our grandmothers wore. Indeed it would require a +more inquisitive disposition than ours to detect, and more assurance to +describe the devices by which young ladies avoid carrying the enormous +pouches in fashion a century ago. We have neither the requisite +knowledge nor nerve. To be sure, we have occasionally seen belles, when +preparing for shopping, thrust their money between the glove and palm of +the hand, and others use cuffs of the pelisse for the purpose; while in +cold weather they carry small parcels in muffs. Billets-doux and +souvenirs are concealed in the bosom—a favorite place for favorite +things—a convenient one too for papers of thread, and other things of +that sort, in the absence of a work-bag—as Grecian and Roman ladies well +knew. + +But there never was half the subtlety employed in concealing the pockets +of females as those of the ruder sex. The French lady’s apron is +provided with two pockets in front, as if inviting inspection. +Originally devised by ‘une marchande’ as a substitute for the till, it +was found so convenient for other things besides change as to become +adopted by those who had nothing to sell. The famed reticule is carried +in the hand, in every one’s sight, and even laid like the bonnet aside +when its owner is not disposed to walk out. Its materials and +decorations are surprisingly varied; sometimes formed of net work (hence +its name) of links of silver or steel, like flexible armor of old; now +made of shells, of seeds and glass beads, of rich colored velvets and +silks, and enriched with lace. In public promenades, swinging to and fro +from the arms, these beautiful things reflect rays tinctured with azure, +crimson and gold, reminding one of the plumage of tropical birds in the +sun. + +In articles of taste ladies take the lead—reticules are examples; for in +them pockets have got back to the old pendant pouch. Having run through +the entire circle of fashion, they have reached the point where they +began, and are ready to run it again. This is an advance which the male +sex has not attained; as in other circles, the beaux are here doomed to +follow the belles. + +But we are forgetting our promise to let pockets of living ladies alone, +and notice simply such as belonged to frugal housewives in days gone by. +Of a truth, theirs _were_ pockets!—receptacles, redolent of other +perfumes than camphor or musk, and replete with other things than ladies +now carry. Characteristic of rude times, they were doomed to hard +service. At first they were made of the most durable of woven fabrics, +but so great was the wear and tear that eventually well tanned leather +superseded every other material. In shape many of them resembled an +inverted heart, but more were like a violin and in size a violoncello. +Into one of these capacious _cul de sacs_ a dozen reticules might have +been put, a muff thrown in, and room be left. Let those who doubt this, +if any such there be, enquire of an ancient farmer’s wife, and they will +doubt no more. + +Besides doing duty as a purse or money drawer, we have known one hold a +clasp-knife for paring apples and ripping up seams, half a dozen silver +spoons, supposed to be safe no where else; a bunch of keys, bits of +ginger, cinnamon, and straggling cloves, metallic tractors, a box of +salve, a pincushion, thimble, scissors, a leather case well stocked with +bodkins, needles, tape and hanks of thread. The marbles of the owner’s +favorite boy were thus secured each day, till he returned from school. A +set of knitting needles with their sheath found lodgings there, and +often folded in a half formed stocking, with the ball of yarn to finish +it. There were other matters, but we forbear to specify them. It would +be difficult to do so, because into this _omnium gatherum_ all things +were placed for which no other place was found—a kind of moving closet, +into which, in sweeping round a house, the odds and ends were +swept—things so various and select as would suffice to stock a curiosity +shop. + +It will at once be understood that pockets such as these were not +suspended to any part of the attire: no gingham gown, nor silk, nor +cotton stuff could long support the load without being rent to tatters. +No! they were strapped round the person independently of the dress—a +necessary precaution! They were worn at the right side, except the fair +owner was an ambidexter, when they took the left. In large households a +lady preferred _two_, thus dividing the load and making one half balance +the other; at the same time preventing the wearer from the risk of being +dragged down on one side and becoming deformed in the spine. It was at +one time common to wear them on the outside of the gown, when they were +generally ornamented with stars, rings and lovers’ knots, in various +colored leather. Sometimes the owner or the donor’s name was wrought in +‘chain stitch,’ and like samplers with a motto underneath. + +Justice to a class of scientific artists, now no more, requires us to +state that these pockets were not the work of women. The severe labor to +which they were subjected when in use, required a corresponding amount +to be expended on their fabrication: this, as in the case of shoes, +saddlery, and other departments of the leather trade, was deemed too +great for females; hence housewives were indebted for their pockets, as +well as corsets, to old ‘stay makers.’ + +A marked relationship in the dress of the sexes is ever observable. If +the costume of one sex be neat, elegant, or bizarre, so is that of the +other. They partake of each other’s character, and are assimulated, +though in a way not easily described; but look at works of costume from +Roman times to our own, and this curious fact will be apparent. It is so +to some extent even with pockets. When those of our grandmothers were +all but fathomless, our grandfathers had theirs made of equal +dimensions. When ladies wore high caps and copious gowns tucked out +behind, gentlemen had their hair worked up in crests like cockatoos, and +clad themselves in coats whose skirts were not like ours, +“swallowtailed,” but broad and projecting, _a la_ fan-tailed pigeons. + +Let us now return to spoons: _Fig. 3_, _Plate V._ is another old pocket +or folding one. The original, lying before us, is of silver. Like the +one already described, its handle forms a fork. Having been purchased by +a silversmith with other worn out plate, its history is unknown. From +the style of the workmanship and other more obvious marks of antiquity, +it would seem to date from a much earlier period than _Fig. 1_. The bowl +is 2¾ inches long and 1¾ wide, and of a moderate depth; the length of +bowl and handle when united, 6½ inches. Folded, the whole is comprised +in less room than an ordinary snuff box. The jointed handle is shown +separately at _Fig. 4_. The lower part, where united to the fork, is +plain and square—a portion of which is removed on one side, leaving a +recess into which the small shank of the fork is received; so that when +the little sliding and ornamented tube is slipped over both, a perfect +fork is made. _Fig. 5_—the back of the bowl, showing five oblong loops, +through which the prongs were pushed when the owner wished to transfer +liquid food to his lips. + +An interesting feature, and one indicative of considerable antiquity, is +the _death’s head_, and round it the well known admonition, ‘_memento +mori_,’ engraved on the bowl—the initials of the melancholy owner +standing on each side like armorial supporters to this graveyard +emblazonry. The letters and writing are rudely executed, much more so +than appears in the cut. + +Possibly the implement belonged to some pious recluse who doomed himself +to self-torture, and took this mode of mortifying his flesh—causing an +image of the grim monster to stare him in the face with every mouthful +he swallowed—a device by which the horrors of the charnel house were +associated with the dining table! Quite a refinement on the practice of +the ancient Egyptians—a people naturally lively and jocose, and whom the +priests, as guardians of their morality, had considerable difficulty to +keep within bounds. At convivial parties, Herodotus informs us (ii. 78) +a coffin containing a perfect image of a dead person was carried round +to every guest, the bearer requesting him to look on, and remember he +would soon resemble it—an ingenious contrivance to keep people sober—but +the owner of the spoon went further; he actually put into his mouth a +grinning death’s head when he tasted his food, and repeated the +operation with every morsel he ate. Custom is all powerful, or such a +mode of taking dinner would stay some people’s stomachs ere dinner +began. + +Numerous were the inventions in past ages for conquering rebellious +appetites. Most of them had relation to abstinence; as with the Yogees +and other sects of India, of which some individuals, though watched +closely, were never seen to eat, and were therefore esteemed most holy. +There is certainly nothing like fasting for subduing the passions, and +it is really astonishing how far it has been carried. Red lettered +eremites, in whose constitutions a craving for food predominated, +heroically endured the constant pangs of hunger and thirst, with the +view of fairly starving the wicked ones out. Some limited themselves to +two or three spoonfuls of thin pottage a day, and with it actually +‘mixed dirt’ to punish the palate, or sprinkled in ‘grit’ to set the +teeth on an edge! They sorrowed because they could not exist without +eating. From some accounts it would seem as if each spoonful was +accompanied to the mouth with a groan, while streams of tears often made +it run over! No wonder that such men checked indulgence in themselves +and other people by engraving emblems of death on table utensils. + +Perhaps it will be said, severe disciplinarians used simple spoons of +wood or horn, while the one under consideration, being of silver, was +not suited to a sorrowful penitent. True; hence if it really belonged to +a monastery, it perhaps had a place in the abbot’s buffet. These men, we +know, ‘lived well,’ bodily as well as spiritually; they were no +strangers to creature comforts. ‘Table d’Abbe’ was a proverbial +expression for a splendidly furnished board. They were served in plate, +and with considerable state too; so were lady abbesses also; but we +cannot think this spoon was ever owned by a nun—no female could of +choice love to contemplate (in the ornament on the back) the figure her +face was destined to make, nor did any one ever wish her beauty to fade. +The lady of the cloister no more than her sister of the ball room was +ever insensible to personal charms or indifferent about her appearance +in the eyes of mankind. + +With the implement, then, we may suppose some superior of a convent +moderately cherished his body, especially on meagre days; and as an +exterior sign of interior grace had a symbol of mortification cut on +the outside of the bowl. Perhaps many a lesson on fasting was given to +his attendants with this spoon in his hand—serious homilies on the +evils of good cheer, and the blessings heaven bestows on the +abstemious—blessings, we may presume, evinced in the shining face, the +_en bon point_ and comely appearance of his reverence. But other +thoughts were indulged and other scenes enacted when his table was +cleared, and the spoon, with the dishes, found their way to the +kitchen or refectory, where the lay brethren dined, out of his sight +and out of his hearing! Verily, all the stories extant about +monasteries and monks would be well nigh eclipsed by a week’s +table-talk held in the presence of an old abbot’s spoon. + +Possibly some reader exclaims, ‘this is all well enough, if the +implement ever had a place in a convent—it more likely was owned by a +layman; the initials imply as much, while the female bust on the handle +was not by any means appropriate for a priest either to handle or look +on.’ There is some force in these remarks. Well, let us see to whom it +could have belonged—not to an Englishman certainly, since neither the +maker’s nor the government stamp is impressed on it. It is from +continental Europe, and if made to order was designed for a gentleman +acquainted with mythology and versed in the classics. The handle, +representing a nymph and twisted serpents, indicates this. Now who could +he be? The initials are A. L.—perhaps Alphonso Ledesma, the Spanish +poet, who died in 1623; or Andrea Lanzano, the Italian painter; but +poets and painters are generally poor, and many, like Cervantes and +Morland, never owned any plate; we shall therefore conclude that Andrew +Laguna, the rich and favorite physician of Charles V. once owned it. If +such _was_ the fact, this spoon was, probably often in the company of +the most famous men of the age. It may have been even handled by +Columbus himself, after returning from his immortal adventure. + +Other readers may think the implement was originally made for the +_special_ use of an individual: very possible, and on second thoughts we +may be sure none but a niggard, afraid of his victuals, or a miser like +Elwes could have made a practice of putting such an one into guests’ +hands. + +After all it is no great matter who the owner was. It has obviously +existed through two, possibly three or even four centuries, and has seen +much service. Many are the mouths it has opened, the palates it has +tickled, the stomachs it has comforted, the tongues it has silenced, and +peradventure blistered by hastily leaving scalding pottage in the mouth. +But alas! where now are the eyes that once glistened over it, the wits +seated at tables it has graced? Having outlived them all, it appears in +a land of strangers; a wanderer in another hemisphere. Could this +venerable relic give an account of its former proprietors, tell us who +and what they were, how they lived and where they died, how it came +among and why parted from them—could it describe their persons, tempers, +and conditions, the friends they entertained and the families they +visited—few novels would surpass, perhaps none equal the story in +interest. + +FORKS.—As the handles of some old spoons were separable from the bowls, +so as to be used as _forks_, we may as well devote the concluding pages +of this chapter to the latter. The transition from pocket-spoons to +pocket-forks is easy enough, but when both implements are joined +together, their descriptions should not be apart. + +There is something singular in the history of forks. Though of modern +date, as little is known of their origin as that of spoons. The author +of one is as much lost to fame as the inventor of the other. It is +certain that people of the ancient world took dinner without forks. All +raised victuals to their mouths as orientals do now; hot and thin +liquids with spoons, and butcher’s meat with the fingers. Even in the +advanced state of society and manners under the Pharaohs, Egyptians held +cooked joints and roasted fowls in one hand while shaving off slices +with a knife in the other. In one of the paintings copied by Rossilini +representing a feasting party, a gentleman flourishes a joint of venison +or lamb, two are eating fish which they retain in their fingers, while a +fourth is actually separating the wing of a goose with the same +instruments. This may have been an exception to the general practice, +though if so, why it should have been selected for record on eternal +tablets of stone, it is not easy to divine. These tablets present the +most ancient pictures in existence of feasts. It is not till some four +thousand years later we meet with table forks. These are not found +portrayed in sculptures, nor paintings or engravings till the 17th +century, yet pictorial delineations of Roman, Asiatic, Norman, and +Anglo-Saxon domestic life abound. + +The absence of forks at Jewish tables is sufficiently evident from the +affecting declaration of the Savior: ‘He that dippeth his hand with me +in the dish, the same shall betray me’—the identical mode of eating +still followed in Palestine. We know from Roman writers, that to take +food from a dish without unnecessarily immersing the fingers, was a part +of the education of youth of both sexes. Ovid has versified the lesson: + + “Your meat genteelly with your fingers raise; + And, as in eating there’s a certain grace, + Beware, with greasy hands, lest you besmear your face.” + +The same advice was imparted to boys and girls of ancient Greece. It is +now impressed upon their offspring by the polite Persian, Turk and +Hindoo. Boarding schools are of extreme antiquity, (ii. Kings, iv. 38.) +and Pharaonic as well as Jewish proprietors taught young masters and +misses to behave not unseemly at table. Chaucer mentions a school at +Bow, where girls were initiated in the arts of fashionable life; among +other acquirements they were taught how to avoid putting their hands too +deep in the dish. Somewhat similar advice was given to European ladies +in the seventeenth century, and Quixote praises Sancho for his +attainments in this branch of politeness. + +It was the want of forks which gave rise to the old practice of washing +before and after meals—one for which the ceremonious Pharisees were so +tenacious, and with which they combined many ridiculous superstitions. +The custom was demanded by decency, when plates were not in use and each +person at dinner thrust his hand into one common dish. What could be +more offensive to natural propriety than an individual fishing up from +that dish gobbets of flesh with fingers only washed with the soup! To +the decent as well as the delicate, the sight must ever be abhorrent. A +subsequent ablution was as necessary to personal comfort as the first +was to the company’s enjoyment of their food. When pocket handkerchiefs +were not in vogue, what else could a lady or gentleman do while their +fingers were streaming with the fluid material of a ragout, or coated +with the glutinous remains of a bowl of rich cuscous? They must either +have wiped them dry on the hair of their heads, or rubbed off what they +could on their garments. The process of washing the hands, and the +utensils employed, are described at page 83, as used in Europe in the +sixteenth century. Later still the custom was common. In Commenius’ +Visible World there is a cut representing a feast. The guests being +brought in, wash their hands by holding them over a basin presented by a +servant, who pours out water from an ewer. The reader who is desirous of +beholding orientals dining on the favorite ragout may consult the cuts +in Lane’s Modern Egyptians, and illustrated works on Eastern manners. If +he wishes to see how occidentals formerly managed roasted joints let him +cast his eyes on the cut below, copied from Strutt: + +[Illustration: + + ANGLO-SAXON NOBLES OR PRINCES AT DINNER. +] + +Three Anglo-Saxon nobles or princes at dinner! Their rank is indicated +by being served on the knee. The number was one most preferred in +classical eras for convivial parties. These, it was said, ought never to +consist of fewer persons than the Graces nor more than the Muses. The +round table is covered by an ample cloth upon which are placed bowls or +deep dishes, but no plates. One of the party only is supplied with a +spoon; he seems in the act of calling to his attendant, perhaps for +soup. His associates amuse themselves with solider things; one is +engaged in separating a slice from a joint presented on the rod on which +it was roasted. To facilitate the operation, he grasps one end of the +spit while the waiter holds fast the other. The gentleman with a beard +appears indetermined whether to follow the example or first finish the +fish in his hand. + +Here is ocular proof how indispensable was the washing of hands _after_ +dinner, and this old painting is in all essential points a mere +fac-simile of others which might be produced, of earlier and later +dates. The reader may find specimens in D’Agincourt’s History of the +Arts. Plate 71 shows a royal party at a table furnished much in the same +style as the foregoing. To assist digestion and gratify two senses at +once, a fiddler stands by, playing a favorite air. The date is about the +11th century. But so late as the middle of the 17th century, it was +common for carvers to _handle_ flesh meats at table. In 1641 a festival +was held at Paris by the _Savetiers_. One gentleman grasps the shank of +a leg of mutton while cutting it up, to supply the plate of a lady +beside him. It is hence obvious that the unbecoming practice of ‘licking +the fingers,’ attributed as a crime to ancient turnspits, was not +unknown to their betters—that kings as well as cobblers were guilty of +it daily. + +The attendants in the cut wear tunics, and apparently are girt with +towels. Each holds a trencher, the essential requisite of an Anglo-Saxon +page. He was never allowed to wait at table without it; a good reason +for which is furnished by the illustration: held under the smoking +joint, it caught the dripping gravy and such pieces of meat as a guest +when carving might let fall. [The rich subject of _spits_ must be left +for future papers which the Society of Chiffonniers intend to issue.] + +Perhaps some readers imagine the want of forks was sensibly felt in old +times, and that they were eagerly adopted as soon as they appeared. No +such thing. We regret to say their introduction was violently opposed, +and a storm of abuse poured on the heads of their users. Even the +clergy, who ought to have known better, preached against them as a +wicked innovation. Among others, the Benedictines of St. Maur declared +them inconsistent with the scriptural mode of living, as exemplified by +the patriarchs, prophets, and especially by the great exemplar and his +apostles—an abominable violation of primitive manners! But +notwithstanding the denunciation of table forks by friars and monks, the +very people among whom the pope had his seat were the first to receive +them. They were first domesticated in Italy in the 16th century, but +were certainly known there before, either as luxuries or curiosities. + +As early as the 11th and 12th centuries they were occasionally used by +the wealthy. Peter Damiani, who died A. D. 1073, mentions in one of his +letters a lady of Constantinople, married to a doge of Venice, and who, +among other strange fancies, required rain water to wash in, and used a +_golden_ fork to eat with. But this does not determine the date or place +of their invention. It does not appear that they were quite novel things +then—nay, a silver fork has been found at Pompeii; so that they were not +absolutely unknown to some of the fashionables of antiquity. + +Forks are mentioned in a charter of Ferdinand I. of Spain, A. D. 1101. +In the wardrobe account of Edward I. king of England, ‘a pair of knives +with sheathes of silver enameled, and a forcke of chrystal’ are +specified. In 1595, Queen Elizabeth dined at Kew, at the house of Sir +John Pickering, who presented her with a rich fan, the handle of which +was set with diamonds; an artificial nosegay composed of jewels, “and to +grace him the more, she, of herself, took from him a salt, a spoone, and +a forcke of fair agatte.” At the same period they were looked on as +curiosities in France. Brathwait, who wrote his ‘Rules’ in the early +part of the reign of James I. is silent on forks, though full on the +minutest matters. The groom of the pantry was “to keepe the saltes, +spoones, and knives very faire and cleane.” + +It was owing to their being made portable that eventually brought forks +into vogue. Travellers, gentlemen, delicate ladies, young beaux, and all +who disliked to feed out of dishes into which the fingers of a company +were unceremoniously thrust, carried their eating apparatus in a case or +cadenas. The eighty-second proposition of the Marquis of Worcester’s +famous Century of Inventions is a proof in point;—“A knife, spoon, or +fork, in an _usual_ portable case, may have the like conveyance in their +handles;” i.e. secret devices might be concealed in them. Nichols +mentions knives with ‘conceytes’ in the handles—a toothpick for example, +as in a spoon already described. Great ingenuity was displayed in things +of this kind and not a little pride indulged in them by the wearers—like +the conceited fop in Gil Blas who carried his gloves and handkerchief in +the hilt of his sword. The oldest forks were generally of silver. Henry +IV. of France had one of steel. Heylin attributes their introduction +into England to young men of fashion, but errs, we think, in ascribing +them to the Chinese: “The use of silver forks with us, by some of our +spruce gallants taken up _of late_, came from China to Italy, and from +thence to England.”—[_Cosmog._ p. 865.] + +In the cut of a feast in Commenius, besides trenchers, cups, glasses, +knives, and other table furniture, there are “=little forks=,” not much +unlike those figured on Plate VI. which date from an earlier period. In +1611, Coryatt, the eccentric English traveller was ridiculed by writers +and wits for using forks. Their introduction into Britain has been +erroneously ascribed to him. They were previously known there as we have +seen, but the book of his travels made the public more familiar with +them: + +“I observed,” he says “a custom in all those Italian cities and townes +through the which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I +saw in my travels; neither do I think that any other nation of +Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The Italian and most strangers +that are commorant [dwelling] in Italy, do alwaies at their meales _use +a little forke_, when they cut their meate. For while with their knife, +which they hold in one hand, they cut the meate out of the dish, they +fasten their forke, which they hold in the other hand, upon the same +dish. So that whatsoever he be, that sitting in the company of any +others at meale, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meate with his +fingers, from which all at the table doe eat, he will give occasion of +offense unto the company, as having transgressed the lawes of good +manners; insomuch that for his error he shall be at least brow-beaten, +if not reprehended in words. This forme of feeding, I understand, is +generally used in all places in Italy, their forkes being for the most +part made of yron or steele, and some of silver; but these are used only +by gentlemen. The reason of this their curiosity is, because the Italian +cannot by any means have his dish touched with fingers, seeing all men’s +fingers are not alike cleane—hereupon I myself thought good, to imitate +the Italian fashion, by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I +was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I +came home: being once quipped for that frequent using of my forke, by a +certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, one Master +Laurence Whitaker, who in his merry humour doubted not to call me +_furcifer_, only for using a forke at feeding.” + +In the preceding extract, we have a view of Italian gentlemen ‘feeding’ +in the beginning of the 17th century. In the following passage we obtain +an insight into British manners during the middle of it:—“A gentlewoman +being at table, abroad or at home, must observe to keep her body +straighte, and lean not by any means upon her elbowes—nor by ravenous +gesture discover a voracious appetite. Talke not when you have meate in +your mouth; and do not smacke like a pig—nor eat spoonemeat so hot that +the tears stand in your eyes. It is very uncourtly to drink so large a +draught that your breath is almost gone, and you are forced to blow +strongly to recover yourselfe. Throwing down your liquor as, into a +funnel, is an action fitter for a juggler than a gentlewoman. In carving +at your own table, distribute the best pieces first, and it will appear +very decent and comely to _use a forke_; so touch no piece of meat +without it.” This elegant extract is from ‘_The Accomplished Lady’s Rich +Closet of Rarities_.’ London, 1653. + +To conclude: That forks were known in Spain when Cervantes wrote, is +obvious from the address of Quixote to Don Antonio in praise of Squire +Pansa: ‘In truth, Sancho’s temperance and cleanliness in eating deserve +to be engraved on plates of brass, to remain an eternal memorial for +ages to come. I must confess when he is hungry, he seems to be somewhat +of a glutton, for he eats fast and chews on both sides of his mouth; but +for cleanliness he always strictly observes it. When he was a governor +he learned to eat so nicely that he took up grapes and even the grains +of pomegranates with the point of a FORK.’ + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + _Oriental Manners—Semifluids and Fingers—Spoons of Gold + and Silver prohibited—Church Plate—Quibbling Evasion of + Mahomet’s Precept—Modern Oriental Spoons—Substitutes for + Tumblers—Arabs at Dinner—Revenge of Hasan—Persian Spoons—A Vulgar + Ambassador—Cakes used as Napkins—Frolic of Tavernier and the King of + Persia—Proverbs—Sherbert Spoons—Curious Article in the Persian + Creed—Repartee—Chinese Spoons—Chopsticks—Sheathed Knives and + Spoons—Worn by Janizaries—‘Standard and Caldron’—Military + Romances—Ancient Beggars—Clack Dish and Spoon—Interesting + Family—Beggars and Lent—St. Giles._ + + +A cursory reader of travels might imagine spoons unknown in the greater +part of the earth, so frequently are unguarded expressions to that +effect met with. We may therefore as well premise that the practice of +conveying _semifluid_ food to the mouth without them was formerly as +universal as handling flesh, meats at table without forks. With the +exception of Europe and European descendants, it is so still. Boiled +rice is the great pabulum of life to a majority of our species—with +millions it is the only food. Now, whether eaten by the scrupulous +Hindoo, delicate Persian, or fastidious Turk—people with whom +cleanliness is godliness, whose daily ablutions are religious duties—or +by the revolting Hottentot, the wild Arab, or revengeful Malay, it is +conveyed to the mouth with the hand alone. So general is this filthy +custom among people on opposite parts of the globe that it can hardly be +looked on in any other light than as a relic of times when mankind +formed one family—times when no forks were used but fingers, no other +knives than finger nails, and spoons had not been thought of—when men +and women clutched their food as parrots do, and raised it to their lips +like squirrels. + +Suppose we add a few examples of the custom—not drawn from people +ignorant of spoons, but such as follow it from choice. The reflecting +reader will need no stronger proof of the still prevailing influence of +antediluvian usages, and of the humiliating fact, that like other +creatures, men are creatures of habit—that tenacity to the rude +practices of our forefathers is not always to be overcome by refinements +or reason. + +The Hindoos use neither knives nor forks at table, ‘nor spoons except +with soup.’ Rice is served on banana leaves cut in the form of plates, +and fresh ones are had for every meal. + +M. Loubere, ambassador to Siam in 1687, and the author of two volumes on +that country, says:—‘Ils n’ont à table, ny nappe, ny serviette, ny +cuillière, ny fourchette, ny couteau.’ [_Tome_ i. 101.] But that spoons +were known there, is clear from the oriental jewelry and plate presented +to the king of France by his royal brother of Siam, in 1685. Among other +things was ‘une _cuillière d’or_, au plus bel ouvrage du Japon.’—[_His. +Gen. Tome_ xii.] + +One traveller says the natives of Madagascar use no spoons; another, +that they find substitutes for them and for dishes and ladles in the +leaves of the raven plant. According to a third, spoons are not +uncommon, while some of costly materials are occasionally to be met +with. Rice is considered the best of all dishes; and beef, mutton, fowls +and fish mere adjuncts. These, when cooked, are cut into small pieces, +and invariably served up on boiled rice, into which ‘horn spoons are +stuck,’ and for it alone used. The fore finger and thumb—a pair of +natural forceps—pick up the meat and deliver it into the mouth. When +Radama, king of the Island, died in 1828, immense treasure was buried +with him. His coffin was silver. To make it, fourteen thousand dollars +were melted and beaten into plates, which were fastened together with +silver rivets. Besides other valuables buried with him were a silver +_ladle_ and a _golden spoon_, for his use in another world. + +The people of Barbary make no use of knives and forks, ‘and very rarely +of spoons.’ Like other orientals, they take up their food with the right +hand, and dexterously jerk it into the mouth. Caffres use neither +tables, knives nor plates, but sometimes call in the aid of forks and +spoons. Squatting round a boiling pot, each spears with a pointed stick +a piece of flesh, and leisurely eats it from the hand; When a missionary +arrived at Lattakoo, some colored ladies sent his party a present of +porridge in the pot in which it was made, but unaccompanied with +implements to eat it with; they never thought of spoons being used with +semifluid food, but naturally supposed that white as well as black men’s +fingers tasted every morsel swallowed. The Negroes of the Gambia, says +Moore, are not very proud in their furniture, for the greater part have +only a mat raised on a few sticks to sleep on, a jar for water, a +calabash for drinking, two or three mortars to pound rice, and +calabashes out of which they eat rice with _their hands_. + +The Sumatrans, says Marsden, use at table neither knives nor spoons, nor +any substitute for them. They take up rice and other victuals with the +thumb and fingers, and dexterously throw it into the mouth. Rice is +boiled generally in a joint of bamboo, and by the time it is cooked the +vessel is nearly destroyed. Their manner of boiling the grain is to let +it simmer over a slow fire, drawing off the water by degrees ‘with a +flat ladle or spoon.’ + +The Bashee Islanders take meat from the pot in which it is cooked with +their fingers, as the Moors do pillau, using no spoons. At Mindanao the +common food is sago and rice. When served up, each person dips his +fingers in water, to prevent the glutinous food from sticking to them; +then taking a handful out of the platter, squeezes it into a lump, and +crams it into his mouth. [_Dampier._] + +When Kotzebue was at Owhyhee, Tamaahmaah, the king, who possessed +European table utensils, including spoons, used a gourd for a basin at +dinner, and fed himself like an Asiatic, dipping his fingers into the +taro dough, and conveying it to his mouth with the same implements. He +observed to the Russian navigator: ‘This is the custom in my country, +and I will not depart from it.’ The same slovenly way of eating was +observed from the king to the lowest menial. Mr. Farnham, in his ‘Scenes +in the Pacific,’ is more particular: “The mode of conveying _poi_ to +their mouths was quite primitive. The fore and middle fingers served +instead of a spoon. These they inserted to the depth of the knuckles, +and having raised as much as would lie upon them, and by a very +dexterous whirl brought it into a globular shape upon the tips, they +thrust it into their mouths and licked the fingers clean for another +essay.” + +When Captain John Smith, the hero and historian of Virginia was a slave +among the Turks, his stomach was sorely tried. In his chapter on Turkish +diet, he says pillau was served out to his captors in great bowls; they +sat ‘round it on the ground, and after they have raked it thorow so oft +as they please with their foule fists, the remainder was for the +christian slaves.’ + +Nearly 200 years have elapsed since Van Sleb visited Egypt. He was once +entertained at an extraordinary banquet given by a rich Arab; but ‘wine +was wanting, and spoons, knives and forks.’ ‘The modern Egyptians;’ says +Lane, ‘seldom use at table either knives or forks; the thumb and two +fingers of the right hand serve for every thing not fluid. Spoons are +used for soup and thin rice, or other things not easily conveyed to the +mouth without them.’ The same writer, speaking ‘on meals and the manner +of eating,’ in a note to his translation of the ‘Thousand and One +Tales,’ remarks: ‘The table is usually placed upon a round cloth spread +in the middle of the floor, or in a corner next two of the deewáns or +low seats, which generally extend along three sides of the room: it is +composed of a large round tray of silver, or tinned copper or brass, +supported by a stool commonly about 15 or 16 inches high, made of wood +and generally inlaid with mother of pearl, tortoise shell, &c. The +dishes are of silver, of tinned copper or china; several are placed upon +the tray, and around them are dispersed some round flat cakes of bread, +with _spoons_ of _box-wood_, _ebony_, or other material.’ + +The leading customs through all the East, with regard to eating, are in +fact similar. When people sit at table their legs are crossed under +them. They perform topical ablutions before and after meals, at which +knives and spoons are seldom seen. When the master of the family is +present, he first puts his hand in the dish, and the rest in order after +him. There is another particular with which the reader should be +acquainted, in order to understand why _wooden_ spoons chiefly are used +by wealthy orientals. The poorer classes have spoons of horn, wood, +brass, and iron; and a few silver and golden ones may occasionally be +found on the tables of princes and rich men; but such are not common, +and for this reason: _they were prohibited_ by Mahomet. “Verily, [said +he,] the fire of hell will roar like the bellowings of a camel in the +bellies of those who eat and drink from vessels of gold and silver.” No +articles of plate are allowed in mosques, and formerly they were +excluded from christian churches. “Exuperius, Bishop of Tholose, +ministered the holie supper with a glasse cup and a wicker basket. The +Triburien Council disputed whether golden or woodden vessels should be +used. Boniface, the martyr, said when they were golden priests, they had +woodden cups, but now being woodden priests, they will have golden +challices.” [_P. Martyr, on ‘Ornaments of Churches.’_] + +Some rich Mahommedans, however, like other rich people, contrive, while +obeying literally a precept they do not like, to depart widely from its +spirit. Indeed no law, divine or human, can repress the love of +distinction. Hunger breaks through stone walls, but pride bursts through +brass ones. Believers in the Koran are forbid to eat of drink out of +gold or silver utensils. ‘True,’ quoth a worldly-minded mufti; ‘_that_ +applies only to things put to the lips, not to trays, dishes, +wash-basins, knives, nor yet to the _handles_ of spoons, for none of +these things come in contact with the mouth.’ Awful would be the fury of +the prophet, could he hear his doctrines thus explained away; and how +would his indignation boil could he read the following extract from a +travelling giaour’s remarks on the manners of his people: ‘As for +pillau, and other soft and liquid meats, the Turks have spoons, though +not of gold and silver, which they are forbidden by the law to put into +their mouths. Those at the tables of persons of distinction are +generally of _agate_, _amber_, or other scarce material, with _handles_ +of gold or silver gilt, and set with _jewels_; for the parts which enter +not the mouth _may be_ of those metals!’ [_Motraye._] + +In the ‘Grande Description,’ tome ii, E. M. are two Egyptian spoons of +the kind, being richly ornamented. They are shown in _Figs. 6, 7, Plate +V._ ‘Cuillers en ecaille, ornées d’ambre, de corail et de nacre.’ [_Fig. +8_ is enlarged from a cut in Jacob Cat’s works.] _Fig. 9_—another +Turkish spoon, elaborately enriched in both bowl and handle. + +The Turks and other orientals seldom drink at meals, but when they do it +is out of spoons; hence if they do not employ them always as we do, they +put them in requisition where we do not. The wealthy have a variety of +pleasant drinks, consisting of diluted peach, cherry, and raspberry +syrups. Each person has by him a _wooden spoon_, with which he lades the +syrup out of bowls, taking ever and anon spoonfuls of it, and so +suspends his thirst. [_Tavernier._] A sweet drink, composed of raisins +boiled in sugar and scented with rose water, is drunk by ladies out of +ladles, or spoons of tortoise shell, and sometimes of cocoa nut. +[_Lane._] + +Near the custom house, says Commodore Porter, is the most famous eating +place in all Constantinople. Persons who like what is good go there to +regale themselves with kibobs, a dish in great favor with the Turks. It +consists of pieces of mutton or lamb cut into small mouthfuls and +seasoned; then strung on an iron skewer and exposed to the heat of an +oven of peculiar construction. They are, when done, served up in their +own gravy, or in kaymar, which is cream. There is also served with them +a soft flat kind of bread or pancake, which, as no knives or forks are +made use of, suits admirably as a means of conveying the kibobs and +kaymar to the mouth, whence they soon find their way into the stomach. +The bread is called Firna Pidésé. With this mess they give you a large +vessel filled with sherbet, or a drink prepared from dried grapes, and +to each person is given a _large spoon_ to sip it. + +The manners of Arabs at table are repulsive. ‘They use neither knives +nor forks, nor even spoons, unless for food wholly liquid.’ They have +been observed to plunge their filthy hands into milk placed before them, +and thus raise the liquid to the lips. Before sitting down they repeat a +short prayer beginning thus:—“In the name of the most merciful God.” The +instant it is finished all hands are in the food—and lo, it has +vanished! “In the middle of all was a large wooden bowl, in which were +the camel’s bones and a thin broth in which they were boiled. Knives, +forks, and spoons are silly, impertinent things in the esteem of Arabs; +however, being known to use such things, we had large wooden spoons laid +before us.” [_Jour. to Tadmor_, 1691.] + +Having no arabesque spoon, plain or jewelled, to lay before the reader, +we present him with a gem of another kind—one first brought to light as +an Ishmaelite sat down to dinner. It is an old remark that hunger +induces ill humor—that men are more disposed to anger when waiting for a +meal, than when rising from the table. As Hasan, the son and successor +of Ali was one day about to dine, a slave let a dish of hot pillau drop +on him! An unprecedented insult to the dread leader of the faithful! +Now, how did the startled caliph, as his eyes glistened and his face +assumed the color of fire, act—he at whose nod the heads of a dozen men +would have flown for a less offence from their owners’ shoulders? We +have seen a servant of the pope’s slain for spilling hot broth on a +scholar, and an ambassador of his holiness flying for his life on that +occasion to a steeple; we know too how a pagan Roman acted when one of +his servants let a porcelain dish fall, at a supper given to +Augustus—viz: ordered the offender to be sunk in a fish-pond wherein the +monster fattened lampreys on human flesh! an order which thrilled +Octavius with horror. + +The revenge of Hasan exceeded them both; and it was based on a verse of +the Koran! In the third chapter of that book is the following +passage:—“Paradise is prepared for those who give alms in prosperity and +adversity; who bridle their anger and forgive men, for God loveth the +beneficent.” Dreading the caliph’s resentment, the poor slave dropped on +his knees, and in an agony exclaimed, “Paradise is for those who bridle +their anger—” “I—I am, not angry,” was the unexpected reply. The +trembling supplicant proceeded—“and for those who forgive men—” “I +forgive you,” was the life-sparing answer—thus emboldened, the youth +meekly added, “for God loveth the beneficent.” “Since it is so,” said +Hasan, whose brow the angel of forgiveness had now smoothed, and lit up +his face with virtue’s own smile—“I give you your liberty and four +hundred pieces of silver”! + +If there is a more beautiful episode in human annals, we have not met +with it. Who would compare Alexander to Hasan—who is not enraptured at +the intelligence and ready wit of the young Arab slave; at the +inspiration which led him to quote and beautifully invert the order of a +passage so suited to the exigencies of the moment—and who does not envy +Hasan the heavenly feast he enjoyed in the place of the dish he had +lost? + +PERSIAN SPOONS.—The Persians, says Tavernier, eat their broths with +wooden spoons. Their rice, which is made thick, they take up with their +fingers, and wipe their hands upon handkerchiefs. Invited with the +Venetian ambassador to sup with a Persian grandee, the representative of +the doge, he remarks, ‘committed an absurdity, for there are no [few] +silver or gold spoons in Persia, but only long wooden ladles that reach +a great way. Now, the ambassador, reaching his ladle to a porcelain +dish, full of scalding hot pottage, clapped it presently into his mouth, +but finding it so hot that he could not endure it, after several scurvy +faces threw it out of his mouth into his hand, in presence of all the +company.’ + +John Bell says an entertainment given to the Russian ambassador at +Ispahan consisted of sweetmeats, ice water in golden basins, rice boiled +with butter, fowls, mutton, lambs, &c. The whole was served in gold and +china dishes. ‘But according to the custom of the country, we had +neither napkins, spoons, knives nor forks. The shah himself eat with his +fingers, and every one followed his example. Thin cakes made of wheat +flour were used to _wipe our fingers_.’—a practice of the Romans, whose +slaves afterwards ate the cakes. Fryer visited Persia 170 years ago, and +observed the wealthy drink wine out of ‘long thin wooden spoons,’ but he +was in error in saying ‘spoons are not in use, unless to drink sherbet +with.’ + +Tavernier is one of the most interesting of old travellers. His details +of oriental life are vivid and fresh as if drawn yesterday. He had, from +his profession as a merchant-jeweller and goldsmith, access to every +court. Haying spent forty years in his travels, he was personally known +to most Asiatic princes, and his arrival was often hailed by them with +joy. On his sixth and last visit to Ispahan, he was warmly greeted by +the king, who seems to have been a real toper. Two days after reaching +the city, the traveller was waited on early in the morning, by a chief +officer of state, accompanied by a jesuit and two Dutchmen, (favorites +of the monarch,) and requested to attend them to the palace. Upon +entering, they found his majesty seated upon a low-pallet; before him +were fruits, sweetmeats, two bottles of Schiras wine and a golden cup. +There was also a small wooden vat or cistern full of wine, and a golden +spoon or ladle which held nearly a pint. The bottles and cup were for +the king; the vat and spoon for his guests. + +It would be disagreeable to many readers, were we to recite the +particulars of the succeeding debauch—one in which the spoon acted so +prominent a part, despite of every precept of the Koran. Suffice to say, +‘the entertainment’ was kept up for seventeen hours! being diversified +with feasting, music and dancing. At short intervals ‘the great ladle +went about smartly,’ the king insisting that ‘no man should leave a +drop.’ Tavernier thus winds up the account:—“We had droll’d together +till eleven o’clock at night, when the king started another +question—whether any one present could sing? It happened that there was +one Monsieur Daulier there, who played on the virginals, and pretended +to sing a court air. His voice being high-pitched, the king did not like +it, as the Persians prefer the base. Perceiving this, and being in a +merry vein, though I knew not a note, yet having a deep and clear voice, +I sung an old air, beginning thus:— + + ‘Fill all the bowls, then—fill ’em high! + Fill all the glasses there—for why + Should every creature drink but I?’” + +The king was ravished, crying out, ‘Baricala! Baricala!’ an exclamation +equivalent to ‘Oh! the works of God!’ + +Wine, as well as ‘plate,’ is prohibited, but rich Persians make no +scruple about either. They excuse themselves when overtaken by liquor, +by quoting a proverb which certainly was not designed to encourage +drunkenness:—‘Equal sin in a spoonful as in a potful.’ Hence, after +tasting a small quantity, they have no compunction about swallowing the +largest. But such reasoning is not confined to oriental sinners; we have +too many who exclaim, ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’—‘As well be +hanged for a sheep as a lamb.’ + +Morier, describing a dinner given to the British embassy, says, there +was placed before each guest a tray, on which stood three china bowls, +filled with sherbets; two made of sweet liquors, and one an exquisite +species of lemonade. There were besides, fruits ready cut, plates with +elegant little arrangements of sweetmeats and confectionery, and smaller +cups of sweet sherbet; the whole of which were placed most +symmetrically, and were quite inviting even by their appearance. In the +vases of sherbet were _spoons made of the pear tree_, with very deep +bowls, and worked so delicately that the long handles just slightly +_bent_ when carried to the mouth. + +If the reader has any curiosity to behold a Persian sherbet spoon, let +him turn to _Plate V. Figs. 10, 11_, represent one, preserved with +others of a similar form and different sizes in the Philadelphia Museum. +It is fifteen inches long, and made of box-wood or pear tree. The handle +is thin and ornamented with designs formed by openings cut entirely +through. The junction of the handle with the bowl is strengthened by a +pierced semicircular piece, shown in _Fig. 10_, and exhibiting a very +novel feature. + +From what has been said, the reader will be no longer surprised at +Mahommedans associating the spoon with the pleasures of heaven; yet +unless he had been informed of its employment in drinking wine upon +earth, he could scarcely comprehend that part of the Persian creed which +states that Rusuen, the porter of paradise, opens to faithful +Mahommedans the gates of heaven; and when seated on the banks of the +fountain Kauser, the great camel driver himself hands round to each _the +water of life in a_ LADLE. + +As a specimen of Persian repartee, we may here introduce an anecdote, +which, if not associated with the spoon, is at least connected with one +of the ingredients of soup. An Ispahan dealer in pot-herbs, +remonstrating against the imposition of an exorbitant tax, was ordered +by the governor to pay it or leave the city. “I cannot pay it, and +whither can I go,” ejaculated the poor man—knowing no place where he +could live, out of the reach of the oppressor, or his equally rapacious +relatives. “You may proceed to Schiras or Kashan, if you like those +cities better than this.” “Yes; but your brother is in power in one, and +your nephew in the other; what relief can I expect in either?” “Proceed, +then; to court, and complain to the king,” replied the extortioner. +“Alas! your brother, the Hajee, is prime minister.” “Well then,” said +the irritated minister, “go to the _devil_, and trouble me no more!” +“Ah! but the holy man your deceased father is with _him_”! said the +persevering dealer in esculents. The spectators laughed, the governor +followed their example, and promised to examine and redress the bold +green-grocer’s wrongs. + +CHINESE SPOONS.—In China and neighboring countries, spoons are often of +earthenware. At an entertainment given to the British embassy in Cochin +China, the table was loaded with every imaginable delicacy. The number +of dishes piled in three rows, one above the other, exceeded a hundred. +Before each person was placed boiled rice in place of bread, and two +porcupine quills by way of knife and fork. ‘The spoons were of +_porcelain_, and somewhat in the form of small shovels.’ [_Staunton._] +‘We were in want of every accommodation, even of forks and spoons, for +the former are not used in China, and the latter are made of porcelain, +with very short handles.’ [_Van Braam._] + +CHOPSTICKS.—But of Chinese peculiarities, few things have excited more +interest than chopsticks—two small rods or wires, which at table perform +the same duties as our forks and spoons. Enclosed in a sheath along with +a knife, they are suspended from the sash of every gentleman. See _Fig. +12_, _Plate V._ for the sheath. The original is before us. It is 7 +inches long, and half an inch wide, made of bamboo, and neatly covered +with tortoise shell, in which no joint can be detected. A minute brass +band goes round the middle and each end. A ring is attached to the upper +one, and on a strip of metal is a proverb or moral sentence. An ivory +handled knife, (left out in the cut) with a strong blade, and rough as +the grindstone left it, occupies one half of the sheath. As both sticks +are alike, one only is figured. They are square rods of ivory, eight +inches long, one-fifth of an inch thick at the smaller ends, and rather +thicker at the other, which are held in the hand. The thick parts, like +the handle of the knife, project out of the case. Sometimes they are +round and have their ends pointed with silver. When used, they are held +in the right hand, between the forefinger and thumb. A toothpick +occasionally finds a place in the sheath. + +The dexterity with which chopsticks are used, and the celerity with +which food disappears before them, show how appropriate is their +name—_kwae tsze_, ‘nimble lads.’ A native readily picks up objects small +as pin heads, while fruitless attempts of foreigners to convey with them +a piece of edible bird’snest to the mouth, often afford amusement to +Chinese hosts. The eating apparatus of the poorer classes consists of +chopsticks and bowls. If they possess no table or bench, the large pot +of rice is placed on the floor, and they squat round, with their feet +inwards, just the contrary way from the Jews and Romans. A portion of +rice is transferred by a ladle to each member’s bowl. This he holds in +one hand close to the chin, and with the ‘nimble lads’ pushes the food +into his mouth till the latter is crammed; then wiping the sticks across +the edge of the bowl, he takes up with them, as with forceps, a piece of +fish, meat, or whatever else is on the table, and thrusts it in edgewise +as a relish. After a while the mouth is ready for more, and the nimble +lads are again set to work. [_See Chinese Rep. Vol._ iii.] + +Chopsticks are interesting relics of antediluvian days; for their origin +is to be traced to the twigs by which barbarians scrape semifluid food +from natural cups into the mouth; such as travellers use when dining on +cuscous, while far distant from dwellings and destitute of artificial +spatulæ. South Sea islanders thus gather taro dough out of cocoa shells, +and American Indians scrape samp out of baskets. + +A sheathed eating-knife was worn at the belt by the Celts, Gauls, +Germans, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons, and by their descendants down to +recent times. It was an essential part of the personal equipment of +gentlemen, laborers and artisans. Even ladies wore them as they wear +scissors now. An old saying arose from the practice, intimating that +appearances are often deceptive:—“In a sheath of gold may be a knife of +lead.” ‘Among the Celts,’ says Macpherson, ‘as at this day in France, +guests carried their own knives and _forks_ [?] enclosed in the same +sheath with the dagger.’ Highlanders carry the _skene dhu_ or knife, and +a fork, in a horn or other sheath—the handle of the knife being +sometimes hollowed out for the reception of snuff. _Spoons_ also were +worn in like manner. Every Janizary had one, and there is no reason to +suppose the custom originated with them. + +_Fig. 13_, _Plate V._ represents a brass sheath holding three knives and +a spoon, such as the warlike infantry of the Turks formerly were +furnished with, and which they wore pendent from, or stuck in, the +girdle. At the time Motraye wrote, the spoon had been removed, being +then worn in a perpendicular sheath in _front of the cap_, occupying the +place of the head dress of modern troops, where we may suppose it +sometimes warded off a blow aimed at the head of its owner, as well as +refreshing him when a battle was over. This prominent disposition of the +spoon by the Janizaries was appropriate enough, since each regiment had +its own _soup kettle_, which in process of time acquired a sort of +prescriptive sanctity, and formed as it were the _chief standard_ of the +regiment; while the officers and other military functionaries derived +_their titles_ from their various supposed employments as cooks, +waiters, or scullions! The Spaniards have a proverb which reflects light +on this strange custom:—‘Pendon y caldera’—the standard and caldron. In +the Moorish wars, a Castilian who undertook to raise a regiment, was +privileged by the king to carry a standard as the sign of his authority +to enlist troops; while a caldron figured on it indicated that he fed +them at his own cost. + +Let not modern warriors laugh at this; for if posterity judge them from +‘Tableux,’ ‘Military Adventures,’ and other fashionable novels, +descriptive of the foraging and bivouacing of epauletted gourmands and +legal bucaniers, which constitute so large a portion of the light +literature of the day, the old Turkish legions, God wot, will lose +nothing in the comparison; for knives, forks, plates, spoons, the bottle +and the glass, are infinitely more conspicuous than such things ever +were with the Moslem. But it is a new thing under the sun for the most +horrible of all crimes—that which includes every other, and surpasses +the power of devils to commit, to be treated in books as a bagatelle, +for the amusement of drawing-room loungers and boarding-school misses. +Would that these literary warriors electrified the reading world with +equally vivid details of the blessings their own countrymen have derived +from their valor—how every victory has lessened the laborer’s toil and +increased the artisan’s comforts, diminished the price of bread, and +poured abundance among a happy population—how their liberties have +increased with their armies, and taxes been reduced with their +conquests—how—but we are digressing. + +_Fig. 14_, _Plate V._—one of the numerous illustrations of the ‘Romance +of the Rose,’ a French poetical satire, written by Guillaume de Lois, +and translated by Chaucer. As a portrait of a female mendicant of the +middle ages, it is not without interest, independently of the spoon +which ornaments the felt hat. The distressed condition of the lady’s +wardrobe and her famishing looks are described in the poem:— + + “She was like thing for hanger dede, + That lad her life onely by brede, + Kneden with eisel stronge and egre, + And thereto she was leane and megre; + And she was clad ful poorely, + All in an olde torne courtpy, + As she were all with dogges torne + And botn behind and eke beforne. + Clouted was she beggerly.” + +The poet is speaking of avarice, which the ancient illustrator depicts +in the aspect and costume of a beggar. The alms-dish, suspended from the +wrist, was the professional badge of mendicants in the remotest ages, +and has continued to be one to the present day. It dates back to the +fountain-head of Hindoo mythology. ‘Gunga was produced by the sweat of +Vishnu’s foot, which Brahma caught in his _alms dish_.’ The Pandaroons +and other beggars of India eat from it the rice given them. Fryer, +describing the Fakirs, says, ‘they beg up and down like our bedlams with +an horn and a bowl.’ + +The spoon is also carried by Asiatic as well as old European beggars. +‘Persian Durweeshes in Egypt have oblong bowls of cocoa-nut or metal, in +which they receive alms and put their food. They carry also a wooden +_spoon_.’ [_Lane._] + +It was a daily custom to distribute victuals at the gates of monasteries +and rich houses. Of such, we often read, ‘Pottage was given to every +poor person who begged.’ ‘All dinners being ended, the Vsher and Groome +of the Hall are to see the broken meate and drincke safely put into the +almes tubbes.’ [_Brathwait._] Every recipient was required to provide +his own bowl and spoon—a prudent precaution, since lepers or other +diseased persons were commonly among the applicants. It does not seem +possible that more appropriate symbols of want could have been adopted, +than those carried by ancient children of sorrow. What more touching +devices for moving the bowels of the compassionate than an empty bowl +and an unemployed spoon? There was even something expressive in the way +they were carried—the spoon as near the mouth as could be, and the +vacant dish in front of the empty stomach. + +As the lady figured on _Plate V._ represents a class of old artists +allied to modern chiffonniers, we trust no reader will take offence at +her presence. Having described spoons belonging to kings, why should we +not mention those owned by people, who, like kings, are fed at the +public expense? Every part of her gabardine seems ready to bid ‘good +bye’ to its neighbors, while many have already gone off, as certain +rents and gaps too plainly declare. Still, there is philosophy in the +disposal of the dress. If her organs of motion are wofully exposed, the +more noble parts of her person are carefully guarded from the +weather—perhaps on the principle of keeping ‘the head warm and feet +cold;’ an aphorism which Boerhaave acquired, praise for inverting, +though against the experience of swarms of young urchins, who scamper +about summer and winter with bare legs and feet; and contrary to the +advice of Locke, to bore holes in the soles of new shoes, that wind and +water might always have free ingress and egress! There was policy if not +humor in exhibiting the parts which the figure represents as denuded: in +approaching a mansion for alms, the wretched toes enforced the appeal, +and where their owner received nothing but curses, she quickly showed +the churls ‘a clean pair of heels.’ + +Beggars were not allowed to enter a house when they sought alms—a +circumstance from which a proverbial expression of ‘poor Richard’ is +derived:—‘Hunger looks in at the working-man’s door, but dares not +enter.’ Various devices were in vogue for giving notice of their +presence; sometimes a horn was blown, or other rude instrument played +on; but the usual music was produced by striking the dish with the spoon +or a cup. From this clattering the principal utensil became known as the +‘clap-dish,’ or ‘clack-dish.’ + +The useful arts arose in Asia; and poetry, painting, and music were born +there. Thence came the trumpet, harp, drum, cymbals, and what is older +than all, the musical clack-dish. The begging friars of Fo enforce their +demands by beating two pieces of bamboo, ‘or hammering a hollow piece of +wood with a stick.’ With similar instruments Chinese mendicants get up +such powerful solos and duets in front of shop doors, that the inmates, +whose organs of harmony sympathize not with the sounds, relieve the +musicians to get rid of the music. Lepers, when they attended markets to +beg corn, carried a rattle to warn people from touching them. + +[Illustration: + + + _Plate 7_ _Modern_ + +] + +There is an Italian female mendicant in one of the illustrations of +Ackerman’s ‘Forget me Not’ for 1843, which shows how little the +accoutrements and costume of this class have changed. With the exception +of a crutch, she of Italy might be taken for the ancient French damsel +on _Plate V._ An equal lack of covering is equally obvious about the +regions of the toes, and opposite extremities of her feet. The mantle +and skirts of an inner garment are ornamented with the same picturesque +fringe; a species of muffler or band holds up the chin, and kept the +miserable mouth shut when there was no occasion to open it; a tapered +hat covers the head; a _spoon_, stuck through the band, sets off the +hat, and an alms-dish hangs from the waist. + +In a volume of ancient engravings now before us, one dated A. D. 1470 +represents an itinerant charlatan, with his family and stock in trade. +He is playing on bagpipes, and bears two children in a basket strapped +to his back. His wife carries a young cherub and leads an ass laden with +panniers, out of which peep a couple of boys who have not learned to +walk. The eldest son, accompanied by the dog, goes before with an owl on +his shoulder. In the man’s hat are stuck a couple of _spoons_. + +In the days of ecclesiastical rule, when monks were monarchs and lay +people could neither eat nor drink but as the Church pleased, a merciful +clause was at length introduced into the canons respecting lent, with +the view of removing a very serious obstacle to the salvation of those +who lived upon alms—a pleasing proof of the anxiety of ghostly fathers +to save (though only at the last extremity) the ghastly sheep in their +flocks. It was to this effect:—“Beggars, _when ready to affamish_ for +want, _may_ eat in lent time what they can get.” + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + _Pewter or Tin—Vulcan a Pewterer—Tin Armor—Ezekiel—Roman Pewterers and + Vitellius—Tin Idols—Singular Imposture of Durand, a French + Carpenter—Louis XI—English Pewter Ware—St. Peter’s Chalice—Mexican + Pewterers—English Laws respecting Pewter—Cheats, time of Richard + II—Pewter Articles, under Henry VIII—Pewter Money and James + II—European Manufactures, A. D. 1483—Pewter Spoons described—Anecdote + of one—Charles XII—Singular Property of Pewter Mugs—Extension of the + Principle suggested—Authors likened to Cabmen—Brass Spoons—Tinned iron + ones—Tinning—Tin Plate—Andrew Yarranton—Wooden Spoons—Forks—Cutty + Spoons—Relish of Food—Spoons at Work—Dance of Death—End of the + World—The Last Spoon._ + + +Of metallic spoons, those made of tin or its alloys were perhaps the +first; but it is not to be supposed that proofs of this can be found in +the material or mental relics of a former world. Such things were too +easily defaced and too insignificant to be noticed or preserved, where +others infinitely more durable and valuable have perished. Before +describing _pewter_ spoons, a few references to the employment of this +factitious metal in early times may gratify some readers. Its base is +_tin_, a white and bright metal, lighter than iron and soft almost as +lead. It is generally hardened by the addition of a little antimony, as +silver is with copper; and there was no more reason to give a new name +to the mixture in one case than in the other. The name of tin is not +only withheld from articles formed of it, but given to others only +washed with it. That fine material known in commerce as ‘tin plate’ is +sheet iron coated with tin. The French distinguish it from untinned +plate by the appropriate term ‘_fer blanc_,’ or white iron. Old English +writers made a similar distinction. + +From the facility of working tin, the low temperature at which it fuses, +its ductility, brilliancy, and unquestionable employment in remote ages, +we may safely infer that articles were made of it long before the +refractory ores were reduced. That implements of iron preceded those of +bronze is the uniform declaration of history; but bronze was itself an +alloy of copper and tin. The latter is the natural solder of lead, for +which it has probably been used ever since the heavier metal was +wrought. Tin was among the spoils taken from the Midianites. Articles +formed of it were to be melted down and recast; hence the antiquity of +the pewterer’s art. + +Whoever Vulcan was, or however remote the times in which he lived, he +was a pewterer as well as a blacksmith and brass founder. Bucklers, +greaves, and other defensive armor were in his time made of and adorned +with _tin_. The herd of cattle and other raised work on the shield of +Achilles were executed in this metal. The corslet of Agamemnon was +composed of alternate bars or scales of gold, steel and tin. The central +stud of his shield was encircled + + ‘With twice ten bosses of resplendent tin.’ + +In the form of wire tin was also used for binding different parts +together; as the lining of Sarpedon’s shield was stitched with wires of +gold. Defensive armor of so soft a material may excite the smile of +modern soldiers, and induce incredulity in Homer’s statements, or an +impression that he is misunderstood; but independent of the remarkable +fact of the word used by him to designate tin being the same by which +the metal is still known in the East, the material is still used for the +very same purpose at this day. The Calmucks, we are told, when equipped +for war often protect their persons ‘with armor made of scales of tin.’ +Lapland women make ornaments of it to decorate their own and their +husbands’ dresses. They produce beautiful wire for embroidery, &c., by +drawing the metal through holes drilled in horns or bones of rein-deer; +a practice probably dating from the age of Homer. The ‘shining +canisters,’ in which bread was served to guests, often mentioned by the +father of poets, were very likely the work of the pewterer. Frontlets, +anklets, bracelets, and other personal ornaments of tin, still worn in +the East, are of extreme antiquity. Pausanias mentions an antique tablet +of tin connected with the Messenians. + +When Ezekiel wrote, tin was a staple article of import at Tyre, and we +have sufficient evidence that its consumption anciently must have been +as great as at present. Whether the slabs piled on the docks and in the +stores of Phenician merchants in the prophet’s days were drawn from +India, Spain or Britain, is uncertain, but within two, if not one +century of his death, the greatest navigators of old drew part of their +supplies from Cornwall. It is pretty evident that English mines were +wrought before iron was known on the island, for pickaxes of stag’s +horns, hard wood, and flint, have been found embedded in ore, as well as +wooden shovels and buckets; the latter without any kind of hoops. A +plate of tin was disinterred in the time of Henry VIII. inscribed with +unknown characters, supposed to have been Druidical precepts. In 1635, +tablets with strange inscriptions were found, which Stukely ascribed to +Britons of a remote age. Posidonius says the ancient Celtæ had pewter +platters. + +The pewterer’s art was extensively carried on in old Rome, and most +articles current a century ago were made there. It would seem from +Pliny, (xxx. 7.) that what he calls an ‘instrument of tin’ was the +common pewter syringe. From Suetonius we infer that goblets, dishes, +pitchers, cups, urns, and other utensils of gold and silver, dedicated +to the gods, were imitated in pewter, as such things are now. Vitellius, +he remarks, rifled the temples of their treasures, substituting articles +of pewter and copper for those of silver and gold. The successor of Otho +imitated in this respect another military ethnic, who, wanting money, +took a golden robe from the statue of Jupiter, and replaced it with a +woollen one, philosophically observing that the latter would keep the +deity warmer in winter, and press lighter on his shoulders in summer. + +In the dark ages the worship of heathen deities was transferred +unaltered to christian saints. The Virgin received the same compliments +that her half-pagan adorers previously paid to Diana; whose shrines, +numerous as they were, never equaled those of her successor. As the +precious metals were not so abundant after the fall of the Romans, tin +offered a good and cheap substitute for one of them; and pewterers in +Germany, Britain and Gaul, drove a brisker business in making portable +idols than ever did Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen of Asia Minor. + +The feudal contests of the old barons were a scourge to Europe for many +ages. Declaring war against each other at will, arson, rapine and +murder, stalked unchecked through the land. The Church launched her +thunders in vain; she was unable to correct an evil which kings could +not cure. At length a cunning carpenter, named _Durand_, conceived a +plan (if indeed it was his own) which succeeded in France, and made the +inventor’s fortune. He solemnly gave out that God appeared to him in +Auvergne, and commanded him to proclaim an instant peace between all +contending parties. For proof of his mission, he exhibited an image of +the Virgin, which he had the impudence to say was left with him for that +purpose by the Almighty. The astonished nobles accordingly assembled in +the City Du Puy, and after listening to opinions of churchmen, hearing +the asseverations of the bold artisan, and examining his celestial +image, agreed to lay aside their animosities and swear on the holy +evangelists to entertain love and peace for each other! As a proof of +sincerity and faith in the revelation, they wore “an image of our lady +in _pewter_” on their breasts—copies of the one in Durand’s possession, +and most likely cast in the same mould—with capuches of white linen on +their heads, which articles _the carpenter sold them_! + +That son of Apollyon, Louis XI. constantly wore a madonna of lead or +pewter in his hat, which he would take off and invoke when about to +commit some horrible crime, so as to be sure of pardon beforehand. It is +pleasant, says Mazeray, to notice his pranks when his own death drew +near—sending all over Europe for relics of saints, to Rheims for the +holy ampoule and oil, ordering processions and masses in his behalf, and +not forgetting prayers that God would prevent certain winds, which +incommoded him, from blowing! But there are people now-a-days who send +up official requests to the Virgin for rain or fair weather. + +In the Northumberland Household Book are allusions to pewter ware: +“Item—to be payd to the saide Richard Gowge, and Thomas Percy for the +bying of vj dossen rugh pewter vessels for servynge of my house for oone +hole yere, after vj shillings the dossen.” ‘The groom of the squillery +is to be careful after every meal to gather into his office the silver +and pewter vessels, and before they goe to the scowring or washing +certainly to number them.’ [_Brathwait._] In the United States the +communion service plate is as often the work of the pewterer as of the +silversmith. It was so in the primitive church. Among the relics +preserved in St. Lateran’s at Rome, are a wooden altar and a pewter +chalice—both said to have been used by St. Peter. Coffins were formerly +made of pewter: see accounts of several in Nugent’s travels. Block tin +or pewter worms for distilling are ancient. Alchymists used them and +denounced leaden ones. Van Sleb mentions pewter mortars in Egypt. +Mexican pewterers, like other mechanics, exhibited their goods for sale +in the great market. Cortez who mentions this fact in a letter to +Charles V. does not particularize the articles. Anklets, bracelets, and +other ornaments of tin, have been worn by Negroes, Arabs and others, +from time immemorial. + +The process of making pewter goods differs from that of working most +metals. Articles are formed complete, or nearly so, by running the fused +material into clay, brass or other moulds. A spoon, for example, is cast +in a moment, whereas a gold or silver one has to be forged into shape. +The importance in which pewter was anciently held in England appears +from the laws made to preserve its purity, and reputation abroad. As +spoons are enumerated we shall notice some of the enactments. Previous +to the reign of Henry VII. all articles were to be compared with +standard metal and stamped; but the law had been disregarded, since he +issued a fresh edict, forbidding under certain penalties any pewter or +brass article to be sold without the maker’s name and the assay +officer’s mark. In the time of Richard II. the pewterers complained of +their business being injured by pedlars and tinkers going round the +country and recasting worn out articles, but which they mixed with lead, +“so as to be not worth the fourth part sold for.” These pedestrian +gentlemen were charged with stealing and encouraging others to steal old +brass and pewter, and selling them to go out of the country; thus +letting foreigners into the secrets of the trades. They also robbed the +people whom they dealt with by using false weights and beams. One of the +latter, says the statute, “will stand even with twelve pounds weight at +one end, against a quarter of a pound at the other end, to the singular +advantage of themselves.” (!) This equals the morality of our old Dutch +traders, who, in buying furs by weight from their Indian brethren, are +said to have put their left hand into the scale for one pound, and their +right foot for two. + +The act of Richard was renewed by Henry VIII. with severer penalties, +and new sections added. _Spoons_, as well as more important articles, +were required to be of standard workmanship and assay—all below them +were forfeited. No foreigner was to be taken as an apprentice, or in any +way to learn the trade, lest going abroad the art should go also. + +Section 7, cap. 8, of the first act of Henry VIII. enumerates the +following articles; if any were found below the standard, they were to +be seized:—“Platters, chargers, dishes, saucers, porringers, trenchers, +basons, flaggons, pottles, pots, saltsels, goblets, _spoons_, cruets or +candlesticks, or any such wares of tin or pewter.” Twenty-one years +afterwards pewterers again petitioned the king. They said the trade was +ruined by foreign manufactures, which they prayed might be prohibited. +It was therefore enacted that foreign tin or pewter “platters, dishes, +saucers, pots, basons, ewers, flaggons, goblets, salts, saltsellers, +_spoons_, or any thing made of tin or pewter, might be seized, in whose +hands soever it may be found.” + +A dinner set of pewter plate comprised three dozen dishes and plates, +one dozen saucers, a tankard or flagon, salts, mustard pot, pepper box, +half a dozen mugs, and one or two dozen spoons. The whole was arranged +on a kind of sideboard or dresser with shelves, called the pewter rack. +Women prided themselves in keeping the whole brilliant as silver. In +some parts of Europe they are yet to be seen, but are rapidly +disappearing. + +London pewterers were incorporated in 1474. The company was designated +as ‘The master, wardens, and commonalty of the art and mystery of +pewterers.’ Their motto, “In God is all my trust;” their crest, two +hands holding a pewter dish. The best pewter was for plates and dishes, +and known as ‘plate pewter;’ it was composed of tin and from 8 to 17 per +cent of antimony, and a little copper. ‘Ley pewter,’ often denounced in +old statutes, consisted of tin with a large proportion of lead, +one-fifth, and sometimes one third! But English did not equal Roman +cheats. Pliny speaks of culinary utensils made from equal quantities of +tin and lead! Desire for wealth is a universal passion, and to get it by +the shortest methods a universal temptation. Lead costs three, and tin +sixteen cents per pound. We have heard a wealthy pewterer boast of +supplying plantations in the West Indies with worms for distilling, made +from an alloy of 100 lbs of tin to a ton of lead! ‘Pewter, (he would +remark) is tin and lead, and so were the articles I made.’ He sold them +by weight. + +Making base money out of pewter has always been in vogue, but not always +by men that wore aprons. It has been practiced by some who wore crowns. +James II. of England, ‘cast all the brass guns and all the brass and +copper vessels of [Irish] protestants that he could seize, into +half-crowns, shillings and sixpences,’ and ordered them to pass current +at the value of the same denominations in silver. Continuing to want +cash, and unable to get copper, he seized the people’s pewter dishes, +plates and spoons, and converted them into _silver_ crowns. Roman +counterfeiters carried on a heavy business. Numbers of their molds have +been dug up in England. Some are of clay and so arranged that a number +of pewter coins could be cast at one operation. [_Phil. Trans._ vols. 44 +and 24.] According to Tavernier, the king of Cheda and Pera coins no +other than tin money. In Sumatra such was and probably is still in +circulation. + +In 1483 we have, in a list of foreign goods, the importation of which +into England was prohibited, a better account of the state of the +mechanic arts at that time in Europe than is any where else to be found. +In consequence of a moving appeal from the parties interested it was +“ordained that no merchant-stranger, after the feast of Easter next +coming, shall bring into this realm of England, to be sold, any manner +of girdles, nor harneys wrought for girdles, points, leather laces, +purses, pouches, pins, gloves, knives, hangers, tailors’ sheers, sysors, +andyrons, cobbards, tongs, fire-forks, gredyrons, stocklocks, keys, +hinges and garnets, spurrs, painted glasses, painted papers, [paper +hangings?] painted forcers, painted images, painted clothes, beaten +gold, or beaten silver wrought in papers for painters, saddles, saddle +trees, horse harness, boots, bits, stirrups, buckles, chains, latten +nails with iron shanks, turnets, hanging candlesticks, holy water +stopps, chaffing dishes, hanging lavers, curtain rings, cards for wool, +roan cards, sheers, buckles for shoes, broches or spits, bells, hawks +bells, _tinn_ and _leaden spoons_, wyre of latten and iron, iron +candlesticks, grates, horns for lanthorns, or any of the said wares.” + +_Figs. 1, 2_, _Plate VI._ represent the oldest fashioned pewter spoon we +have met with. It is cast from a brass mold before us, and dates from +the time of Elizabeth, whose head and crown are figured on the handle. +Raised scroll work covers the entire back and front, except the interior +of the bowl, which was burnished. Such spoons were all but finished when +cast, so that a pedlar or tinker possessing the mold, could renew the +spoons of a family in a trice. The dimensions are those of a tea spoon, +but it must not thence be concluded that such diminutive implements were +not in use before tea was introduced. They were employed for various +purposes as now, for eating eggs, taking up preserves and such like +dainties, for pickles, salt, &c. The vinegar cruet, we know, had a place +in Roman buffets, and occasionally on the tables of Anglo-Saxons; but so +late as the 16th century, that pungent fluid was often placed on the +table in pewter saucers, whence it was transferred by small spoons. + +Pewter spoons of this style were more or less common in the middle ages. +In the 17th and 18th century a less profusion of ornament prevailed, +being confined chiefly to the front part of the handle. Fifty years ago, +a row of beads round the edge, as in _Fig. 3_, and a single or double +row of engraved work (as in _2_, _Plate VII._) were common. An open +space at the top for the initials in the form of an armorial shield or +other device was also left, in imitation of silver spoons of that day. A +dozen different patterns might here be added, but the variations are too +slight to interest general readers. _Figs. 4_ and _5_—modern pewter or +Britannia metal spoons, as they are called, from the superior hardness +and color of the metal. Being _buffed_, (that is, polished on the wheel) +they are better finished than ancient spoons burnished by hand. The +handle of _Fig. 4_ resembles old patterns—that of _5_ is of more recent +date. + +With an anecdote and reflection or two we will dismiss pewter spoons. A +pleasing incident is mentioned in the journal of Capt. King, the +companion of Cook, and the continuator of that great navigator’s last +voyage:—“Whilst we were at dinner in this miserable hut, on the banks of +the river Awatska, the guests of a people with whose existence we had +before been scarcely acquainted, and at the extremity of the globe, a +solitary half-worn _pewter spoon_, whose shape was familiar to us, +attracted our attention, and on examination, we found it stamped on the +back with the word ‘London.’ I cannot pass over this circumstance in +silence, out of gratitude for the many pleasant thoughts, anxious hopes +and tender remembrances it excited in us.” Captain King, like Captain +Cook, did not live to see England again, and this poor spoon probably +furnished him with the last vivid recollections of home. + +Charles XII. of Sweden banished silver from his table, and replaced it +with pewter! The circumstance that led to the determination occurred on +this wise:—Returning from his long captivity among the Turks, he passed +through Lund, where the workmen of a tin mine in the vicinity waited on +him to offer their congratulations and present him specimens of various +articles formed of the metal. Charles treated them to wine, and made +them carry home the silver goblets out of which they drank it. To +encourage the new manufacture, he forbade the use of silver in future at +his own table, and ordered “all his cups, dishes, plates, _spoons_, salt +cellars and candlesticks to be made of _tin_”—an act more honorable to +his memory than any battle he won. + +It is known to the learned in porterhouse lore that pewter pots impart a +peculiar flavor to ale, beer, and cider. The phenomenon is due to an +electro-galvanic influence, excited by contact of the metallic alloy +with the liquids; but the same curious savans are not known to give an +equal preference to pewter spoons, although the same principle must be +equally developed in them while delivering liquids with which they are +charged. The subject is an interesting one, and has, we presume, been +accidentally neglected. When cultivated it may lead to incredible +results, for it points to sources of human enjoyments which the most +enthusiastic could hardly hope for ere the millenium set in. + +That the sense of taste depends chiefly on electricity there is little +doubt; though the modes by which this most subtle of fluids acts, and +the means of diversifying its effects on the palate, are yet among the +arcana of nature. Its fearful activity at the breakfast and dinner table +is shown by a calculation based on ascertained data:—“The largest charge +of a Leyden battery does not equal in quantity the electricity which +passes between the tongue and a silver spoon, during the simple act of +eating an egg. Indeed, if the quantity developed in the latter case were +free to assume the form of that obtained by friction, the result would +be a lightning flash of no small power.” + +If then, a mug composed of tin, antimony and lead, can impart an +etherial flavor to fluids brewed from apples and malt, why may not +spoons (by varying, multiplying, and properly proportioning the elements +of their composition) be made to give the taste of roast beef to rice +pudding, and of fashionable soups to onion broth or water gruel? The +idea is not so visionary as those who never laugh may suppose. Bread +from boards, sugar from starch and old shirts, the most intense sweet +from the union of two disgusting bitters, (nitrate of silver and +hypersulphate of soda) show with what magic effect the modern chemist +plays with our palates, and how he challenges imagination itself to +limit his powers over the organs of taste. + +[Illustration: + + _Plate 8_ _Modern_ + + _Lith of E Jones 128 Fulton S^t. N.Y._ +] + +Will the reader wait one moment, while we catch another glimpse of a +subject, perhaps destined to occupy a large space in future annals of +science and patents, and which, when fully explored, may go a great way +towards driving hunger and alm-houses out of the world? When people +constantly dine on one food they long for a change; unless seasoned with +St. Bernard’s sauce, [hunger] both chicken and cheese, pudding and pie, +will pall on the sense. Now, by extending the electrical principle to +all kinds of eating apparatus, the time may come when a family sitting +down to the plainest food, shall derive from it the flavor of the +richest the markets afford—turkey this day, venison the next, and on the +following one canvas-back ducks, or any thing else, indigenous or +exotic, the stomach may crave. A few dozen of electro-galvanic plates, +knives, forks, spoons, bottles and cups, &c. would only be wanted; for +if properly made, each would be equivalent to a distinct dish, and +should be marked with the name of the aliment whose taste it imparted. +But a more surprising and economical feature of the system is this: when +a company cloys on one food, by simply interchanging their spoons and +plates, ladies and gentlemen might multiply, as in the permutation of +figures, their gustable dainties nearly _ad infinitum_! + +Early fruits and asparagus could be had from dried apples and clover. +Poor people would sip tea when they had none in the house, and enrich it +with cream that never came from a cow. Fresh steaks could be sliced from +jerked beef or salt pork—thus enabling old sailors to laugh at the +scurvy. To wash down a dinner, any kind of wine might be got from +lemonade or root beer, by imbibing those fluids from electrical goblets; +the—but serious readers frown at what they miscall our levity, and +others are perhaps restless as stage passengers, who, anxious to get to +the end of their journey, find fault with the driver at every little +delay; hence we must forego the pleasures of a ramble in this +Hesperidian field of research, until our engagements to those who have +patronized us on the present excursion be fulfilled: for, authors are +cabmen, and books are their cabs: title pages are advertisements +soliciting the public to take trips with the Jehus whose names they +display. Some of these gentlemen furnish accommodations so elastic and +pleasant that travellers at the end of a journey leave with regret—the +vehicles of others are so rudely put together that in lumbering along, +those embarked become jolted till they are glad to get out and give up +their fare. Nor are drivers alike. Some urge their nags only over +regular routes, hurrying at a uniform speed over grass, gravel or mud, +not allowing their patrons a moment to look but till they come to the +FINIS. But some gentle spirits there are who willingly strike into new +paths, to give their customers a sight of every thing interesting or +rare; sweeping down this avenue, now wheeling over yon lawn, and anon +trotting into the turnpike again, with perfect good humor. These are the +men we try to imitate, well knowing our accommodations are poor and the +road we are traveling so rugged that, unless determined to please, we +might crack our whip for customers till doomsday and never succeed. + +If the first metallic spoons were pewter or tin, the second were copper +or brass. Copper was the precursor of iron, and bronze of steel. The +world has never been, and perhaps never will be uniformly advanced in +metallurgy. The age of iron had not dawned on these continents four +centuries ago. Brass or bronze spoons are relics of the brazen age. +Several ancient ones have been described, and some of recent days +alluded to under the name of _latten_ spoons. [Laton, leton, and laiton +are French terms for brass.] _Fig. 6_, _Plate VI._ is an old English +brass spoon, with a round handle, resembling those worn in their caps by +janizaries. These implements were no doubt tinned or silvered by the +ancients. Most of their cooking utensils were. Having detected the +injurious effects of food cooked in plain brass pots, they of course +knew it was not improved when taken into the mouth from untinned brass +spoons—verdigris being equally generated by both. + +_Figs. 7, 8, 9_—_Iron_ spoons; the most durable of all, and of immense +antiquity. The specimens are more clumsy in appearance than those now +made, which resemble _Fig. 4_. Tinned iron spoons certainly formed part +of the invoices of ancient hardware men. They have had a place in +English manufactures ever since ‘Sheffield whittles’ were forged. Some +ancient iron spoons had pointed handles, as shown on the second plate. +The art of tinning pots and pans, as well as plating buckles and other +articles of harness and carriage furniture, Pliny ascribes to the Gauls, +and he mentions the workmen of Bourges as excelling in the art. [xxxiv. +17.] + +Iron spoons were at first forged, next cut out of thick sheets, pressed +into shape by dies, and then tinned. They have also been stamped out of +_tin plate_—one of the finest of metallurgical productions, and of whose +origin so little is known. A word or two (our limits will not allow +more) on an invention which has so greatly contributed to domestic +comfort: It can be traced only three or four centuries back to Germany +and Bohemia; how much older it may be is uncertain. There is nothing +improbable in supposing it to date from Roman or even earlier times. A +passage in Chaucer has escaped the notice of writers on the subject +which seems to refer to tin plate—if so, the article was then common:— + + Tho saw I stand on a pillere + That was of _tinned iron clere_.—[_House of Fame._] + +England now supplies a great part of the world with tin plate; yet 130 +years have not elapsed since the first sheet was made there, nor is the +name of the man who introduced it known to one in a hundred of her +citizens. This was Andrew Yarranton, an individual of a singular genius +and great enterprise. Little of him is known, except what he tells us in +a remarkable book entitled ‘England’s Improvement by sea and land, to +out-do the Dutch without fighting, to pay debts without moneys,’ &c. +Lon. 1677. He was put apprentice to a linen draper, staid some years, +then ran away and became a soldier in the civil wars. In 1652 he +‘entered upon iron works and plied them several years.’ He practiced as +a surveyor and civil engineer. ‘Being employed by twelve gentlemen of +England to bring a manufacture out of Saxony and Bohemia, made of iron +and tin, there I did see what I here set down,’ &c. When Van Tromp +defeated the English fleet, Yarranton was in Saxony collecting +information relative to the manufacturing of ‘linen, thread, tape, and +_tin plates_,’ which, once introduced into England, with other +improvements derived from Holland, would enable his countrymen “to beat +the Dutch without fighting them;” viz. ‘by securing the mistress called +_Trade_’—the greatest prophet of his age. + +About 1720 the manufacture was begun in England, but the importation of +tin-plate continued for some years after. Dr. Rutty, in the 35th volume +Phil. Trans. quoting the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences for 1725, +observes:—“The making of tin plates, or latten as it is called, being +not commonly practiced in England though there is so great a consumption +for it ... whereby we are obliged to export our tin to Germany, and +receive it back again manufactured.” + +_Figs. 10, 11, 12_—modern wooden spoons, as now sold in furnishing +stores. The one with a turned handle is the common French spoon. _Fig. +13_—the old spoon and ladle rack of rustic dwellings and kitchens. The +‘little forks’ are from a cut of the latter part of the 16th century, +showing the form of these implements when first brought into fashion. +Ladies at table held them between the finger and thumb, and knives were +not used—meat on the plates being previously cut into small pieces. The +first direct allusion to table forks we have met with is given by +Diogenes Laertius in the proem to his ‘Lives.’ The Magi, he says, used +reeds at meals, ‘with the sharp ends of which they took up their cheese, +and put it to their mouths.’ Shetland islanders used sticks as forks +when eating the flesh of seals. The old horn or wooden spoon was short, +as figured on the wall. The Gaelic word _cutag_, scottice _cutty_, was a +short hafted spoon. One of these was devoted to scraping out the +‘_kail-pot_,’ and then distinguished by the euphonius title of +_kail-gullie_. Such are the things employed, + + ‘When rural life o’ ev’ry station + Unite in common recreation.’ + +Scottish drovers carried a wallet of oatmeal and a wooden bowl. When +arrived at a brook and hungry, they mixed a little meal and water, +stirring the mixture with one end of a cutty spoon; and, when duly +compounded, eating it out of the other. The relish of food is from +heaven, and does not depend upon knives and spoons. In this respect, and +in ten thousand others, life is redolent of blessings. Had not the +Creator consulted man’s felicity, he might have made the taking of food +and every essential act of life disagreeable instead of a pleasure. +Wooden spoons no more spoil the appetite of the poor than golden ones +improve that of the rich. Forster, after living on the luxuries of Asia, +returning home by the Caspian sea, enjoyed the sweetest regale of his +life, when sitting down with the crew of a small Russian vessel—each +helping himself out of one common dish of fish broth with a wooden +platter and spoon. Servants in lord’s houses as well as rural laborers +made their own spoons and plates. None, says Brathwait, were permitted +to use trenchers but such as they made for themselves. + +Simple as the spoon is, no talisman ever equaled the miracles it works. +It transforms infants into youth and youth into manhood; infuses +strength into the limbs and marrow through the bones; expanding the +person, imparting symmetry to the frame, health to the body and +intelligence to the soul. A child cannot arrive at maturity without it. +See the usual process by which it works these wonders at the foot of +_Plate VI._ There half a dozen are in active operation, and as nature is +always the same, we see how boys and girls have eaten porridge, since +porridge was made. With the exception of costume the scene represented +belongs to all times. The children of Leah, Rachel, and Niobe fed +themselves like the group of Dutch youngsters the reader beholds. They +handled their spoons in the same way, blew on the food when it was hot, +made wry faces, and shed tears when they swallowed it too soon. + +The design is no fancy sketch; there is no poetry in the composition—no +got-up attitudes. Dame Nature herself arranged the figures for the +painter to copy. To be sure, the girls do not rival the graces nor the +boys Belvidere Apollos. No lady at court would imitate the posture of +either of the girls to the right. The gentleman at the back, with his +spoon in the dish, seems indetermined whether to raise it while the eye +of the reader is on him. His sister at the extreme left looks as if +ashamed to eat before strangers, and in the act of requesting the +beholder to turn his attention elsewhere—but it is unnecessary to dilate +on each figure; the rest are acting in accordance with the injunction of +Solomon:—‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.’ The +good dame points with pride to her thriving cherubs, and rejoices in +seeing them so agreeably amused with their spoons. To anticipate their +thirst she has placed a pitcher of water beside them. + +The most touching design in Holbein’s Dance of Death is ‘The Infant.’ A +poor widow prepares a meal for her two orphans; before it is ready Death +steps in and leads out the youngest. While passing the threshold, the +romping little innocent looks back towards its mother and its spoon, +(the latter lying on the floor,) and seems to long for something to eat +before going off with the stranger. + +In a curious account of Death’s doings, published in the 16th century, +the grim monster under various disguises takes away all sorts of people, +and at the most inconvenient seasons. Misers, merchants, friars, nuns, +cardinals, bishops, soldiers, beggars and belles are interrupted in the +midst of agreeable occupations, and while accompanied with things they +most valued. A _bon vivant_ carries a spit laden with trussed fowls in +one hand, and grasps in the other a jug and a spoon. The monarch of +Hades approaches and solicits his acquaintance—this is refused—a +struggle ensues; and soon, stripped of his goods, the portly sinner is +led an unwilling guest to the mansions below. + +The end of the world has been symbolized by Death breaking an hour +glass; the moral would be quite as striking were he represented +destroying the last spoon. The last spoon! Bless us, what thoughts does +that call up—thoughts of its maker, state of the arts and of the world +at the time—of its owner, his profession and place of abode, his +feelings when his contemporaries drop off, and finally leave him the +last of living men—the universal heir of his species. Where, and of what +will he prepare his last meal; and what will be his reflections when he +swallows the last spoonful! + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + _Plate VII—Silver Spoons—Chocolate, Coffee and Tea—Japanese + Spoon—Old Dessert Spoons—A mark of meanness to be without + Plate—Northmen—Prizes at Races—Necklaces of Spoons—Plated and German + Silver Spoons—The World full of Plated Characters—Cheating—Swearers + and the Devil—Laws prohibiting Plating and Transmutation—English + Assay and Stamp—Proverb—Perpetual renewal of Forms—Brazen + Girdles—Shackles—Spoons bewitched—Salad Spoon—Knife, Fork, and + Spoon—Swiss—French—Shanks of Hams decorated—Carving—Boarding School + Usages—Presents—Whittling—Mat weaving Legislators._ + + +PLATE VII.—The first eight figures are silver spoons, such as were in +fashion 300 years ago. _Figs. 1_, _2_, are English, and _3_ French. The +style of ornament on _2_, _3_, continued in vogue to the present +century. Armorial shields, as in _3_, and other ensigns were anciently +engraved on spoons. The Greeks and Romans had their initials cut on +them, as we have. In the middle ages quaint devices, and with churchmen +an Agnus Dei, or similar emblems were adopted. [Hogarth, it will be +remembered, began his career with engraving arms and cyphers on spoons +and plate.] The shape of _Fig. 4_ is quite modern—the fiddle head, +molding of the handle, reversed bend of its tip, are now in fashion, but +the figure is copied from an engraving a century old. A plain silver +spoon of a like form is portrayed on Planche 8, of the ‘Distillateur and +Liquoriste,’ in Arts et Metières, of the French Academy. _Fig. 5_—the +ordinary spoon of the present day, and almost identical with _4_. _Fig. +6_—a recent pattern; the handle more ornamented and the point of the +bowl rounded off. _Fig. 7_—modern French, from the pattern book of a +Paris manufacturer. _Fig. 8_—a fancy tea spoon, from a set belonging to +an antiquarian collector, and of English manufacture of the last +century. [As table, dessert, and tea spoons differ only in size, each +kind is sufficiently represented by the figures on the plate.] + +Speaking of tea spoons—what a revolution in manners and customs have +three beverages wrought in three centuries—chocolate, coffee, and tea! +The first, an ordinary drink of Astec princes, (see page 113) was +derived from Mexico in 1520. The second was unknown in western Europe +till the close of the 16th century. Its early history is involved in +fable. Employed by Arab monks to drive off sleep, and enable those +insensates to spend their nights in watchings, it at length was +universally adopted by Mussulmen for its refreshing properties. It was +carried from Turkey to England in 1641, and the first coffee house +opened by a Jew of Oxford, in 1650. A Greek set up another in London in +1652. Henry Blount, describing the diet of the Turks in 1634, observes, +‘They have another drinke, not good at meat, called _cauphe_, made of a +berry as big as a small beane, dryed in a furnace and beat to powder, of +a soote colour, in taste a little bitterish: they seethe and drinke it +hote as may be endured ... it is thought to be the old _blacke broth_ +used so much by the Lacedemonians.’ [_Voyage to the Levant_, p. 105.] +The consumption of coffee throughout the world during the past year has +been estimated at 453 millions of pounds. + +But an infusion of leaves of the tea plant has eclipsed all other +potations. Imparting tone to the stomach, soothing the irritated system, +removing languor and slightly exhilarating, it has become a favorite +beverage of civilized nations. Tea was first imported from China by the +Dutch, and in the middle of the 17th century sold in England at sixty +shillings per pound—a price equivalent to twenty dollars now. +Notwithstanding the denunciations of dietists, the moral influence of +tea has been manifestly beneficial. It has introduced elegance at meals +and politeness at table, diminished gross feeding and abolished the +grosser manners of former times. What barbarian would rob ladies of +tea—what substitute could he propose—does he wish the fair sex to live +as in times ere an infusion of the tea plant was known—to breakfast on +beef, pork, and beer, and sup on pork, beer, and beef? The meal known as +‘tea’ is the most intellectual of repasts; no excess attends it; it +rather invigorates the spirits than pampers the appetite. Coarse feeders +eschew it, for the fluid is but slightly nutritive. No drunkard loves +it, for it is the soberest of potations. To refined minds it is nectar +which drives away gloom and makes the soul sparkle with joy—a divine +cordial, the reverse of beastly malt liquors which the sensual guzzle. +Doubtless Circe kept a porter house, and Hygeia drank hyson and bohea. + +A fig for those philosophers who denounce tea and modestly ask us +to take to cold water—requiring us to renounce that which has done +so much towards polishing our manners, and rendering home +attractive—pseudo-reformers, who start at a tea-pot and groan at +the sight of a saucer. The tea spoon is justly caressed by old +ladies, and more fondled by young ones than any thing else. It is +to these the bearer of sweets and the medium of taste. Without +coyness they reach out their mouths to meet it half way and pout +with their lips till they give it a kiss. As they laugh and play +with it, the vermillion of their lips is deepened in tone, and +vivacity darts from their eyes. + +Tea table equipages, and adjuncts in the form of cabinet, china, silver, +iron, japanned and copper and other wares, give employment to millions +and wealth to thousands. The original tea spoon came from Asia, where +its shape often deviates considerably from ours. In the appendix to +Kempfer’s Japan is figured a portable case about a foot square, +containing every requisite for making tea, including a kettle, canister, +cup, and a singular looking tea spoon. It may be compared to a curved +and tapered marrow spoon, the small end being the handle. A tea +apparatus is carried by the Japanese ‘on their journeyings, and wherever +they go.’ + +It has already been stated that implements small as tea spoons were used +in Europe long before tea: besides other duties, they performed those of +modern desserts; were used in eating honey, sugar, and fruits preserved +in sugar; sweetmeats were favorite dainties in former days. Paul +Hentzer, who travelled in England in 1598, gives some interesting +particulars relating to the English court and manners. Visiting the +palace at Greenwich, he found the presence chamber hung with tapestry +and strewed with hay or rushes. He noticed the servants carrying dishes +into the queen’s dining room, and prostrating themselves before her +empty chair. Of Elizabeth herself he observes, “Next came the queen, in +the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestick; her +face oblong, fair but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; +a nose a little hooked, her lips narrow, and her _teeth black_; a defect +the English seem subject to from their too _great use of sugar_.” In +Nichols’ progresses of Elizabeth mention is made of comfit or preserve +boxes, with “a litill spone of gold.” Aaron Hill, in his ‘Ottoman +Empire,’ says the Turks take up sweetmeats ‘with little spoons like +those we use for tea.’ + +With the ancients it was an indication of poverty or meanness not to +possess spoons or some articles of plate. Suetonius observes of Domitian +that he was born in Pomegranate street, and so reduced in his younger +days as not to own a single utensil of gold or silver. Vespasian drank +on solemn occasions out of a silver mug which belonged to his +grandmother. She was probably poor, for the family was an obscure one, +having no ancestral statues. The emperor himself once let out horses and +mules for hire, and hence nicknamed _the muleteer_. + +Silver, remarks Olaus Magnus, was anciently in great plenty with the +Northmen. Household utensils and even cradles were made of it. Ladies +wore chains, bracelets, and round their heads bands of silver four +fingers broad. The men had girdles and buttons of the same metal. This +display, the reverend historian rather uncanonically observes, did honor +to the prince who thus ruled over a gallant people, and not over “poor +indigent fellows that are but scabs and pilfering knaves.” [B. vi. cap. +12.] Gold and silver smiths, he says, exhibited their goods at the great +annual fairs, held on the ice by the Goths, time out of mind. They +furnished the prize cups and spoons distributed at the horse and foot +races held yearly on the ice. The footmen wore skates made of the shank +bones of the rein deer, and ran over a distance of from eight to twelve +miles. The successful competitors were presented with “silver spoons, +brass vessels, swords, new garments, and young horses.” + +In northern Europe, young females on festival days adorn themselves with +rows of silver spoons strung together and worn as a necklace or girdle—a +singular proof of imperfect civilization. + +To accommodate all tastes and purses, iron, brass and copper spoons are +plated with silver, and silver ones with a coat of gold, fine as those +ancient ladies’ dresses which were compared to woven wind. Plating and +gilding are of unknown antiquity. In modern times a new and cheap +factitious substance has been introduced, named _argentane_ or _German +silver_. It is composed of copper, zinc and nickel, to which some add a +dose of arsenic or antimony. It constitutes a tolerable imitation of +real silver. Though slowly oxidized in air, the alloy rapidly corrodes +in acids, and injurious effects have resulted from its employment in the +kitchen and at the dining table. Recently its color and exterior +qualities have been much improved. German silver and plated wares enable +poor and economical people to imitate their betters in display, but the +cost laid out in sterling goods is the true economy. ‘A poor squire,’ +said a Spanish Æsop, ‘should have his cup of silver and his kettle of +copper.’ Though they cost more than others, they last longer, and when +worn out will buy fresh ones. + +It is with men as with their jewels; all is not gold that glitters. Some +put so thick a coat of virtue on that few detect the base material +underneath—others wear so thin a film that the slightest friction rubs +it through. The world is full of plated wares; streets are crowded as +well as tradesmen’s shelves. With spoons and with their owners, iron, +brass, lead and copper gilt, ape sterling metal. A like variety in both +prevails—from tinseled things to catch the vulgar eye, to tasteful forms +and ornaments that captivate politer circles. At the best, men are only +like their buttons, _i. e._ single, double or treble gilt. Artists have +a rule to distinguish between the true and false, and it applies to +moral as well as to material merchandize. Plated goods, it is said, +exhibit a darker hue, a stronger glare than native gold and silver; +hence where there is excessive gloss, be sure there’s brass below. The +art of plating human character preceded that of gilding metals. It soon +reached perfection. Recent ages have added nothing, nor will future ages +find aught to add. + +Tricks of old roguish pewterers were noticed in the last chapter; the +reader will be grieved to see in this that the morals of their +contemporaries who wrought in finer metals were no better. That ancient +Scottish poem, ‘_The Sweirers and the Devill_,’ gives a graphic account +of the manner and wiles of tradesmen to sell their goods. The fiend is +described perambulating a town _incog._ on a market day, and chuckling +at the oaths and imprecations of dealers with a view to deceive +purchasers. One wished “the devill mot stik him with a knyfe,” if what +he said respecting his goods was not true. The malster renounced God, +and hoped the ‘devill of hell might taik him, gif ony bettir malt may +be.’ The tailor gave himself ‘to the feynd’ if bettir cloaks were ever +made. + + Ane merchand, his geir as he did sell, + Renuncit his part of hevin and hell. + The fleshour [butcher] swoir be the sacrament, + And be Chryst’s bluid maist innocent, + Nevir fatter flesch saw man with ee. + Ane _goldsmith_ said the gold’s sa fyne, + That all the warkmanschip I tyne, [lose] + The feynd ressaif me gif I lie. + ... Quoth the devill, thow art mine. + +Since the discovery of the electrotype process of coating one metal with +another, spoons of German silver are made to appear so much like those +of sterling silver as to be sold by cheats for such. Similar frauds were +formerly practiced with plated goods. An English statute of 1403 is to +this effect: “Whereas many fraudulent artificers, imagining to deceive +common people, do daily make locks, [lockets] rings, beads, +candlesticks, harneis for girdles, hilts, chalices and sword pomels, +powder [pouncet] boxes, and covers for cups, of copper and of latin, and +the same over gilt and silver, like to gold and silver, and the same +sell and put in gage to many men not having full knowledge thereof, _for +whole gold and whole silver_, to the great deceit, loss, and hindrance +of the common people, and the _wasting_ of gold and silver; it is +ordained and established that no artificer, nor other man whatsoever he +be, from henceforth shall gilt nor silver any such, &c. upon pain to +forfeit to the king one hundred shillings, and to make satisfaction to +the party grieved for his damages.” Chalices and ornaments for the +church were excepted—they might be gilt or plated with silver, but at +the foot or underside the real material was to be exposed, “to the +intent that a man may see whereof the thing is made, for to eschew the +deceit aforesaid.” + +By an act of the same year it was made felony to transmute lead, iron, +copper, &c. into gold and silver! “It is ordained and established that +none from henceforth shall use to multiply gold and silver, nor use the +craft of multiplication; and if any the same do, that he incur the pain +of felony in this case.” The 5th of Hen. V. allowed gilding but only on +sterling silver; no inferior metal was to be covered with silver except +“knight’s spurs and all the apparel that pertaineth to a baron.” + +A. D. 1300, an act required all articles to be ‘of good and true +alloy—of no worse gold than the touch of Paris,’ and silver to equal the +current coin; no article to leave the workmen ‘untill it be essaied by +the wardens of the craft, and marked with the leopard’s head.’ Under +Edward III. every master was to stamp his own mark on the articles +before submitting them for assay to the king’s officers. In 1423, +another act required gold and silver vessels ‘to be essaied and touched +by the keeper of the touch,’ then marked, if found good, ‘with the +leopard’s head.’ No more ‘sowder’ was to be used than necessary—an +intimation that it was not spared when every article was sold by weight. +In 1294, Phillippe le Bel published regulations and renewed others, for +the guidance of Paris gold and silver smiths. + +The goldsmith’s profession furnishes a cutting rebuke to simpletons and +impudent boasters:—“A fool of 24 carats” is one whose folly is without +alloy: “a philosopher of 25 carats”—nature has exceeded herself in +producing him. + +Silver spoons are emblematical of that renewal of forms which organized +matter perpetually undergoes. Vegetables, animals and men are composed +of the same ingredients—alternately nourishing and imbibing nourishment +from each other. Their figures and condition, not their substance, +change. A portion of the reader’s person may have nerved the right arm +of David, swelled the stature of Goliah, blushed in the cheek of +Lucretia, handled the Crayons of Zeuxis, hunted with Meleager, or even +been part of the wild boar he slew! Start not, gentle reader, for that +which was a calf or pig, an ox or sheep, yesterday, is veal or pork, +beef or mutton to-day, and to-morrow becomes assimilated to its human +consumer; bone of thy bone, and flesh of thy flesh. It is humiliating to +human glory that the proudest individuals are composed of such vile +materials;—a courtier’s body may have toiled at Babel, and may again be +a bricklayer’s clerk. The skull of a king may once have been a calabash, +his nose a pullet’s gizzard; his blood may through a goose have trilled, +his heart have panted in a deer; his lips may once have jabbered on a +baboon’s face, and ages hence may do the like again: he yet may serve to +grease a carriage axle, manure a cabbage or a radish bed, and be served +up to clowns in salad. Princes, when sick, are fed sometimes on asses’ +milk, or draw their nourishment from dugs of goats, and thus incorporate +these animals with themselves. + +If there never was a transmigration of souls, there has always been one +of human bodies and of—silver spoons! As the elements of our ancestors +exist in us, so do tons of ancient plate in our buffets. Human beings +are dissolved in the grave, and the precious metals in the crucible; but +the operation in both cases is preliminary to the reäppearance of the +substances in new forms. The gold coin in the reader’s pocket may have +constituted a part of the chain which Pharaoh put round Joseph’s neck, +or of the bodkin which Fulvia thrust through Cicero’s tongue. Spoons +used at our tables may once have been shekels of the sanctuary, or paid +by Abraham for his field at Hebron. They may have entered the lips of +Cleopatra, and been employed by Andromache or Artaxerxes at dinner. The +ingenuity of antediluvian artists was perhaps expended on the substance +of that goblet. Noah may have handled it, and Judas bore it in his +scrip. A monarch’s table fork may once have picked the teeth of rebels, +or in a surgeon’s hands punctured boils and sores. As with the past so +with the future: Reader! ages hence thy silver plate may form the spoons +of an individual, a portion of whose body may be identical with thine, +and who, like thee, may sit speculating on the metamorphoses terrestrial +beings undergo. + +Before leaving this very curious subject we may be permitted to suggest, +that the often quoted contest between two individuals of the feline +race, at Kilkenny, which ended by each party eating up the other, _may_ +be less akin to an Irish bull and more allied to a philosophical truth +than is generally surmised. + +As devices for diminishing a craving for food have been mentioned, some +moral prescriptions for moderating a longing for rich furniture might +here be quoted, but they would be of little avail. Neither one appetite +nor the other can be tamed by medical or sacerdotal doctors. Few persons +now prefer eating sand to filling the stomach with good things; yet +except to such, table equipages, if emblazoned with fiends, snakes and +toads, would exert no lasting influence. Though table cloths were +winding sheets, knife hafts dead men’s bones, and spoons, cups and +butter boats made of human skulls, the generality of mankind would soon +eat and drink as heartily as if the service were of silver, and no +arguments had been adduced against intemperance. + +One device to make people stop when they had sufficient has not been +noticed; it was the last mechanical resource, viz: a broad brass or iron +band fitted to and worn around the abdomen; so that when the wearer +could not stop putting food into his mouth there was not room for it +below—the stomach no longer resembling an elastic sack, capable of +extension, but a non-elastic barrel which could not be surcharged. An +abbot in the 11th century, inordinately given to creature comforts, had +his trunk thus cased with a brazen band. With these girdles, neither +penitents nor those who loved short masses and long dinners could eat + + ‘Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve + Were bent like drums.’ + +It often happened that those who indulged an inordinate taste for gold +and silver plate wore shackles of another kind—according to the saying, +‘men of small means who eat from silver, fast and die in iron.’ Living +beyond their income, they end their days in jail. A fondness for +display, whether in the house or out of it, has caused no small share of +human misery. Many a female has ruined her husband by longing for plate. +The Italians say, the smiles of a woman are the tears of the purse—a +rich sideboard and a fat kitchen make a lean will. + +When those capricious goblins yclept ‘fairies’ used to assist their +rustic friends, by kindling kitchen fires at early dawn, sweeping +floors, milking cows, and churning butter, they played less pleasant +pranks to those who slighted them. Puck scared dairy maids, skimmed +their milk, and would not let their cheeses curdle nor the butter +‘come,’ “if a bowle of curds and creame” had not been offered him. Often +he slipped boys’ stools away as they sat down:— + + And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe. + Sometimes he lurk’d in a gossip’s bowl, + In very likeness of a roasted crab, [apple] + And when she drank, against her lips he bobb’d, + And on her wither’d dew-lap pour’d the ale. + +Worse things mischievous genii did to those obnoxious to their wrath. +Spoons at supper time denied their aid, and either vanished in the +steaming porridge or refused to leave the bowl or dish—more appalling +still, they have, on entering a hungry boor’s mouth, stuck fast, and +defied all human power to draw them thence, until the offended spirit +was appeased, and ceased to press the rustic’s upper and under jaw +against the implement! Legends such as these were often based on facts, +and demons more tangible than ‘Pucks’ or ‘Robin Goodfellows’ were the +authors. Fusible spoons are not of recent date, nor are metallic bowls +with spoons cast to them and made to resemble earthenware. Moreover, +spoons were as easily made to enter the mouth and remain a certain time +as those “untoothsome pears,” cherries and plums, mentioned by old +writers, “which being put into a body’s mouth, shall presently shoot +forth such and so many bolts on every side, that without the owner’s key +cannot be got out again.” The Cathayans had magical cups and we presume +spoons too, which filled themselves and then went of their own accord +“ten paces through the ayre into the hands of the Great Khan, and when +he hath drunke, in like sort they return to their place”! [_Ewbank’s +Hydraulics._] + +_Fig. 9_—a French device, resembling a large pair of scissors; one blade +being a fork, the other a spoon—a singular union. The screw or pivot is +made to take out, that each implement may, when desirable, be separately +handled. The whole is of ivory or buffalo’s horn and designed to +transfer salads at table. The usual dressings, as vinegar, salt, oil, +mustard, &c. corrode metallic substances. When used, the spoon or fork +is held downwards, accordingly as a part of the fluid is required to be +raised or not. That Warwickshire wizard who ranged through all nature +and every art to cull flowers and collect ingredients for those spells +by which he has bewitched the world, did not pass by salads: + + ’Twas a good lady; we may pick a thousand salads ere we light on such + another herb. + + Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the salad, or rather the + herb of grace.—[_All’s well that ends well._] + +_Fig. 10_—a pocket knife, fork and spoon united in one handle. +Implements of this kind were formerly much in fashion; at present they +are occasionally carried by travellers and by individuals on gunning or +fishing excursions. Captain Head used one when traversing the Pampas and +Andes. Supping at a wretched post, where table furniture was scarcely +known, a black girl held the light in one hand and furnished salt with +the other—artificial candlesticks and salt-cellars forming no part of +the establishment. He drew from his pocket, ‘a clasp knife and fork,’ +and picked up with the latter chopped pieces of beef from a pewter dish +to the no small delight of the living candelabrum. + +Peasants in Switzerland and other parts of the European continent, +commonly carry a device like _Fig. 10_, or a sheath containing the +separate implements. Before the revolution in France, it was customary +when a gentleman was invited to dinner, to send a servant with his +knife, fork and spoon; if he had no attendant, he took them in his +breeches pocket, as a carpenter carries a rule. “A few of the ancient +regime still follow the good old custom, because it is old.” Has not the +reader noticed at public dinners, or when making ‘New-Year’s calls,’ the +shank of a ham or leg of mutton tastefully decorated with gilt or cut +paper and ribbons? This was a custom somewhat general before forks were +introduced, and still is common in Germany and Italy. The carver grasped +that part of the joint in his left hand while he shaved off slices with +a pointed knife in his right. That he might hold it firmly and perform +his duty more expeditiously and seemly, a piece of paper was neatly tied +round the shank, and on great occasions set off with ribbons. Each slice +as cut off was raised on the point of the knife and laid on a thin piece +of bread, a pile of which was placed near the carver, who thus served +the guests in rotation. Ovid has observed there was grace in using the +fingers at table; so there is in handling a fork. In old engravings we +see ladies holding it between the finger and thumb, as if afraid to +touch it, or as people take snuff; others retain it in the hand in the +manner of a pen, and some grasp the handle with a clenched fist, as a +boy clutches an apple or a gentlemen the head of his walking cane. + +Portable cases of morocco containing a separate knife, fork and spoon +are for sale in our silver smiths’ shops. It is said gentlemen of the +_ton_ would as soon go a journey without their dressing cases as some of +them would take their seats at a _table d’hote_ without their own spoons +and forks. In public gardens visitors sometimes take ice cream and other +refreshments with their own apparatus; but a certain class prefer the +proprietor’s spoons, which, when of silver, they have forgotten to +return. We have heard of knives and forks being chained to plates, and +spoons to bowls, in London chop and soup houses—imitating a practice +introduced by Edwyn in the 7th century, of fastening by the same means +iron cups to wells and springs, for the use of honest and dishonest +travellers. As the ‘Transactions’ of the Society of Literary and +Scientific Chiffonniers will no doubt be consulted in future times, the +following extract from the circular of a fashionable female boarding +school may interest young ladies and teachers a century hence:—“Parents +to furnish each pupil with bed and bedding, six towels, napkins and a +knife; a silver fork, _spoon_ and mug; a thimble and a pair of scissors; +all to be marked in full: washing seven dollars a quarter.” + +A portable knife has always been an acceptable present to boys. The +first one is examined with rapture, and its possession sometimes forms +an epoch in the life of its owner, as was the case with young Achilles. +When disguised as a girl, and placed among the daughters of Lycomedes, +the wily pedlar of Ithaca took an effectual mode to discover him. The +pretended merchant unslinging his pack, displayed before the family of +Lycomedes thread, tapes, ribbons, scissors and needles, with an +assortment of neat daggers and knives; the females confined their +purchases to articles appropriate to them, but the youth, forgetting the +part his concealment required, eagerly pounced on the knives, &c. thus +revealing the secret of his sex, and to the man above all others +interested in finding him out. The Germans make annual presents to their +godsons, till the lads reach the age of fourteen, when the last gift, +invariably a pocket knife, is made. The instrument is considered +symbolical of a youth cut loose from leading strings, and thenceforward +accountable for his acts. Girls, we suppose, are treated with a pair of +scissors. + +Not a few modern devices are ancient inventions. There is one +universally ascribed to Yankees, but which, so far from being of +republican origin, is descended from royalty. An ancient writer, +describing the manners and magnificence of the Persian king, says, when +he rode in a chariot, instead of occupying his thoughts in reading or +conversation, he spent the time “in whittling with a knife.” +[_Purchas._] Major Harris, in his ‘Highlands of Ethiopia,’ mentions +Arabian legislators platting date leaves into mats while sitting in +council—the most useful, in his opinion, of their acts. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + _Plate VIII—Tea Caddy, Salt Spoons, and Salt—Salt-Cellar—Monks of La + Trappe—Egg Spoon—Paschal Eggs—Poultry raised by Steam—Mustard + Spoons—French Prayer—Celestial House Movers—Beef and Mustard—Punch + Spoon and Ladle—Wassail Bowl—Burns—‘Arts et Metières’—Sugar + Tongs—Sifter and Snuff Spoons—Cream, Marrow, and Physic Spoons—Human + Life—History and Influence of the Spoon—Author’s Request—His Parting + Bow._ + + +PLATE VIII.—a miscellaneous collection. _Figs. 1, 2_—tea caddy spoons, +for transferring the dried herb from small canisters to tea-pots. They +are of the last century; but being imitations of nature, will be more or +less in fashion while refined taste prevails. _Figs. 3, 4, 5_—salt +spoons of silver, pearl and ivory, but sometimes made of tortoise shell, +horn and bone, and of diverse patterns. As salt has been used at table +from primitive times minute implements for taking it up are of undoubted +antiquity, though particular descriptions of them have not reached us. + +Of all condiments salt is the chief, both for animals and men. +Quadrupeds relish it as well as bipeds. One of nature’s own preparing, +it is furnished in profuse abundance. Millions of tons are annually +consumed by horses, sheep and oxen in Europe and the United States. +Ancient farmers gave it to their stock, for which Plutarch (in _Nat. +Ques._) assigns the same reasons as modern agriculturists. What +philosophical husbandman is not gratified as his cattle crowd around him +for it? The mild eyes of his oxen looking grateful for a relish and +watching his movements in hopes of another. The timid ewe takes the +treat from his hand, and licks up every stray atom, while the colt, more +familiar, smells his pockets and whinnies for more. + +Salt not only seasons unsavory meat but preserves it from putrefaction. +In view of these admirable qualities, Homer calls it ‘divine.’ It was a +symbol of incorruptibility and fidelity—a pledge of friendship and +hospitality which nothing but death was allowed to cancel. No social +feast was perfect without it, and oblations were seldom offered unless +it was an ingredient. ‘No sacrifice,’ says Pliny, ‘was presented to the +gods without salt.’ ‘Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou +season with salt.’ [_Levit._] At the ceremony of circumcision the Turks +place, or used to place, a few grains in the boy’s mouth, saying, +‘Heaven make thy name savory as salt among men, and mayest thou live to +enjoy the fruits of the earth.’ Can that which is unsavory, exclaims +Job, be eaten without salt? Even bread, says one of the ancients, is +unpalatable without it. Its enormous consumption was a fruitful source +of revenue to ancient as well as modern governments. On one occasion +Demetrius rewarded the fidelity of the Jews to him by remitting the +gabel. + +The salt-cellar was held in great veneration of old, and from +superstitious motives, kept remarkably bright and clean. Placed on the +table near the images of the presiding deities (as already observed) its +presence consecrated the food. In the middle ages it was generally of +silver and elaborately wrought. A gilt one is extant modelled after the +white tower of London. + +To be placed at table above the salt was a mark of honor—to desire a +guest to seat himself below it an indication of inferior rank, or of +disesteem. In the latter case the mortification was not altogether +imaginary, as the following account of an old English hall, the scene of +feasting and hospitality, will show:—“At the upper end was placed the +orsille, or high table, a little elevated above the floor, and here the +master of the mansion presided with an authority, if not a state, which +almost equalled that of the potent baron. The table was divided into +upper and lower messes _by a huge salt-cellar_, and the rank and +consequence of the visitors were marked by the situation of their seats +above and below it—a custom which not only distinguished the relative +dignity of the guests, but extended to the nature of the provision—the +wine frequently circulating only above the salt-cellar, and the dishes +below it being of a coarser kind than those near the head of the table.” +From the correspondence of the younger Pliny, it appears that a similar +practice prevailed among the Romans. [See Letter vi. Book 2.] + +The fabrication of carved spoons was an employment of religious +recluses; they brought higher prices than when made by worldly minded +workmen. The monks of La Trappe were prohibited from using their +tongues—all communications being made by signs. They were forbidden to +read, write, or raise their eyes above the ground unless to direct their +steps. Their teeth too might as well have been drawn, for neither fish, +flesh nor any thing like solid food was given them to grind;—but +absorbed as these men were with celestial matters, and having no need +themselves of eating apparatus, they thought it no sin to provide them +for other people. Such of the brethren as could not endure the fatigue +of the mattock (observes Motraye) were employed in turning, carving, &c. +The traveller was presented “with an ivory spoon and fork wrought as +well as possible.” + +_Fig. 6_—an egg spoon, rather larger than a ‘tea,’ and having the handle +joined to the small end of the bowl. Such kind of implements have been +in use since hens laid eggs and women boiled them. The Romans were great +consumers of eggs; hence the saying ‘_ab ovo usque ad mala_,’ from eggs +to apples—an elliptical expression for a feast—eggs being the first, and +apples the last dish served up. Eggs played important parts in monastic +feasts and farces. The tenth of all produce of land, fowls and cattle +kept monks’ larders well supplied, and woe to him who robbed the church +of tythes, or ‘stole eggs from a cloister.’ “If a peeter penny or an +housle egg were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then beware of +spirits.” At Easter, eggs were boiled hard and stained of various colors +with onion peeling or broom flowers, and sometimes gilded. They were +consecrated according to a ritual of Pope Paul V. and presented to +children and friends, under the name of _pace_ or _paschal_ eggs. The +practice of boys striking eggs against each other, the shattered +becoming the property of the owners of the sound ones, is descended from +mediæval times. + +The egg was an ancient emblem of the universe, and has been symbolized +in a thousand things. An envious man thinks his neighbor’s fowls lay +more than his. Eggs are now hatched by steam, and chickens reared +without the aid of clucking hens. Released from anxious care about their +young and from the debilitating work of incubation, matronly fowls have +now nought to do but quietly lay their eggs and pass their time in +pleasure. Cooks with poultry can be supplied without tearing screaming +pullets from their parent’s side—sundering the finest fibres of +affection. Then the ‘_Eccaleobion_,’ it is said, will shortly place +within the poor’s reach luxuries hitherto denied them. The destitute are +not long to remain ignorant of the taste of chicken broth and plovers +fricasseed, of broiled partridge, quail and meadow hens; of roasted +geese, and ducks and turkeys. + +_Fig. 7_ a silver and _8_ an ebony mustard spoon. Forms of the ancient +implements have not reached us, but some sayings to which the condiment +gave rise are still in use:—‘’Tis mustard after dinner,’ indicating that +the time for using a thing has passed, or that the thing itself is of no +consequence; ‘a man amused with mustard;’ one that makes great things of +trifles. It has ever been deemed essential to beef, especially salt +beef; hence an old French prayer:— + + De trois choses Dieu nous garde, + _Du bœuf salé sans moutarde_, + D’un valet qui se regarde, + D’une femme qui se farde. + +‘Dijon mustard’ was renowned in the time of Philip the Fair, during +whose reign the reader will recollect two important transactions took +place—the introduction of the mariner’s compass into modern Europe, and +[in 1291] the transportation by angels of the Virgin Mary’s dwelling at +Nazareth into Dalmatia; whence it was conveyed three years afterwards +(by the same celestial house movers) to the opposite coast of the +Adriatic, and located on land belonging to a widow named Loretta. There +it has remained for the edification of pious pilgrims, and the maturing +of grace in the hearts of its reverend proprietors. + + _Grumio._ What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? + + _Kath._ A dish that I do love to feed upon. + + _Grumio._ Aye, but the mustard is too hot a little. + + _Kath._ Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest. + + _Grumio._ Nay, then I will not; you shall have the mustard, + Or else you get no beef from Grumio. + + _Kath._ Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt. + + _Grumio._ Why then, the mustard without the beef. + + [_Taming of the Shrew._] + +_Fig. 9_—a punch spoon, and _13_ a punch ladle—two of the least +beneficial applications of a valuable thing. + + Many estates have been spent in the getting, + Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting, + And men for _punch_ left off hewing and splitting. + +Few things have better exemplified the truth of another saying of ‘Poor +Richard’ than punch and punch spoons:—‘What maintains one vice would +bring up two children.’ The old ‘wassail bowl’ and its accompanying +spoon were not such promoters of dissipation as their modern +descendants, nor did they accommodate such pernicious liquids. Families +took wassail at home on festivals, when innocent hilarity reigned; but +to indulge in punch, men meet at taverns, where they ply the ladle till +they perform antics rude and grotesque as those for which that hero is +known whose name is the same as the liquor. After supper at Christmas +“the wassail bowl was brought in, of which every one partook, by taking +with a spoon a roasted apple out of the ale and eating it, then drinking +the healths of the company out of the bowl, wishing them a merry +christmas and a happy new year.” With the Greeks and Romans wine was +carried to the dining room in large vases, and poured into bowls, whence +it was drawn by ladles into cups and tumblers. See figures on the second +plate. + + O whiskey! saul o’ plays an’ pranks! + Accept a bardie’s humble thanks! + When wanting thee, what tuneless cranks + Are my poor verses! + +Unfortunately for Burns he did not confine himself to invocations of the +spirit, or even to moderate draughts at her fountain. His punch bowl of +Inverary marble and its attending ladle were too often put in +requisition. Under their influence he produced his poem called ‘Scotch +Drink,’ in which he thus humorously blesses every total abstinence man: + + May gravels round his blather wrench, + An’ gouts torment him inch by inch, + Wha twists his gruntle wi’ a glunch + O’ sour disdain, + Out owre a glass o’ _whiskey punch_ + W’ honest men. + +How opinions change! With the laudable view of preserving a knowledge of +the arts and of innocent comforts, and to guard, as far as human power +can, against a second deluge of barbarism, the old French Academy +published descriptions, in great detail, of the most valuable +manufactures and professions. In ‘L’Art du Distillateur Liquoriste’ is +figured and described a Paris coffee room with its appendages, including +a “grande jatte de porcelaine _pleine de punch_, un cuiller de buis pour +puiser cette liqueur, et la verser dans les verres.” + +_Figs. 10_—sugar tongs; a singular application of the spoon, which, +instead of scooping up fluids or semi-fluids is here designed to take up +solids. When loaf sugar was introduced, (the period of which is +uncertain, for it was made several ages before its alleged discovery by +Venetians in the 16th century,) the ordinary spoon could not readily +plunge among the lumps nor be secure of catching one, or of retaining it +when caught; hence _two_ spoons were joined in the chase, and as one +heads the game while the other closes up the rear, they seldom lose +their destined prey. Two spoons inseparably linked in a pair of sugar +tongs are like those married couples, who none but mutual pleasures +know, and whose time is spent among the sweets of life. + +_Fig. 11_—another curious transformation. We have seen the spoon +resemble a pair of shears, then a pair of tongs—here it is a _sifter_. +Copiously perforated, the bowl is used to sprinkle refined sugar over +the crust of pies, custards and other delicious dainties. Strange, how +one thing glides into another! What primeval artist ever thought that +spoons would be converted into riddles—made as useless for lifting +liquids as the buckets of the Danaides! The bowl is also sometimes +flattened and pierced for a fish slice, and, when half covered, is made +into a basting ladle! By the way, we forgot to mention at page 177, that +snuff spoons were also punctured, because they could not properly +discharge their contents otherwise. When held laden to the nostrils, the +sudden withdrawal of the superincumbent air by the snifter draws up the +spoon itself if the bowl be not perforated, just as a piece of paper +held near the mouth is sucked in by an inspiration. But when two or +three minute holes are made in the bowl, no sooner does the owner set +his nasal pump at work than the atmospheric air, ascending through the +openings, drives up the powder in a trice, and scatters none in lateral +directions. + +_Fig. 12_—a cream spoon, invented on the labor saving principle. It +supersedes the necessity of lifting the pitcher with its contents every +time a modicum only of the fluid is wanted—exhibiting the advantages of +economizing force, though in a less degree than the tea or coffee urn. +Fifty cups can be filled from one of these by simply opening a tap which +the little finger can effect; whereas no lady could charge half that +number from a tea-pot without her arms and shoulders complaining of the +labor. _Fig. 14_ is the well known marrow spoon, of the history of which +we are uninformed. It is however an emblem of many good things. O! for +the salt of wit, cream of pleasantry, and marrow of rich stories! + +The last spoon figured on the plate is not the least appropriate to +finish with. The others are for taking food, this for taking physic; +they to comfort people when in health, this to cure them when sick. +Having furnished so many devices by which the stomach is often +overloaded, it may be expected that one at least will be given to assist +in recovering its natural tone. Every person knows that pills were +formerly _gilded_ with the view of preventing their substance from +annoying the sense while passing the gullet. Roman apothecaries supplied +squeamish patients with such; as a box half full with the gold leaf +remaining has been found at Pompeii. The spoon _Fig. 15_ is designed for +much the like purpose, viz: to send fluids down the same passage with as +little delay and annoyance as possible. To patients in a recumbent +position, and to such as are disposed to resist, it is a capital thing. +The handle is hollow and communicates with the bowl. When the latter is +charged (through the lid which is shown open) the thumb of the nurse or +attendant is placed over the aperture of the handle and the lid closed. +The contents are then prevented, by the exclusion of air, from escaping. +The spoon is next properly placed in the patient’s mouth, and the thumb +removed, when the liquid necessarily goes to its appointed place, for +air cannot pass to the lungs but through the handle and bowl. This +contrivance is modern, but covered spoons for administering broths to +sick people, and medicines to children, are old. + +Roman _bon vivants_ took a vomit before dinner, as well as one after, +and even now there are persons who prepare for the principal meal by +exciting an artificial craving with ‘dinner pills.’ There have been, and +perhaps always will be, men who live only to digest, and many more with +two stomachs to eat and not one to work. + +The different states of human life—infancy, adolescence, manhood, +senility and second childhood, are represented by pap, dessert, table, +tea and physic spoons. The spoon is the first artificial thing an infant +studies, the earliest one he handles and knows. As intelligence dawns it +is recognized, and at its sight he flutters like a nestling impatient +for aliment. In time he leaves the nurse’s arms and tries to feed +himself; ambitious to manage his spoon alone, he scatters half the food +upon his bib, and smears his hands, his face and throat with porridge. +Next a youth, he handles it with ease and plies it with dexterity; a +stranger to artificial appetite, he relishes the food it bears, and +grows in strength and beauty. A strong man now, his breasts the +implement has filled with milk, and made his bones abound with marrow. +But quickly the noon of life is past; age and infirmity with rapid +strides approach, and take his relish and his strength away. An +octogenary now, he feeds himself with pain. Next, helpless as when born, +he stares in idiot vacancy and recognizes nothing—save a spoon. The +nurse now feeds him as at first, and tends this fitful being, till he +goes wailing out of life as he came crying in. + +Lest the reader should feel symptoms of a surfeit, we will now make an +end, although many things are left untouched, especially such as relate +to the statistics of spoons, their diversified materials, processes of +manufacture, their cost, numbers annually worn out, hosts of artists +employed in making them, talents they have exercised and skill +displayed; the myriads incessantly engaged in using them, the daily +influx into our world of fresh beings that want them, and a probably +increasing demand to the end of time for them—for though science +supersedes many things, and the progress of the arts renders old +machines useless, neither science nor arts, nor fashion to boot, can +ever banish spoons from the earth, or make much alteration in them. +While men’s mouths are not placed at the ends of flexible trunks, +manufacturers will find work; and the last spoons will differ as little +from ours as the persons of the present and the latest spoonmakers. Nay, +if people in Venus and Mars eat like us, as they probably do, a +deputation from each at one of our public dinners would be at no loss in +applying these table utensils. + +An extended account of the spoon; of its influence on food, manners, and +imagination; of its virtues, the pleasures it imparts and sorrows it +soothes, would be a history of all times and people. Looking at the +excitement it produces, how seas are crossed, lands ploughed, rivers +dragged, fish ponds made, cattle slain, birds ensnared, caldrons cast, +mines exhausted and forests burnt for fuel; mountains of clay used up +for pottery, kitchens built and cooks employed, &c. to supply materials +and prepare them for it—one might suppose the spoon was the spring that +keeps all things in motion—the source of genius and parent of the useful +arts. + +We trust the reader, now he has arrived at the close, will admit that he +is more familiar with the subject than when he began it. Few persons +would refuse a modest author so slight a reward for his toil, since he +could hardly solicit a less one. But there are envious critics, we fear, +who, without perusing our work, will condemn it; perhaps declaring there +is nothing novel in its spirit or its plan, and that the best things in +it were written years ago! If they do, and if, which heaven forefend, +they should prove it too, we shall, with the feelings of injured +innocence, fervently pray that those impertinent plagiarists may perish +who said _our_ good things before us, and that memory may fail all who +remember them! + +[Illustration: An upside-down teacup sitting on a saucer with a spoon +balanced horizontally across its base. The word "FINIS" is written +across the side of the cup.] + +RESPECTED GUEST:—Perceiving by the inverted position of thy bowl and +spoon that thou hast not despised the plain food set before thee, but +hast relished it so well as to leave none, I, HAB’K O. WESTMAN, present +myself in _propria persona_, as in duty bound, to make my parting bow, +and acknowledge my sense of thy patronage. It is also my wont, when an +agreeable customer is about to leave me, to request him, if the +entertainments have been to his liking, and the charges no more than +they should be, to invite his friends to take an opportunity of judging +of my cookery, and my conscience in making out bills. Adieu, kind +patron! Heaven send thee pleasant adventures and a speedy return to “The +Globe,” when I hope to have a better dish awaiting thy reception—one +preparing under the auspices of our society, and the recipe of which was +commended by Dr. Swallow himself—who was, as thou art aware, + + “Of palate exquisite, of labor free, + A kitchen doctor of the first degree.” + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=. + ● The caret (^) is used to indicate superscript, whether applied to a + single character (as in 2^d) or to an entire expression (as in + 1^{st}). + ● Images without captions use HTML alt text provided by transcriber. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79020 *** diff --git a/79020-h/79020-h.htm b/79020-h/79020-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e8b65c --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/79020-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10106 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Spoon | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; 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page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; + margin: .67em auto; page-break-before: always; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .blackletter {font-family: 'Old English Text MT'; font-weight:bold; + font-style: normal; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79020 ***</div> + + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='titlepage'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c001'>THE SPOON:<br> <span class='xsmall'>WITH</span><br> <span class='large'>UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS,</span><br> <span class='small'>PRIMITIVE, EGYPTIAN, ROMAN, MEDIÆVAL, AND MODERN.</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='xlarge'>BY HABBAKUK O. WESTMAN,</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>OF THE GLOBE TAVERN;</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>FORMERLY TEACHER OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL.</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>BEING A PART OF</span></div> + <div class='c003'>THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CHIFFONIERS,</div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>ILLUSTRATING THE PRIMITIVE ARTS IN DOMESTIC LIFE.</span></div> + <div class='c003'>LONDON:</div> + <div class='c003'>WILEY & PUTNAM, 6, WATERLOO PLACE.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>ADVERTISEMENT.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>‘<span class='sc'>The Spoon</span>’ is the first of a series of papers designed +to elucidate the origin, history, and value of +several primitive devices, which, from their apparent +insignificance, have been overlooked by writers on +the useful arts; but which have not been without +their influence on the progress of civilization. As +it was out of the question to treat every subject with +the gravity due to historical research—to do so a +writer must be the personification of melancholy herself—the +idea was adopted of embracing them under +the ‘Transactions’ of a Society, whose name +should indicate their miscellaneous character, and +relative value among literary merchandize. Small +as this value may be, there are persons simple +enough to suppose the annals of the shuttle and +needle, of bellows and boilers, &c. possess higher +claims on the attention of the moralist, philosopher, +and historian, than many dignified tomes of acknowledged +history; for what are these, when divested +of extraneous matters, but records of the +club, sword and bayonet, the musket, cannon, and +scaffold?</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>THE PUBLISHERS.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>PREFACE.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c005'>A Turkish shepherd tending his flocks in the vicinity of Adrianople, +bethought of solacing himself with a few whiffs of tobacco. +Seated on the ground, under the shade of a tree, he drew from a +pouch his apparatus for striking fire, but found the piece of flint +missing. He therefore arose, looked about for a stone, and at +length picked up a pebble, which answered the purpose so well +that he used it daily for a year or more. It came to pass that a +Jewish pedlar one morning approached as the boor was lighting +his pipe. The Israelite took a fancy to the stone, and bought it +for a few aspers—soon after which, it shone the largest and brightest +gem in the turban of Mahomet IV:—Now every reader of this +book will either resemble the disciple of Moses or the Mahommedan +keeper of sheep. It is true, diamonds are not concealed +within the leaves; yet he who has wit to detect, <i>aurum e stercore</i>, +gold from dirt—will certainly meet with something more than +materials to light a cigar.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>New-York, February, 1844.</i></p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span> + <h2 class='c004'>INTRODUCTION:</h2> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><i>Embracing a Sketch of the Origin and Organization of the Society of Chiffonniers.</i></div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'><span class='sc'>Courteous Reader</span>:</p> + +<p class='c008'>In the character of an author I beg leave +to salute thee as my reader; and, as host of “The Globe,” +as my guest. Having for some time kept an establishment +for the accommodation of travellers—that is, for supplying +at moderate charges such conveniences and refreshments as +are necessary to comfort and strengthen the body or outer +man, I have lately been induced, indeed in a manner compelled, +by the rage of competition, to add a new branch to +the business; a department for providing various cates and +delicious dainties to cheer and invigorate the spirit or inner +man—to the end that both the mental and material palates +of my patrons may be gratified at my table.</p> + +<p class='c006'>This, it is suspected, will become a general practice. As +libraries are expelling decanters from steamers; sojourners +at hotels will next require landlords to furnish literary as +well as culinary food—books as well as butcher’s meat; +philosophical essays and fashionable novels as well as pasties +and beef à la mode. A change is passing over the +world and none feel it more than those in my line. Temperance +has already turned bar-rooms out of doors; while, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>from the efforts made by new doctors on diet, it is likely +kitchens will soon have to follow. So far as I am concerned, +the change will not be disagreeable, for I still prefer Horace +to Kitchiner, and Tully to Mrs. Glasse. I can have no objection +to imitate Phædo, who kept a victualing shop, and +entertained those whom he fed; for like him I may peradventure +have a Socrates for a boarder. May I hope, gentle +guest, our acquaintance will be as agreeable to thyself as to +me—that the fare to be set before thee will be to thy taste, +and that I and my family may often have the prof—I mean +the pleasure of thy company.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Ahem—It never was my wont to make excuses when +my stock of viands was low; yet, sooth to say, the pantry +is at present bare of fresh meats and of game. Vegetable +and other watery aliments have been so much cried up in +these parts, that old dealers in sirloins and haunches have +been driven from the trade; some have taken stands in the +fish-market, others opened stores for the sale of garden +truck, and not a few have begun to vend “cookies and candies,” +which last, strange to say, are found the most profitable. +All I can therefore promise thee on the present +occasion is a simple dish, or rather a wholesome bowl of +spoon-meat—<i><span lang="fr">un dejeuné à la cuiller</span></i>. I pray thee let not +thine anger kindle at this announcement, for, on my veracity +and hopes of public favor, it is a pleasant and not an +unsubstantial food—a rather thick, but still an agreeable, +acidulous fluid—one in which thou wilt find (what Englishmen +erroneously attribute to beer) both meat and drink—though +certainly not washing and mending, which Irishmen, +it is said, formerly ascribed to their whiskey.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Its appearance may not be enticing to “queasy” appetites, +but I have seldom known a customer who, after once +tasting it, did not lick the dish clean. Pray excuse me: I +am oblivious in bringing into the parlor expressions belonging +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>to the kitchen. But I scorn to take advantage of any +one—to decoy customers by false colors; <i>i. e.</i> by hanging +out signboards which promise what I cannot supply. Thou +hast seen my <i>signum</i> on the title page, where it honestly indicates, +as honest signs should do, the entertainment to be +had within; and to convince thee of the liberal principles +on which I am determined to build up my business, I ask +not a doit for the meal of which thou art about to partake—all +that is required of thee is to meet the small charge of +the publisher for this “bill of fare.” Having done that—there +is a seat—here comes thy food—now sit thee down, +and in the language of mine ancient brethren of the spigot +and spit, “much good may it do thee.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>There is one thing it behooves me to say, since it will, I +trust, assist in making our acquaintance more lasting than +from a temporary visit it otherwise might be. People of +my profession are natural judges of character. Without +knowing how, we become practical physiognomists—comprehending +at a glance a stranger’s disposition, his station +in society, and often the state of his purse—not that the latter +excites my curiosity as it does that of unworthy members +of the craft—men whose attentions are graduated by +their ideas of the repletion or collapsion of a customer’s +pockets. Now there are traits in thy countenance of a cultivated +and ingenuous mind—marks stamped by Nature on +her favorite offspring. Hence it is not less my duty than +my desire to make thy short stay with me agreeable.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It was formerly a custom of respectable hosts to entertain +an esteemed guest during his first refection with pleasant +stories, traditions, local news, or other matters; on +which account, chiefly, inns or taverns became known as +“houses of entertainment.” Attached as I am to the good +old ways of our forefathers, I will take this chair and relate +some particulars which will not be distasteful to so +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>amiable a spirit as thine. They will prepare thee for the +company of a number of gentlemen, whom I hope to have +the honor of introducing to thee, members of a society +whose meetings are held once a week in my house. If I +have not misjudged thy character, thou wilt be amused +with their conversation; and wilt moreover learn the names +of some new dishes, which, with their assistance, I hope +shortly to serve to my customers.</p> + +<p class='c006'>I have here an abridged history of the association, drawn +up by the secretary. It commences thus:</p> + +<p class='c006'>“The society was organized by a few plain individuals +whose time was taken up during the day with the current +occupations of life. Men of moderate capacities and attainments, +they united to a little general knowledge a pretty +large amount of ambition, for they determined not to be overlooked +in the general herd of the living, and <i>not</i> to sink into +instant oblivion at death. They had no idea of having their +individualities amalgamated with the myriads travelling +with them to the grave—like drops of rain in a shower, +undistinguishable from each other while falling, and never +to be identifiable afterwards. They therefore cast about for +the means of making some noise in the world, or of so performing +their parts on its theatre, that if they could not +secure the applause conferred on first rate actors, they +would try to avoid the silence of contempt, that attends the +entrance of poor ones, and the momentary shrug conferred +on the exit of quiet ones.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Impressed with these views, they concluded to form +themselves into some kind of library or philosophical society, +this appearing the most promising mode of acquiring +notoriety. They hoped in this way to accomplish jointly +what they could not do individually, viz. get up something +in the shape of a <span class='fss'>BOOK</span>, which should make them known +while they lived, and remain a memorial of them after their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>decrease. It signified little how poor the performance might +be, or how unfit they were to perform it, for they were +aware that the more incapable an author is the more likely +he is sometimes to be remembered; his unfitness being the +very cause of his notoriety. They instanced the case of <span class='sc'>W. +Read</span>, an English baronet, who published a work on optics, +and could neither write a line of it nor peruse one; or even +tell when his book was upside down—a circumstance by +which alone he is still remembered, and his name renewed +in print.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Then, as for the number of copies sold—should they be +many or few—some stray ones would be almost sure to +wander through a century, if not a longer period; and suppose +the leaves <i>then</i> distributed by grocers, as envelopes of +tea, cheese, or soap; or pasted as linings in trunks; they +might perchance call up some recollections of, or enquiries +about, the authors. Nay, if a dozen copies only were +printed, future bibliomaniacs would certainly treasure them +up like Queen Anne’s farthings—or like the twenty-six volumes +of sermons by <span class='sc'>William Davy</span>, a Devonshire clergyman, +of the last century, of which the first and only edition +consisted of fourteen copies. A bookworm prizes one of +these as a treasure; and hence, the members of the proposed +association hoped some bookworms of the twentieth +century would cluck over a few impressions of their work, +as brooding hens over their callow young.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“The first thing was to agree on a plan, as success +would depend principally upon the wisdom with which it +was drawn up, and the energy and prudence with which it +was carried out. Several meetings were held, and numerous +measures suggested. Mr. Delf thought it would not +be amiss to run over a host of institutions already established. +Perhaps, (said he,) by modifying or by joining +one of them, our objects might be attained. The idea was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>acted on, but none were found to be precisely what was +wanted. Mr. Digwell remarked, that it would not answer +at all to unite with any. We are (he observed) men of ordinary +abilities, of humble pretensions, and never can attain +distinction among abler persons. Instead of seeking +initiation into Lyceums, Academies, and other bodies of the +learned, among whom we can only be hewers of wood and +drawers of water, lighters of lamps and riddlers of ashes—‘helps,’ +not members of the family—we ought to establish +ourselves on independent, unoccupied ground. Let us have +a field of our own, however small it may be—one that borders +on no other people’s property. [‘A pretty large field, +that,’ observed Dr. Swallow.] I beg pardon; I meant +one so clearly defined, so well enclosed, that there might be +no danger of us trespassing on our neighbor’s grounds, or +they hunting on ours.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“I am not prepared at this moment to say where such a +field is, but I am persuaded it is to be had. One to which +other associations have no claim—to which their ‘tracks’ do +not lead. It would indeed be unworthy of us to attempt a +location where the title might be disputed; and sure I am +we could not start a new settlement in the vicinity of our +predecessors without being abused as intruders, if not +served with writs of ejectment.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing008.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 1</i> <i>Primitive</i><br> <br> <i>Lith. of E. Jones 123 Fulton S<sup>t</sup>. N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“Look at the hosts of regular associations for the promotion +of <i>science</i> in general, and others to extend its separate +departments; the world is full of them; they swarm every +where. It is the same with <i>literary</i> societies: these are as +common as ‘Common Schools,’ and excite about the same +amount of interest. Academies of the <i>fine arts</i>, and institutions +for <i>agricultural</i> and <i>mechanic arts</i>, abound in every village. +Their name is legion. So it is with <i>religious</i>, <i>moral</i>, +and <i>active benevolent</i> societies. The best, at any rate the +most attractive, sites are all taken up—not a yard is left between +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>those cultivated by national institutes, and such as +are covered by parish associations for the gratuitous distribution +of soup.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>[These sentiments were evidently approved, but as the +evening was far advanced, a proposal was made to adjourn; +when Mr. Jacob Christener rose and begged leave to say a +few words.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“The gentleman is right, Mr. Chairman, and I thank him +for so clearly opening the way for a motion I have to make. +He has strengthened my convictions of its propriety, and +given me the confidence I lacked to bring it forward. It +seems to me, sir, the only plan open to us is the one I am +about to propose, and if we don’t lay hold of it, others will. +It has hitherto been unthought of, but cannot long remain +concealed. Reject it, and farewell to the happiness anticipated +from our union while we live, and to the odor that +is to exhale from our names after death. Adopt it, and +this night we become the parents of a society whose auxiliaries +will rise up in every land. In twelve months, we +shall want a travelling agent, a foreign sec—”</p> + +<p class='c006'>[Here the speaker was interrupted with cries of “What +is it?” “There’s no time for a preface to-night!” “Order!” +&c.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Well, gentlemen, to be short, then: I propose that we +organize ourselves into ‘<i>The Society of Literary and Scientific +Chiffonniers</i>.’ [On this announcement, an explosion +burst forth simultaneously from every mouth, except the +speaker’s, and some good humored remarks were exchanged. +When the excitement had a little subsided, he +continued:] I was prepared for this; I expected as much; +but hear me out, and then be as merry as you please. If a +better plan be not brought forward—one equally original, +and less open to objections—why, then it will be my turn +to laugh.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>“Here have we been engaged this evening five mortal +hours, without agreeing on the character of the proposed +association, chiefly from the difficulty of steering clear of +those already established. We admit the latter are too numerous +to allow an additional one of the same kind any +chance of success. Why, then, excite a competition we +lack means to carry on? It would be folly to attempt it; +besides, we are agreed that no modification of any old institution +can meet our wants. Now, the plan I propose is +derived from and indebted to none. It crowds on and interferes +with none, but gives to all a wide berth. There is +no danger of our ever being amalgamated with any. Our +identity will be preserved, for none will be in a hurry to +adopt our designation or infringe on our labors.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Let us be candid, at least among ourselves. We are, +then, philosophical mendicants. We have no property of +our own—not a scrap—and we confess inability to originate +any. Whatever we get must come from other people; +hence, as members of established societies, we could +not succeed, or even be respected, for we have nothing to +command respect; and I risk little in saying, if we made +application for admission, nine-tenths of us would be blackballed. +As well expect Chambers of Commerce to offer +scavengers seats and votes at their boards; or extensive +dealers in dry goods to receive the owners of apple stands +into their firms. There are but two ways to realize anything—honestly +and roguishly; or, as the saying is, ‘by +hook or by crook.’ Now, as we disavow all ideas of hooks, +(except the small and harmless ones by which chiffonniers +raise moist matters into their baskets or bags,) we must, to +succeed in any other society, give value for the property we +acquire—but this we cannot do—or receive it as alms—which +we won’t do. What, then, is left for us, but to pick +up what others throw away? From my experience, gentlemen, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>I assert there is more to be thus got, than you +are aware of. With industry, we can acquire wealth—a +local habitation and a name—wealth that none will dispute +with us; for it will consist of a mass of minute matters, +which, individually considered, the owners will be +ashamed to claim. If we cannot deal in webs and wholesale +packages of fresh goods, we shall become extensive +jobbers in fragments of old goods.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Pray, who can interfere with our ranging the bye-paths +and alleys, the cellars and garrets of science, in search of +lumber—to pick up, as it were, bits of rags, bones, and +glass, with other small matters, which the wealthy throw +out, and the proud step over? None. On the contrary, +we can rake at our leisure the kennels, and stir up heaps +of cinders and street sweepings, without let or hindrance; +and, depend upon it, we shall every now and then meet +with a godsend, (as our prototypes often do, in the shape of +a silver spoon or fork, thrown out in slops by slipshod scullions.) +Yes, industrious chiffonniers, we shall bring many +rare and lost things to light—things singularly <i>recherché</i>—curious +and useful as those found in historical and antiquarian +collections. If we are true to ourselves, the ‘Chiffonniers’ +Repository’ will soon equal in interest any other.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Our labors will be pleasant; we can carry off what we +fancy, and leave what is disagreeable. They will be profitable. +Many a chiffonnier has purchased the house in +front of which he once looked out for chiffons, has changed +conditions with its owner, thrown off his professional garb +and stepped into the parlor, lounged as a gentleman on his +own sofa, and listened to the warblings of his daughters at +the piano! And who knows, Mr. Chairman, but we shall +do so too—shall hold our meetings in stately buildings now +belonging to other societies, compete with the wealthy Nestors +of knowledge in their own halls, and perhaps at last +<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>turn them out of their own doors! [Cries of ‘Hear! +Hear!’ interrupted the speaker.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Think, gentlemen, how interesting our meetings will be. +When a member brings in his budget and displays his +gatherings, who can sit still? Who can restrain his curiosity? +Verily, not one of us! Then what original, erudite, +and racy remarks will be made! Here, a speaker +descanting on the value of spoons, or the history of gridirons; +there, another relating the adventures of a stocking +foot, which he proves once had a place in Queen Elizabeth’s +or Madame Maintenon’s wardrobe. This member gives a +lecture on the value of many simple and primitive devices +which the world never thinks of; and that, shows the claims +which the trammel and tinder-box have on the gratitude of +mankind!</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Another word, and I have done: We shall have a jubilee +once a year; for I propose that we offer a collection +of chiffons at public sale, every spring or fall. Then will +buyers of miscellanies crowd our marts, and bring us their +wealth in exchange for our wares! We shall make a kind +of Leipsic Fair of it! Gentlemen, our prospects are glorious; +they brighten as we gaze at them. I feel animated +by anticipations of success. I see that as Chiffonniers we +shall ascend the rugged mount on which stands the temple +of Fame, and get there before others who are now half way +up. Bless us! what a welcome the old lady will give us to +her abode! What a blast she will blow in honor of chiffonniering!—in +praise of a new set of men who have cut a +new path to her dwelling!”</p> + +<p class='c006'>[The speaker sat down amidst much acclamation.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“The discussion here closed for the evening, and was resumed +on the following one, when an extended and animated +debate was kept up to a late hour. Various slight modifications +of the plan suggested were brought forward. They +<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>will be understood from the style or title by which each +speaker proposed to designate the body. The most striking +were: ‘Odds and Ends Association,’ ‘Literary Rag +Society,’ ‘Scientific Scrap ditto,’ ‘Miscellany Club,’ ‘Chiffonniers’ +Institute,’ ‘Society for reviving the claims and +preserving memorials of sundry Primitive Inventions,’ +‘Emporium of Philosophical Small Wares.’ The general +feeling settled on the fourth and fifth. At the first ballot, +the votes stood equally in favor of the Miscellanarians and +the Chiffonniers—but on the second, the street rovers and +rag pickers were triumphant.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“The Chiffonniers admitted ‘The Miscellany Club’ +would be a more respectable designation; and the Miscellanarians +conceded that ‘The Chiffonniers’ Institute’ was +characteristic and select. By a subsequent and unanimous +vote, the latter was changed to ‘<i>The Society of Literary and +Scientific Chiffonniers</i>,’ as at first proposed.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“A constitution was next agreed on. It declares the objects +of the society to be, the picking up of literary, philosophical, +mechanical, or other fragments, from unusual or +neglected sources, and to revive the claims of simple, and +what are generally deemed insignificant, devices. It is the +duty of each member to visit odd and out of the way places, +open to him, in search of chiffons. Common subjects of +discussion are excluded at the meetings. A paper on +matches or walking-sticks would be applauded, while one +on the strength or other properties of timber would be a +signal for the author’s expulsion. A communication on costume +would be received perhaps with indifference, but if +confined to a single article of apparel, or to a fragment of +one, would be hailed with acclamation. A lecture on any +regular manufacture, as glass making, iron founding, earthen +ware, the furniture of a parlor or kitchen, &c. would hardly +be admissible; but one on a bottle, or part of one, on a caldron, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>a pipkin, a broken chair, or a cheese grater, would rejoice +the hearts of the members. Every chiffonnier to prepare +a paper or lecture on a chiffon, in his turn.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“At the first meeting under the constitution, the expressive +apothegm ‘<i>Vive la Bagatelle</i>’ was selected as the Society’s +motto. The author of the plan adopted was chosen +President, but as Mr. Christener persisted in declining the +chair, to which he was entitled, the late Dr. Nathan Swallow +was elected, though not by a unanimous vote. No other +member possessed such varied qualifications. His experience +with men and matters was extensive, for he had dabbled +in almost every thing, but succeeded in few.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Had been every thing by starts, but nothing long.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“How he came by his title is a vexed question, as he +was never known to have studied medicine, nor to have +dealt in drugs, except one which no longer holds a place in +the pharmacopia. Alchemy was his favorite study, and he +is said to have made a near approach to projection; <i>i. e.</i> to +the composition of a powder which, thrown into certain ingredients, +transmutes them to gold. Certain it is, he realized +money by a secret of this kind, while others who tried +it were ruined. One person of property lost his all in two +years; and another was beggared in less time, and consigned, +a hopeless maniac, to a lunatic asylum; but the +history of modern as well as ancient alchemy is full of such +things.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“He talked on all subjects, practical or theoretical, physical +or metaphysical; on the properties of iron and whiskey, +colors and calicoes, filial obedience and the philosopher’s +stone; on the evils of theatres, and the performance +of crack actors. He occasionally performed Falstaff, and +without stuffing, for he was what the French call <i><span lang="fr">chargé de +cuisine</span></i>. Columbus himself was not more embued with the +spirit of adventure. Within a fortnight of first hearing the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>terms geognosy, hornblende, serpentine, trilobite, and madrepore, +in a conversation between two geologists, he had a +person at work labeling a basket of minerals; and getting +the names of a dozen by heart, boldly proposed to undertake +the survey of a state. An extraordinary chiffonnier, +he dashed without hesitancy into every opening where chiffons +were likely to be had—he was not one of those who +confine themselves to street sweepings, but was ever on the +<i>qui vive</i> for wholesale speculations. Dryden certainly must +have dreamt of him when describing Buckingham, for</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>He was often in the course of one revolving moon,</div> + <div class='line'>Author, actor, artist, cook, chemist, and buffoon:</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“And in another month as many more.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Rich in Apician lore, he could enumerate the famous +dishes of old, from those placed on the table of Heliogabalus +to Spartan broth and Athenian porridge, and could +name the ingredients of all. In modern cookery, he was +more at home; nothing escaped his observation, and but +little his palate. His taste was equal to Pollio’s; his knowledge +of the mysteries of the kitchen surpassed that of M. +Beaujeu. See him take his seat at a supper party; watch +him draw a laden dish towards him, and you would shudder +from a dread that his eyes were about to drop into his +plate—as if attached like those of the chameleon to the +ends of flexible tubes, so fearfully did they advance and +recede. He was at one time known as ‘Spoonie,’ and ‘Eating +Nat,’ for he had an appetite equal to Galba’s—a stomach +capacious as that of Vitellius. His spoon, and he had +one for his exclusive use, might apply to him, with a slight +alteration, an epigram by Boileau:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Here lies my owner, and heaven knows,</div> + <div class='line'>Not less for mine than his repose.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“An excellent representative of the god of raillery and +ridicule—that is, if Momus was a short and squab fellow +<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>of forty, with a droll leer, a shambling gait, and a touch of +Silenus or Bacchus about him. Exceedingly facetious, the +Doctor told stories equal to Matthews or Hackett, and rivaled +Braham in singing. He was full of first rate though +second hand wit. His physiognomy was prepossessing, +though his friends used to joke him about a devil lurking +in his eye, which, they said, appeared sly as Sancho’s, and +mischievous as the solitary one in Ichabod Crane’s nag.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“His knowledge was said by his friends to have been +universal. In science, an Arago; in philosophy, a Newton; +in chemistry, a Farraday or Berzelius; in general +knowledge, a Crichton. Well versed in Thaumaturgy, he +certainly could beat conjurers at their own weapons. An +adept in Metoposcopy, he saw at once the various points in +human character, and by some mesmeric influence could +always open a communication between himself and those +in whose affairs he wished to take an interest.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“All great men have their enemies, and Doctor Swallow +was not without his. He had to pay the usual penalty +exacted by envious detractors. These insisted that he was +a literary Bombastes, in veracity a Mandeville, in morals a +Mephistopheles, in scheming a Machiavel, and in every thing +except humbugging a humbug. A retailer of other men’s +ideas, which (said they) he claimed as his own, and, like +all liars, often forgot himself and claimed them in the presence +of those from whom he received them—that his life +was a lie. There is little doubt, that both parties were +wrong. He never was the angel one made him, nor the +devil the other called him; but, whatever he was, he was +made President of the Society; and, all things considered, +it was thought a better selection could not have been made; +for, as an old chiffonnier, he had picked up more chiffons, +and knew how to make more of them, than any other artist +who lived by the hook.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>“Popular with most of the members, nearly all consulted +him on subjects they brought forward. Ever ready to give +advice, and seldom more pleased than when asked for it. +Though he never wrote a paper but one, and of the authorship +of that some doubts have been raised, he was a judge +of what would ‘take;’ or, what often amounts to the same +thing, he had that reputation.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“When conducted to the chair, he rose with smiles playing +round his lips and satisfaction sparkling in his eyes, +and thus commenced his opening address: Gentlemen, I ... +I know not how to thank you for this honor. I ... I ... d—n +it, I cannot make a formal speech—I never could—unless I +had it by heart. I tried once before at extempore, but it +was no go; after getting rid of a few sentences, a kind of +mental and physical lock-jaw seized me, and there I stood—my +mouth wide open, and without the power to close it, or +to call to mind what I meant to say. It was said I stood +grinning like a Barbary ape, and in my efforts to articulate +might have stood longer, if Medlar had not pulled me down +by the skirt, while saying loud enough (hang him) for half +the room to hear, ‘don’t make an ass of yourself, Nat.’ +Gentlemen, that man is now here, and I never see him +without thinking of the predicament I was in, and the ugly +epithet he gave me. I cannot go on unless he goes out, +and I am not sure even then. But, gentlemen, if I cannot +thank you as I’d like to, I can treat you to something better—something +to eat. Will not a member move an adjournment +to my house, where we can discuss matters +more at ease, and amuse ourselves at intervals with a cold +cut and a drop of”—[Ere the proposition was finished, the +meeting adjourned amidst cries of ‘Bravo!’ ‘Excellent!’ +‘A first rate speech, that, Doctor!’]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Rëassembled at his dwelling, the party partook of a +substantial supper, during which a curious conversation +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>arose on variety of tastes for food. Mr. Milder, an amiable +and highly intelligent young man, but rather odd in some +of his views, thought it artificial; others, with the Doctor, +contended that it was natural. Nature, it was said, never +designed men to live on one kind of food; if she had, she +would not have furnished them with so many. She moreover +produces no one in sufficient quantities to supersede +all others, nor has she distributed any one over the whole +earth. That’s true, observed the Doctor; if we were designed +to have but one dish, as pork, beef, mutton, or turkey, +bread, cabbage, potatoes, or yams, I should like to +know where <i>enough</i> is to come from? The case is different +with drink. Water may be the natural beverage of animals +and men, for it is every where, and every where +abundant; but not so with either animal or vegetable food. +It was further observed by the advocates for variety, that we +might as well read only one book as eat of one dish; for if +material palates are originally moulded after one pattern, so +are literary ones. But no, said they; Nature has made +both to vary as much as the minds and persons or faces of +men. The Doctor thought if men had but one dish for the +body and another for the mind, it would save a world of +trouble to booksellers and keepers of eating houses; yet, +even with those people, he was sure things were better as they +are, because, said he, different tastes bring into action diverse +talents, and so give employment to hosts of writers, +and, what is better, to swarms of cooks. It is therefore +right that what suits one stomach should not be the thing to +tickle all others. Here is my friend, Sam Tortiller, imagines +a connection between the bent of man’s genius and +his favorite food; as if by knowing the general course of a +person’s studies one could tell what he craves for his dinner, +and <i>vice versa</i>. I don’t believe a word of it. A writer +on morals may love pork, and an author of romances abhor +<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>it; but, to my knowledge, all pork eaters are not righteous +men, nor those who let pigs alone composers of fiction. +Professor Freeling often digests turkey, but it’s not every +chemist who can afford to put that into his digester. Then +there is Finelli, a lover of shell fish—but what then?—if +the lady that poets call the Genius of Song sometimes visits +an oyster cellar, she does not confine her favors to those +who either chew or eschew clams, crabs, and lobsters. Mr. +Milder, let me help you to a slice of this ham; I believe +you have not tasted it.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Not any for me; I never eat any, Mr. President.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Not eat ham! Why, you are neither a Jew nor a Turk, +I hope, to abominate those glorious animals that supply us +with the richest of all relishes?”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“No; but I prefer hams from China, if I must eat any.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“O! O! I thought you knew what’s good! Well! I +can’t say this fine fellow ever ran through the streets +of Canton; but, is the difference of flavor between your +oriental favorites and ours very sensible?”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Very.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Ah! I must get my friend, Captain Drinker, to bring +over a Chinaman grunter, or a few hams; but, will these +not spoil on the voyage?”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“No danger of that. The fact is, sir, I am not a consumer +of animal food; the joints I allude too are <i>vegetable</i> +ones. They are described by La Compte and other travellers.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“You are joking, (observed the Doctor, inquiringly;) +Sam, here, says you are a terrible bore that way!”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Not at all, (replied Mr. Milder;) I almost hope to see +the day when no other hams will be used. You have heard +of <i>wooden</i> ones?”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Yes! Carved blocks of wood, so neatly sewed up in +hog skins, as to deceive the eyes of the keenest pork butchers! +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>Yes; I have read of people boiling them, but I never +heard of any having been <i>eaten</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“True; but even that is not so unlikely as you seem to +think.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“I pray heaven, (said the Doctor,) the practice may never +become general; the chine of a two year old shote is +with me a favorite dish. What reason have you for supposing +it ever will, Mr. Milder?”</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Why, sir, you of course know that a few years ago, a +German philosopher discovered the nutritious elements of +wheaten bread in wooden meal—that he made wholsome +cakes out of pine boards, and supported his wife and five +children for seven weeks on dumplings kneaded of dough +formed of fine sawdust and water. The paste, it is said, +rose without leaven, and when cooked was really delicious—especially +so, when lubricated with molasses, or sprinkled +with the essence of sugar, extracted by Braçonnot from old +rags and scrap paper. Now, an ingenious friend of mine +has been engaged on a somewhat analogous subject for the +last twelve months, and, from an experiment I witnessed +yesterday, I have no hesitation in avowing my confidence +in his assertion that he will shortly produce good palatable +pork out of whitewood, and well seasoned hams from red +cedar.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>[Much laughter, during which the Doctor observed, in a +suppressed voice, to the gentleman at his right, “Sam, this +fellow is a devil of a quiz; I cannot believe he is serious, +and yet what a solemn phiz he puts on.”]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Now, sir, (continued Mr. Milder,) where is there a man +of feeling who would not rejoice at the success of my friend, +in attempting to change the world from a shambles for gratifying +the carnivorous appetites of our species—a slaughter +house constantly flooded with gore and vibrating with +the shrieks of expiring victims? For my part, sir, I never +<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>see a female cutting up raw flesh, her hands smeared with +blood—now killing, plucking, embowelling, and at last, with +perfect nonchalance, transfixing innocent fowls or sucking +pigs on the spit, without shuddering at the disgusting employment—at +the horrible effects of indulging unnatural +appetites! O! how would the spirit of humanity exult at +the abolition of animal diet—or even at the general introduction +of vegetable hams! These would be a consummation +in morals and science devoutly to be wished—to be prayed +for; all Nature, sir, would rejoice at their manufacture—at +any rate, sir, you will admit, all PIGS would—and well +they might, as they would (to use a vulgar expression) then +save their own bacon! Yes! Their days of mourning +would then be over.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“And why should they not save it, sir, as well as we preserve +ours? Has not a pig organs, dimensions, feelings, +passions, affections? If struck, does it not cry? If +wounded, does it not bleed? If imprisoned and in bonds, +does it not struggle to be free? If driven to the shambles, +does it not refuse to go? When slain, does it not suffer the +pangs of death? In one word, sir, is not life as precious +to pigs as to any of us? And would they not have cause +to rejoice were they and their offspring no longer murdered +ere living out half their days? Millions are slain in their +infancy, and their parents in the vigor of life! Upwards +of a century ago, not less than 52,500 sucking innocents +were annually immolated in London alone!</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Lovely buds—their mother’s pride!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>[Here, as at every other pause made by the speaker, excessive +laughter broke out afresh; but, unembarrassed, he +continued:]</p> + +<p class='c006'>“There is something else, sir, in connection with this +subject, which every lover of his country should deplore. +Slavery is an unmitigated evil, and we are taught to admire +<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>the free States for shaking the incubus off; it is, however, +a melancholy fact, that the citizens of what is called one +of the most enlightened and liberal, are carrying to a horrible +extent, a system almost equally atrocious. As if regretting +their lost dominion over negroes, they seem determined +to be revenged a hundred fold upon a race, between +which and ours Blumenbach, in his remarks on varieties of +complexion, has traced many analogies. Yes! The capital +city of Ohio is rapidly rising into power, on the bodies +of slaughtered swine! She is already known as ‘The Emporium +of Pork’—a designation which wicked Nineveh or +more wicked Gomorrah would have shrunk from. Her +merchandise is flesh. Her bulletins are occupied with its +sales, and as the market price rises and falls, so does the +value of her real estate. Her merchants are butchers; her +staple is stearine; her palaces are built with the price of +blood, and illumined at night with the fat of her slain! All +her lamps are replenished with lard! Like Babylon, +‘seated on many waters, and drunken with blood,’ so reclines +Cincinnati, on a larger stream than the Euphrates, +clothed in scarlet, and proudly calling herself ‘Queen of +the West!’ But let her beware—for, depend upon it, sir, +vengeance will not sleep forever; and when pigs get their +rights, she will meet her deserts!”</p> + +<p class='c006'>[On Mr. Milder concluding his remarks, a shout of laughter +arose that shook both floor and table. Some held their +sides, and groaned with pain; others screeched as they, +ever and anon, glanced at the imperturbable gravity of +Mr. M. and the woful appearance of the President’s face.]</p> + +<hr class='c010'> + +<p class='c006'>But, indulgent guest, I am trespassing too much on thy +patience. I will therefore lay aside, for the present, this +account of the Society, and the rather since the author +presses hard on the late President. They never were +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>friendly. The Doctor, like other men, had his faults; but +he had good qualities as well. Peace to his ashes! He was +one of my best customers in one respect though not in another; +for he never was in a hurry to wipe out his scores, +and, to speak truth, some he never wiped out. When my +turn came round for a paper, I consulted him for a subject, +and submitted to him what I wrote. Desirous of not disgracing +my former profession of schoolmaster, I took particular +pains; but the subject was new, and embarrassed me +much. When I left the choice to him, I little imagined he +would take a knife from the table, and insist that <i>it</i> should +be my text. However, I made out tolerably well; though +he was sparing of praise. He was, in fact, not altogether +pleased with my “Adventures of a Carving Knife;” but he +made ample amends on another occasion, as will soon be +perceived.</p> + +<p class='c006'>My next attempt was a higher flight—a composition half +dramatic. There were passages in it of tragic interest: at +least, <i>I</i> thought so. The subject—an ancient pincushion, +brought over in the Mayflower. I had a presentiment that +I should take the Doctor by surprise—snatch him up, as by +a hurricane, into the regions of romance, and extort his +praise ere he had time to descend and recover his self-possession. +And, sure enough, something even more than +this took place.</p> + +<p class='c006'>By appointment, I met him at his own house. He was +in a happy mood, having just risen from dinner. We retired +to the parlor, and I handed him the MS. Drawing +his arm-chair in front of the fire, and desiring me to take +another, he made a remark about the high price of beef, +and commenced reading the first paragraph; but he made +such murdering work of the sense, running one sentence +half way into another, and then stopping as if brought up +by a period, that I wriggled in the chair, and felt my viscera +<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>squirming like eels in a bag. I stopped him to explain, but +he ascribed every thing to what he called my illegible hand. +I proposed to read it myself. To this, he consented; and, +for the benefit of light, I stepped to the window, some distance +behind him; a circumstance which increased my confidence, +and left him free to enter into the spirit of the +story, unembarrassed with external interruptions.</p> + +<p class='c006'>I had not got through the first chapter before he gave utterance +to some short but flattering expressions. They encouraged +me wonderfully, and ere the second was finished +became more frequent; the words “rich!” “capital!” +dropped from him several times. I felt elated, and went +on trippingly to the end—borne along by the kindness of +his manner, and quite lifted up with the confidence of having +fairly gained his approbation. The reading did not +occupy over fifteen minutes; and, when finished, I remained +standing, ready, with pencil in hand, to make such corrections +and alterations as he might suggest. He seemed to +be balancing the merits of different parts; for he said, as +if to himself, “that was overdone;” “the other excellent;” +“capital!” He resembled the gentleman mentioned by +Horace,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Who long imagin’d that he heard the tone</div> + <div class='line'>Of deep Tragedians on an empty stage,</div> + <div class='line'>And sat applauding, in ecstatic rage.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing024.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><br> <i>Plate 2</i> <i>Roman</i><br> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>My feelings quickly overcame my politeness, and I cried +“Come, Doctor, what is the sentence? Life or death?” +(I had heard enough to know what it would be.) As I said +this, I resumed my seat beside him, and thanked him for the +kind attention he had given to the humble performance; but +I had scarcely finished the last word ere my old friend gave +a memorable proof of the intense interest he had taken in +the story—of the fine sensibilities of his nature, and the +depth of his feelings. Now, Sir Guest, what think you he +did? Perhaps you say: ‘I suppose, Mr. Westman, his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>cheeks were streaming with tears—his passions, excited by +the incidents of the story, had not recovered their natural +tone! Or, did he spring from his seat and embrace the +magician, who had such power to enchant him? Either +would have been very natural.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>He did neither, sir; he was unable to rise.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Indeed! Why, what was the matter?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>His mental and bodily powers were prostrated.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘What do you mean?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>He was dead! th—</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘<i>Dead!</i> did you say, Mr. Westman?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>On my conscience, yes sir; that is, he was, as the saying +goes, <i>dead asleep</i>! As for tears, his cheeks were as free +from them as the back of my hand, and his face calm as +an infant’s reposing on its mother’s breast.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘You really surprise me!’</p> + +<p class='c006'>I was astonished myself sir.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘And how did you act on making this strange discovery?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>I don’t exactly know what I did, sir—nor what I thought—nor +how I felt. I was paralyzed—deprived of the powers +of speech and motion. My respiration was thick, and at +last suspended. I believe I sat gazing on him five minutes +without breathing or moving a muscle, except those by +which the lower jaw is dropped to its farthest extent, and +such as push the eyes out of the head. There was no mistake +about his slumbers; to satisfy myself that they were +genuine, I remember stretching my face towards his till both +were nearly in contact. His mouth was wide open, and I +had a full view of the horrible cavern within. What I suffered, +ere I had power to leave my seat, was dreadful. +Impalement could hardly, I should think, surpass it. When +at last I rose and stepped in front of him, heaven forgive +me, for, though I say it myself, a quieter man does not +breathe, I felt as much inclined to push the end of my cane +<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>down his gullet as ever I had to send any thing pleasant +down my own.</p> + +<p class='c006'>On second thoughts, I took my hat, put the MS. in my +pocket, and walked softly to the door of the room; when I +heard him mutter something about “Betty ... sauce rich; +veal ... overdone; rabbits ... excellent.” The brute, sir—pardon +the uncivil word—was dreaming about his dinner; +but that was not all, nor the worst; for it was now clear he +had fallen asleep almost as soon as he sat down, and the +expressions of approbation which I had foolishly taken to +myself were in reality compliments to Betty’s skill in roasting +and boiling! When this truth flashed on my mind, I +felt keenly—my wrath rose, and Satan strongly urged me +back to take leave of him by no gentle shake of his person +or tweak of his proboscis—but either my good genius or +his own interfered, and I hastened out of the house, without +meeting one of the family. I am ashamed to say, I felt +very unwell during the rest of the day, being greatly more +affected than a sensible mart should have been; but our +feelings are not in our power.</p> + +<p class='c006'>I mentioned the circumstance to a few members the same +evening, and learned the Doctor had been in gay company +all the morning, and was certainly half drunk at the time of +my interview with him. I certainly did notice something +strange in him, but my mind was wholly absorbed on the +paper. We were anxious to know how he would face the +matter out; for no one believed he would for a moment acknowledge +being asleep. Within a few days, Medlar, +Pickwell, and I, met him in the street; when,—would you +believe it?—without the slightest indication of embarrassment, +he began the following colloquy:</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Neighbor Westman, further reflection has convinced me +your last paper will never do. It will gain you neither credit +with the members nor custom from their friends.’</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span><i>Further reflection</i>, did you say, Doctor!</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘There’s nothing in it, believe me, (said he,) neither life—’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Rather nettled, I abruptly asked <i>what</i> he wanted in it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘I’ll tell you what I don’t want—(he replied;) a tale dull +and monotonous from beginning to end—one without a grain +of piquancy in it—flat and distasteful as buckwheat cakes +without salt or sauce.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Now I thought I had done better than could have been +expected; but stop, did you hear a word of—</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘<i>Expected!</i> (he cried out, as if wanting to hear nothing +more;) I expect, and so will the members, something like +the spices and pickles at your ordinaries, and which you +know full well often help an insipid dish down. The paper +has but one quality that can render it of any service.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>What may that be?</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘It might serve on occasion as a soporific.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>I believe I colored at this, and said sharply, Yes, I understand. +It composed <i>you</i> to sleep quick enough—or +something else did.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘No! not asleep; (said he, unabashed, as with a face of +flint—absolutely staggering me with the audacious falsehood;) +I remember feeling a little drowsy.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Indeed! Do you recollect anything else?</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘No! nothing particular—ex—except that my strictures +were perhaps too severe; but I did not wish to mislead +you by being less pointed.’</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Your strictures, eh!</i> Why, you made none, and for the +best of reasons! Look ye, Doctor, you may, for aught I +know, be able to catch authors napping when you’re +awake, but not when you’re actually snoring. I’ve seen +further into your head than you imagine.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Mr. Westman, (said he, in a bristling manner,) I hope +you don’t mean to—to—t—t—t—’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Yes, I do! and what’s more Doctor, I felt so confoundedly +queer that I had some difficulty in refraining from—</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>‘From what?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Never mind; I’ve got over it now; but you don’t see +another paper of mine, I promise you, unless you will go +through it before dinner. “Further reflection,” as you say, +has convinced me the last is yet defective. I’ll revise, and +we’ll read it some evening.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Better put it in the fire, some morning, (he said, resentfully, +as if caught in an unpleasant dilemma, and determined +to get out with a bold face; then assuming a patronizing +tone, added:) Believe me, neighbor, you, and others I wot +of, will never succeed in life till you let scribbling alone.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Then, Doctor, let me tell you tha—</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Peace, (he interrupted,) I pray you, peace! I know +you, and Medlar, and Fribble, and Delever, well. Your talents +are good of their <i>kind</i>, and may be useful in their <i>place</i>.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>In their place! Where is that?</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘<i>In the kitchen!</i> Confine your energies to your proper vocations, +and you may do well. Stick to your fires and fuel, +your andirons and hearths, spits and bellows, pots and +pans, knives and forks—to your ladles and spoons—to—’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Enough! Enough! Egad, Doctor, you are right this +time! (I exclaimed.) Yes, we will! We’ll write papers +on all of them; and I’ll begin myself with <span class='fss'>THE SPOON</span>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>On hearing this, he gazed intently on my face, and, as +he turned on his heel, whispered in my ear, “Habbakuk, +thou hast been handling thy decanters this morning!”</p> + +<hr class='c010'> + +<p class='c006'>I have no more to add, except to appeal, courteous +reader, to thy judgment. Let me, therefore, entreat thee +not to peruse the following pages directly after dinner, lest +Morpheus make his appearance, and thou shouldst sin, like +the President of the Chiffonnier Society, by ascribing the +imp’s visit to</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>HAB’K O. WESTMAN.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter ph1'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c011'> + <div><span class='blackletter'>The Spoon;</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='large'>ANCIENT AND MODERN.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER I.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Singular Subjects chosen by Authors—The Spoon, a popular +and fertile one—Sancho Panza, a Spoonmaker—Influence of +this Profession on his Adventures—Ingenuity of Cervantes—Pedro +Garcia’s Purse—Selection of the Spoon for a Theme, an +Indication of Taste—One of the first things wanted on coming +into the world, and last parted with ere going out—Its Domestic +and Moral Influence—Ancient Fracas with Hot Broth.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Singular are the subjects on which authors have +written: as Lucian on a fly, Apuleius on the ass, +Virgil on a gnat, and Homer on a pitched battle between +some frogs and mice. One writer is sublime +on a flea, another on the north wind, and a third on +nothing. Here, one expatiates on the social pipe; +and there, goes a royal counterblast against tobacco. +Pope has a poem on a lock of hair, Gray wrote lines +on a cat, Prior on the ladle, and Cowper on the sofa. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>Tasso spun out twelve cantos on a bucket, and +John Heywood, in Henry the Eighth’s time, wrote +seventy-seven chapters on cobwebs and spiders.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The merry Dean of St. Patrick’s wrote an essay +on a broomstick; and some reviewer of a late work +on hydraulics thinks the author could readily compose +a homily on pump handles, or a series of meditations +on cistern hooks. A fig for such subjects, +and those who discuss them. A person’s taste is +seen in what he writes on, as well as in what flows +from his pen; and small must be the brains that +think on such things. Every one knows Swift’s +head was worn out when kind Nature led him to +muse on the stump of a besom—an emblem of himself. +As there was always something of the wizard +about him, he naturally selected the same hobby +that accommodates witches in their evening excursions. +As for the other gentleman, he must be a +dry soul indeed, since he could hit upon nothing but +water, about which to fill up a book—or some rickety +machines to get at it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Commend us to something better than either; +and on the present occasion to that which daily inspired +the reverend wit, and at which it is very certain +every writer on water-works has labored oftener +than at any pump gearing—<i>videlicit</i>, <span class='fss'>A SPOON</span>. Why, +there’s life in the sound! To the hungry and poor +and rich, it conjures up visions of pleasure. Its +very picture moves the salivary glands into action, +and sets the lickerish muscles agog, while thoughts +of the good things with which it often is laden make +<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>mendicants draw in their breath and thrust out their +lips, as if about to salute it!</p> + +<p class='c006'>What gentleman cares for a broom, or a cistern +pole, except to kick them out of his way, as a fat +neighbor of ours did yesterday? But for a spoon, +ah! how eagerly he seized it at dinner! Like the +hand of a friend for whom he had long anxiously +waited, and from whom he could hardly be prevailed +on to part.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As a novel and a popular subject, the spoon is unrivaled—as +a fertile one, its equal never rose in the +brains of Will Shakespeare or John Baptiste Moliere; +and that is strange too, seeing the implement +so often entered their heads. A Spanish writer of +the sixteenth century, however, did not let it escape +him. His wanderings through various countries, +and in indifferent circumstances, made him too keenly +alive to its value to forget or neglect it. He has immortalized +himself by recording the adventures of a +spoonmaker, in an inimitable piece of biography.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Indeed! (exclaims some reader.) Pray, of whom +do you speak? Who was this author, and who the +mechanic he snatched from oblivion?’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Strange that at this day such a question should be +asked! But, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was +the writer, and Sancho Panza the artist.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Sancho Panza! The short and fat husband of +Tereza—the Governor of Barrataria—he whose simplicity +and shrewdness, jokes and proverbs, were so +pleasant; and whose witty conceits fell from him as +thick as drops in a shower—a maker of spoons?’</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>To be sure he was! And it was from this circumstance +he became so expert in handling them, +and which led him to prefer olla-podridas, stews, and +hashes of cow beef and onions, to Milan godwits, +Roman pheasants, geese of Lavajos, and other kickshaws, +which Doctor Pedro Rezio Aquero de Tirteafuera +and the steward talked about. Not that +Sancho loved good eating more than other people, +but he naturally enough preferred those kinds of +food which were fluid, in the conveyance of which +to his mouth he had become quite familiar from his +previous professions and habits.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Cervantes, to elucidate the association of ideas +and the force of early impressions, wittily concealed +this employment of Sancho’s, and left it till the +knight was condemned by him of the ‘White Moon’ +to refrain for a whole year from using a sword, or +going in quest of adventures. Then the truth unexpectedly +appears. Quixote proposed to pass the +time in pastoral pursuits. ‘O, Sancho! said he; we +will turn shepherds for the time I must live retired. +I will buy sheep and all necessary materials. We +will range the mountains, the woods, and the meadows—singing +here and complaining there—drinking +the liquid crystal of the fountains, of the limpid +brooks, and the mighty rivers. The oaks, with a +plentiful hand, shall give their sweetest fruit—the +trunks of the hardest cork-trees shall afford us seats, +the willows shade, and the roses scent. The spacious +meadows shall yield us carpets of a thousand +colors—the air, clear and pure, shall supply breath, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>the moon and stars afford light, maugre the darkness +of nights—singing shrill furnish pleasure, and +complaining yield delight! Heaven be my aid! +What a life shall we lead, friend Sancho! What a +world of bagpipes shall we hear! What pipes of +Zamora! What tambourets and rebecks!’</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Before God, quoth Sancho, this kind of life squares +with me exactly; and no sooner will the Bachelor +Sampson Carrasco, and Master Nicholas the barber, +have well seen it, but they will have a mind to +follow, and turn shepherds with us; and God grant +that the priest have not an inclination to make one +in the fold; he is of so gay a temper, and such a +lover of mirth!’ After arranging about shepherdesses, +each amateur shepherd to have one, except +the priest, who, according to Sancho’s views, ought +not to be associated with a lady; but if the bachelor +Sampson was inclined that way, why, his soul +was at his own disposal. Then the knight begins +to anticipate the ditties he and his associates would +indite to the charms of their lady loves, when Sancho, +mentally recurring to occupations more agreeable +to <i>his</i> taste, and with which he was more at home, +exclaims in a rapture, ‘O! what <span class='fss'>SPOONS</span>! What +neat <span class='fss'>WOODEN SPOONS</span> will I make when a shepherd!’ +An exclamation which he never, of course, could +have made had he not been engaged in that business +before. Then, like a sound philosopher, who +only regards science and the arts in proportion as +they are applied to the purposes of life, he instantly +recurs to the <i>use</i> of spoons, and, very naturally to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>the agreeable visions they call up. “What crumbs! +What cream! What olla-podridas! What stews +we shall have!”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Having thus shown that the Knight of La Mancha’s +squire was, in the early part of his career, a +manufacturer of spoons, the reader will at once concede +the propriety of this reference to his labors; +since he is, beyond controversy, the most famed +character of the kind in print. But that is not all. +There are other things in Cervantes which reviewers +never dreamt of. It were an easy matter to show, +but would be out of place here, that the celebrity of +his great work is due chiefly to spoons; for example, +had he withheld from Sancho the penchant for +handling them, the history of Quixote might as well +have been without the owner of Dapple; and every +body knows what an insipid affair it would have +been then. From what but the free use of spoons +were the jolly face and sly look of Sancho derived? +To what else but their neglect was to be attributed +the ghastly appearance of him of the Rueful Countenance? +Silenus and a moving corpse!</p> + +<p class='c006'>Such are the wonders wrought by the Spoon: +but, great as they appear, they are not the greatest. +Had the knight lived in the manner of Sancho, he +had never lost his wits; and had the latter dieted as +his master, he never would have had any. The +moral of the romance is misunderstood. The author +designed to inculcate this truth—that the proper use +of a spoon can make a sensible man of a fool, and +the neglect of it a fool of a sensible man!</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>The Spoon is really the nucleus of the romance—the +core on which the party colored threads of the +story are wound. Indeed, the whole affair is nothing +else than a mystic account of this useful little implement, +and written by Cervantes, most likely to fulfill +a vow made on account of the services it rendered +him on some occasions of extreme distress—occasions, +from the checkered scenes of his life, believed +to have been of frequent occurrence.</p> + +<p class='c006'>These things, to be sure, do not stand up on the +surface—they are not seen at a glance. Cervantes, +in concealing them from readers whose obtuseness +of intellect does not suspect them, or who will not +take the trouble to look for them, imitated the conduct +of his witty and ingenious countryman, Pedro +Garcias, whose epitaph strangely announced that his +<i>soul</i> lay under the slab. And there it did lay, without +exciting the least curiosity from the crowds walking +over it, until a poor and shrewd student of Salamanca, +travelling that way, guessed the truth, disinterred, +and joyfully carried home the Licentiate’s +soul in his pocket. But to leave such matters: As +every person on earth loves a spoon, there are few +who cannot relish an essay upon it; and all will admit +its selection for a theme, if no proof of genius, +is at least a strong indication of taste.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Spoon is one of the first things wanted when +we come into the world, and one of the last we part +with before we go out. It is the companion of childhood, +manhood, and age—the great nurse of mankind. +It administers comfort to ladies when they +<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>‘lay in,’ and to every person before being ‘laid out.’ +Without it, no baby takes pap; nor boys and girls +porridge or soup; the man acquires strength by its +aid, and it assists in prolonging the years of the old +and infirm. In the hands of physicians, it drives +sickness away; and when the angel of death comes +at last, it soothes the last moments of many.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Its influence is felt in every department of life—in +manners, morals, and even in national characteristics. +Associated almost as much with the soul as +the body, it seems equally to modify both. It is a +healer of wounds, whether in the person or mind. +What tempers has it not subdued—what passions allayed! +For it is always called in after a broil to promote +peace and good will. What evils, too, has it +not extinguished which want has conceived and poverty +planned! Hunger and haggard despair fly before +it, while health and hilarity attend it! It is, +and justly, a universal favorite—as well with the savage +as the sage—with ladies and their maids—with +children and their grandpapas.</p> + +<p class='c006'>What urchin has not felt more elastic when beholding +his mother beating up eggs for plum-cake +with a spoon; or stood by when with it she scraped +out the bowl in which the pudding was made! And +where is the youngster with ‘a sweet tooth’ that has +not thrust it with delight into ‘mush and molasses!’ +or with joy almost extatic made it dive into ‘samp,’ +through an ocean of melted butter and sugar! As +for grown people, it daily works the same wonders +in them as it did in the Rev. Mr. Sampson when applied +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>by the hospitable hand of Mrs. Merriless. In +barbarous and semi-barbarous countries, few meals +are prepared without it, but in civilized life it is as +regular an attendant at table as plates.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The moral influence of the spoon is remarkable. +It preaches contentment, and fosters no pride. It +enters the cottage and comforts those who are too +poor to own either cottage or cot. It ascends into +garrets, dives into cellars, and forces its way into prisons, +where, like a Howard or Frye, it condoles with +the children of sorrow. It is all things to all men, +for it adapts itself to the circumstances of all. To +the humble or poor, it appears in homely apparel; +to the rich and the proud, it shines forth in ivory and +pearl—in silver and gold.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Some men talk about the ‘social glass’—of the +pleasures it imparts, the agreeable reminiscences it +calls up; but what are they, compared to those associated +with the spoon? The former is selfish—men +indulge in it by themselves; but the latter is the +innocent companion of both sexes—of young and +old. The glass too often destroys some joys—loosens +domestic ties; the spoon revives the one +and strengthens the other. It gratifies a natural, the +glass an artificial, appetite. The one imparts happiness +to the abstemious, the other maddens the +brain of the intemperate. Here sits an industrious +laborer at his evening meal; he has reached home +shivering with cold and faint with hunger; he sups +the warm pottage his wife has prepared, and finds +his heart strengthened, and his energies blessed. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>There carouses an acquaintance at the tavern; his +eyes now rolling with the maniac’s gaze, and now +like an idiot’s, fixed on vacancy. Reason has left +her seat, and the character of the man is lost in that +of the beast. Such are the different effects of the +‘social glass’ and the spoon.</p> + +<p class='c006'>A lover of domestic quiet, family jars cease in its +presence; for unlike the mischief loving ladle, the +spoon enters into no broils. An instrument of peace, +it lends not itself to those illegitimate and unconjugal +uses to which enraged housewives are said sometimes +to put its taller associate. No! Instead of +stirring up the caldron of family feuds, the gentle +spoon soothes the boiling elements, and, in the pleasantest +way imaginable, silences the squalling of infants, +and the grumbling of older folks.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It took no part in an ancient fray between the +scholars of Oxford and some Reverend companions +of the Pope’s Legate, on a feast or saint’s day; but +the soup or rather the broth did. The peace loving +spoon withdrew ere the fracas began. “And at that +tyme was maister Edmunde of Abendon archbishoppe +of Caunterbury, an holi man, in the twelff hundred +yere of our Lorde and foure and thritti. And +at that tyme come the legat Oter from Rome, and +called a councelle of Bishoppes at London, and went +from thens to Oxenford, to the Abbey of Osney. And +as certeyn of the clerks come to speke with the legat, +vppon Seynt Gregoryes day, one of the legats men +<i>cast hote broth</i> vppon a scolore, and then come the +clerkes first, and besett Osney, and slew one of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>legats men, and the legat fled into the steple.” [<i>Peter +Langtoff’s Chronicle</i>, <i>Hearne’s Glossary</i>, vol. ii. +682.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>This quotation may serve as a little seasoning to +the dish before the reader. If any one questions +its pertinence, and that of others hereafter to be noticed, +we beg to observe that what relates to the soup +can hardly be foreign to the spoon.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER II.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>The Spoon always an Object of Plunder—Border Thieves—Golden +Rule—Index of Human Condition—Old English and +other Salutations—Lip Worship—Spoons formerly Preachers +of Temperance—Their Influence on Individual and National +Character—Beef and Bouilli—Fat Men fined and Obesity revered—Steaks +and Stews—Effects of Animal Food on Nations—War +Speech of an English General—Greeks and Trojans—Spoons +of peculiar Antiquarian Value—Trick of Alexander—Curious +use of Spoons, and Lessons derived from them—Their +Influence in Politics and War—Procure Food as well as Cook +it—Friends in need—Heir-looms.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>The virtues of the spoon have in every age led +men to covet it, and, to gratify their covetousness, to +commit burglaries to obtain it. With the wicked, +this is natural; for a <i>silver</i> spoon is a talisman—he +who possesses one can never want. It is chiefly, +however, such unfortunates as are not born with one +in their mouths who thus attempt to supply what +<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>nature forgot. But <i>horn</i> and <i>pewter</i> spoons were +not despised by respectable robbers of yore. In +Maitland’s “Complaynt against the Theivis of Liddisdail,” +we find them borne off from poor people’s +dwellings, along with bread, fowls, spinning apparatus, +bed-clothes, shirts, &c. The old leviers of +black mail seized on every thing that was not ‘too +heavy or too hot’ to be carried away.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Thay spuilye puir men of their pakis,</div> + <div class='line'>Thay leif them nocht on bed nor bakis;</div> + <div class='line in6'>Baith hen and cok,</div> + <div class='line in6'>With reil and rok,</div> + <div class='line in6'>The Lairdis Jok,</div> + <div class='line in6'>All with him takis.</div> + <div class='line'>Thay leif not spindel, <span class='fss'>SPOONE</span>, nor speit,</div> + <div class='line'>Bed, bolster, blanket, sark, nor scheit.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Many a knife has committed murder, and forks +have been guilty of felony; but what bad thing has +the spoon ever done? Kidnapped in all ages, it +never was known to return evil to its evil entreaters: +on the contrary, it has blessed its greatest foes. +Like the sun shining on the wicked and the good, +this servant of man has been among all nations, kindreds, +and tongues, a practical teacher of the Golden +Rule—withholding its services from none, but feeding +alike the thankless and the thankful. No implement +has done more for man. Almost all others +have been turned against him, but the spoon—never.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon is an indicator of merit and of human +condition. It is every where deemed an appropriate +crest for the arms of an alderman, because every +where hailed as the symbol of good cheer. A wooden +or a <i>pewter</i> spoon, or one of tinned iron, is an +<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>emblem of an author, who seldom gets a better, unless +he borrows it; a <i>silver</i> one, the symbol of a +printer, who is generally “well to do;” and a <i>golden</i> +one, of a publisher, who alone in the book trade can +afford to eat turtle. Of all indications of poverty, +a broken pewter spoon is the most distressing—a +proof of wretchedness extreme.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The implement is about the only one belonging +to the kitchen that behaves well in the dining room. +Its associate, the angry knife, sometimes wounds its +master, and the sly fork occasionally pricks him, but +the spoon is ‘ever faithful,’ and the ‘most obedient +of servants.’ To these amiable qualities it is possible +the very common expressions, “Your humble +servant,” “Your most obedient and faithful servant,” +may be allied; for it is a fact that these French +forms of address were first introduced into English +compliments and composition on an occasion when +the spoon performed a royal part—at the marriage +of Mary, daughter of Henry IV. of France. The +usual British salutations before this were, “God +keep you,” “God be with you;” and with country +people, “How dost do?” accompanied often with a +whack on the shoulder; and, if a woman, with a +smack on the lips. (<i>See Antiq. Repertory</i>, iii. 43.)</p> + +<p class='c006'>Antiquarians inform us that kissing with a smack +was a <i>Roman</i> practice; for the benefit of future +Archæologists, an equally surprising fact may as +well be mentioned of the <i>Dutch</i>, who actually relish +other earthly comforts in a similar way! Whenever +a glass or spoon leaves anything agreeable within +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>their lips, the approving smack, it is said, invariably +follows. This sharp and pleasant little sound is so +inseparably associated with their ideas of the good +things of this life, that it has become incorporated +with their ordinary salutations. Their usual morning +greeting is “<i>Smaakelyk eeten!</i>” So a southern Chinese +salutes another by saying <i>Ya tan?</i> Have you +eaten your rice? In other words, have you handled +your chopsticks or spoon?</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon is a fine symbol of complaisance. No +one takes hold of it without pleasure, and many lay +it down with regret. Its daily appearance at table +is met with smiles, and every guest intimates his or +her unalloyed joy by carrying it to their lips. In +some countries it is so esteemed that when loaned +it passes directly out of the mouth of the owner into +that of the borrower. (See account of Esquimaux ladies +at dinner, in the late voyages to the north.) Like +the black stone at Mecca, it is polished with the +lips of its admirers. A censorious world might +stigmatize this as “lip worship,” but it flows from the +heart; or, at least, from the neighborhood of the +heart, for, according to Chinese philosophy, the seat +of the soul is in the centre of the stomach. So +thought an old statesman and poet:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>From <i>thence</i> she sends out those supplies</div> + <div class='line'>Which make us either stout or wise;</div> + <div class='line'>The strength of every other member</div> + <div class='line'>Is founded on your belly timber;</div> + <div class='line'>The qualms or raptures of your blood</div> + <div class='line'>Rise in proportion to your food;</div> + <div class='line'>And if you would improve your thought.</div> + <div class='line'>You must be fed as well as taught.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>Though with some an instrument of gluttony, the +spoon was formerly a preacher of temperance; the +lessons it taught being engraved as mottoes on the +handle; while for those on whom words made no impression +(and few who used it in the middle ages +could read,) images of death and the devil were cut on +the bowl! <i>Plate V</i> has a figure of one of these curious +inventions for enforcing moderation at meals—one on +which is emblazoned a <i>death’s head</i>! Think for a +moment how could the most confirmed gourmand +sin with such a tool! Why, the <i>chef d’oeuvre</i> of gastronomic +fluids could not be conveyed to any man’s +stomach in excess by it, unless the owner of the stomach +was blind. The most horrible of <i><span lang="la">memento +morii</span></i> not only staring him in the face, but actually +mixing with his food! If anything could subdue voracious +appetites, one might suppose this would.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon opens the mouth of every dumb person; +and, what is sometimes as difficult to accomplish, +it stops the most loquacious one. Its effects +are exceedingly diversified. With most people, eating +puts an end to speaking, according to the venerable +precept, “Let your meat stop your mouth;” +but some are more talkative at table than any where +else. We remember an old lady remarkably taciturn +except when handling a spoon. It was a key that +unloosed her tongue. Every time she sipped coffee +or tea, a remark dropped from her; but not a word +ever came out till the spoon had first gone in; as if +it carried permission to the imprisoned member to +take a moment’s exercise.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>Its influence is very observable on nations. It +modifies their manners and customs, affects their +arts, sciences, and manufactures; gives tone to individual +character, to modes of thought and action. +Who does not know that the vivacity and other +marked attributes of the French people are derived +from the free use of the spoon? They are too wise +to follow the example of their saturnine neighbors, in +everlastingly using the knife and the fork. It is a fact +too well known to need repetition here, that the differences +in the temper and habits of the Briton and +Gaul are to be traced to Roasts and Ragouts, to Beef +and Bouilli.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Celts and Gauls fined a fat man, and increased +or diminished the penalty according to the size of +his paunch—reversing the doctrines of India, where +Rajahs are respected for their obesity—and of Southern +Africa, where ladies are admired for the width +of their waists, and their beauty determined by the +hundred weight.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Steaks</i> make a German or an Englishman portly +and dull; <i>stews</i>, a Frenchman light and agile. On +one side of the channel, <i>fries</i> render men heavy as +dray horses; on the other, <i>fricasees</i> make them frisky +as genets. It is the spoon that causes one people +to be graceful in their persons and polite in their demeanor, +and the want of it another ungainly in their +movements and awkward in their compliments—that +fits this people for natural teachers of dancing, and +makes those persons incapable of appreciating the +rudiments of personal accomplishments. So with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>other national characteristics. All may be traced +more or less direct to the knife and the spoon.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Observe the various operations</div> + <div class='line'>Of food, and drink in several nations.</div> + <div class='line'>Was ever Tartar fierce and cruel</div> + <div class='line'>Upon the strength of water-gruel?</div> + <div class='line'>But who can stand his rage and force</div> + <div class='line'>If first he rides, then eats his horse?</div> + <div class='line'>Salad and eggs and lighter fare</div> + <div class='line'>Tune the Italian spark’s guitar;</div> + <div class='line'>And if I read Dan Congreve right,</div> + <div class='line'>Pudding and beef make Britons fight.—<i>Prior.</i></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Howell says, ‘while Englishmen drank only ale, +they were strong, brawny, able men, and could draw +an arrow an ell long; but when they fell to wine and +beer, they are found to be much impaired in their +strength and age.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>An old British commander thus addressed his +troops on the eve of battle: “What a shame it +would be to you, Englishmen, who feed upon beef +and drink beer, to let those rascally Spaniards beat +you, who eat nothing but oranges and lemons.” The +same intellectual gentleman we presume it was who +supposed a well-known passage in Macbeth had reference +to the dressing of a beef steak or mutton +chop:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well</div> + <div class='line'>It were done quickly.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Sir William Temple attributed the bravery of his +countrymen to their carnivorous propensities. According +to this doctrine, and it has many advocates, +rice-eating Asiatics can never withstand European +feeders on beef: those nations that excel others in +killing cattle for food will generally be the most successful +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>butchers of men—the most valiant eating the +most bullocks. The principle is certainly illustrated +in almost every page of ancient history—and the +most in accounts of those nations the most known—as +the Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans. So in +the present day—oppressed people are such as are +confined to vegetable diet, as the Hindoos, the Irish, +&c. In the Iliad, spits, roasting fires, and boiling +pots are about as common as spears, shields, or clubs: +and enumeration of cattle, sheep, goats, and swine, +as troops of men and horses. The Greek princes were +their own butchers and cooks, and were often half +broiled while preparing their dinners. But we don’t +read of Hector or his friends sweating like</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Patroclus, who o’er the blazing fire</div> + <div class='line'>Heaps in a brazen vase three chines entire.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>No! the people of Troy were unfortunately more +chastened in their manners, and refined in their appetites, +and hence compelled to yield to their savage +and flesh eating invaders!</p> + +<p class='c006'>Spoons possess a high antiquarian interest, not +merely as specimens of the arts, and indicative of the +use of hot fluids in former times, but as bearing on +the curious subject of human stature—on the question +of the degeneracy of man’s frame. Egyptian +spoons of great antiquity are preserved in museums +of Europe, and are of the same average size as those +now in use; [<i>see figures farther on</i>;] proving in the +clearest manner that people’s mouths, between three +and four thousand years ago, were of the same width +and capacity as ours. If mummies, therefore, had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>never been drawn from the catacombs of the Nile, +these little implements would have been sufficient to +show that while the subjects of the Pharaohs surpassed +other people in the magnitude of their works, +their souls dwelt in bodies no larger than ours.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Ancient caldrons were often of enormous capacities, +sometimes equaling a modern brewer’s vat. +This was on account of the large households of +princes—their families, like Solomon’s, consisting +of hundreds and even thousands of officers and attendants; +but there is no record of the spoon having +ever varied in its general dimensions. Had Alexander, +when he wished to deceive posterity into a belief +that his army was composed of giants, buried +on each field of battle a few gross of spoons, capacious +as good sized ladles, the deception would +have been as likely to succeed as by his inhuming +bridles and mangers for mammoth horses, and armor +suitable for such men as Goliah of Gath, and the +old King of Bashan.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Is it imagined existing ladles of a former world +were possibly used as spoons, and therefore such +reasoning is not conclusive? A little reflection will +show the contrary; or if the reader will turn to +<i>Plate III</i>, he will see it would be a very difficult +matter to empty an ancient ladle, or simpulum, into +the mouth, in consequence of the position of the +handle; this being perpendicular to the mouth of +the bowl; whereas in the spoon it is on a line or +nearly so with it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In how many ways does the spoon contribute to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>man’s enjoyments! Besides its more appropriate +business, it often assists in quite different matters. +Its devotion is not confined to the mouth, nor to +things for the mouth, but, like an anxious attendant, +is ever ready to lend its assistance where it +can. Most readers can call to mind numerous occasions +on which the value of its presence was felt. +Neighbor Windt can never get up the heels of his +shoes till in place of his fingers he applies the shank +of a spoon, and matches were never made in his +house without tipping their ends in brimstone fused +in another. Is a person faint? The spoon is called +to revive him. Are you in pain? quoth the doctor, +“three drops from this vial, in a tea-spoon full +of syrup, will relieve you.” You are restless? +“Take these pills in a table-spoon full of wine, and +you’ll soon be asleep.” Infants suffer greatly in cutting +their teeth, but by “champering a spoon,” the +gums are sooner cut through; and thus this devoted +servant of our species kindly hastens the period +when, in a more legitimate way, it can gratify little +innocents.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When influenzas rage, what is the first act of attending +disciples of Galen? To ask for a spoon, +that with it they may press down the tongue to examine +the fauces. In epidemic catarrhs, there is +scarcely a house free from the disease, or a spoon +from this service. Now, is it not remarkable that +in afflictions of the mouth and throat the benign and +sympathetic spoon should not only administer appropriate +medicines, but he actually called in ere the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>nature of those medicines is determined! Its presence +required by consulting physicians, as if from +its familiarity with the patient, his habits and manner +of life, and its acquaintance with the bronchial +regions—its aid was indispensable!</p> + +<p class='c006'>It serves prince and peasant on some curious occasions. +The part it performs in the coronation of +kings will be noticed further on, but we may here +notice how the poor derive from it a valuable lesson. +Start not, gentle reader, at our announcing that +spoons have long taught the children of penury to +lay right in bed! Yes; and shown them the only +way, in certain cases, by which either to get in or +keep in—solving a very curious geometrical problem. +The custom alluded to is said to be well +known in soldiers’ barracks, lodging houses for mendicants, +in cheap boarding schools for boys, and +wherever circumstances require four or more persons +to sleep on one couch. It is obvious uniformity +of position and movement, in such cases, is indispensable +to individual repose.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When half a dozen spoons are laid out separately, +they take up considerable room, but place them +edgewise, bring up the mouth of one close to the +back of the next, &c. and the whole will form a +compact mass. Just so with half a dozen tenants of +one bed; if laid promiscuously, they could not find +room; that is only obtained by placing themselves +“spoon-fashion”—all turned one way and close +fitted to each other. The oldest occupant regulates +the positions and motions of his fellows. Having +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>the privilege of first laying down, he adjusts himself +to his own liking; drawing up his knees as far as he +finds agreeable, he becomes a model or pattern to +which those behind him must conform. No one can +then “turn on t’other side,” without general consent; +and it is only when the chief gives the signal (by +exclaiming “<i>spoons</i>,”) that the interesting evolution +takes place.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Spoons were formerly used to feed the nose as well +as the mouth—<i>snuff</i> being conveyed in them to the +nostrils instead of between the finger and thumb—but +this will be illustrated by a cut on a future page. +We have somewhere read of the implement performing +the part of a linguist—interpreting between +navigators and strange people. When other modes +failed to make known the want of food, the sight of +a spoon, accompanied with the usual movements in +using it, instantly opened the understandings of savages, +and saved Christian travellers from starvation.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Silver spoons have made their influence felt in the +politics of nations. The enthusiasm of the people +of England in supporting the cause of the parliament +against Charles I. may be gathered from the +contribution of the inhabitants of a single town to +the republican cause. In London, enormous masses +of plate were heaped up in Guildhall, the gift of the +citizens. We select a few items from the list of donors +named in the History and Antiquities of Great +Yarmouth, [Norwich, 1772.]</p> + +<p class='c013'>“Thomas Goose, seven pieces of plate and <i>two spoons</i>.</p> + +<p class='c013'>“Robert Wakeman, 51 oz. of plate, at 5s. 4d. per oz. and <i>nine spoons</i> in +<i>coarse silver</i>, weighing 14 oz. at 4s. 6d. per oz.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>[We leave it to modern smiths to distinguish between +the “<i>coarse</i>” and “best” silver.]</p> + +<p class='c013'>“William Burton, 59 oz. plate, <i>one spoon, best</i>, and <i>four coarse spoons</i> and +a bodkin.</p> + +<p class='c013'>“George England, 91 oz. and <i>seven silver spoons</i>.</p> + +<p class='c013'>“Robert Huntington, 158 oz. and <i>one spoon</i>.</p> + +<p class='c013'>“William Bridge, 10 pieces of plate and <i>seven spoons</i>; and at another time, +72 oz. and <i>seven spoons</i>.</p> + +<p class='c013'>“John Thompson, <i>two cups</i> and a <i>spoon</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>The above may serve as a commentary on the following +lines from a contemporary poet, by whom +the parliament is addressed:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Our plate, our coin, our jewels, and our rings,</div> + <div class='line'>Arms, ornaments, and all our precious things,</div> + <div class='line'>To you we brought as bountifully in,</div> + <div class='line'>As if they had old rusty horse-shoes been.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Butler, the champion of monarchy, as a matter +of course turned this patriotic ardor into ridicule:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Did saints for this bring in their plate,</div> + <div class='line'>And crowd as if they came too late?</div> + <div class='line'>For when they thought the cause had need on’t,</div> + <div class='line'>Happy was he that could be rid on’t.</div> + <div class='line'>Did they coin p— p—s, bowls and flagons,</div> + <div class='line'>Int’ officers of horse and dragoons?</div> + <div class='line'>And into pikes and musqueteers,</div> + <div class='line'>Stamp beakers, cups, and porringers?</div> + <div class='line'>A thimble, bodkin, and a <span class='fss'>SPOON</span>,</div> + <div class='line'>Did start up living men as soon</div> + <div class='line'>As in the furnace they were thrown.—<i>Hudibras</i>, <i>Canto</i> ii.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Nor have pewter spoons been behind silver ones +in freedom’s cause. Few kitchen utensils have +done more for national independence. Like those +in the house of John Adams, they have been molded +into bullets, and sent in haste to stay the stomachs +of mercenary troops attempting to prey upon +their owners. In the war of the revolution, when +the spoons in New-York were used up, a set of men +<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>without the fear of God or the King before their +eyes, pulled down the leaden statue of George in +the Bowling Green, and fused him into balls. Then, +as the royal officers professed to honor the king in +their hearts, the rebels thought it right to send him into +their bosoms. Here we see how spoons, though designed +to convey victuals to the mouth, can of themselves +effectually silence the cravings of hunger.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In another sense, pewter spoons have entered the +field. Essentially of domestic habits, and brought +up to wait on their owners at table, yet when a +country family’s provision has been spent, they have +been known to go in quest of some. Putting on a +new form, (being cast into “buck-shot,”) they have +left home, like Esau, “to take venison,” and have +generally returned (in the bodies of the game) with +fresh supplies for the larder. Having done this, they +have, in one or two instances, (when serving a backwoodsman,) +resumed their previous occupation, (being +recast,) and assisted to cook and serve up the +animals they killed. But this is rarely the case, for +rambling in the woods commonly puts an end to +their household occupations.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In cities, silver spoons often leave home to raise +means for purchasing provisions when the purse of +their owner is emptied and his credit quite gone. +Pledged for a loan, they remain in prison without +murmuring till his circumstances revive and he redeems +them from thraldom. Money lenders turn +their backs on the poor man’s knife and fork, but +never refuse his silver spoons—<i>their</i> touching appeals +<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>cannot be resisted. Like those heroic Moravian +Missionaries, who went into slavery to benefit +perishing heathen, these well disposed little things +repeatedly save Christian families from famishing by +acting in a similar manner. After a prolonged absence, +great is the joy on their arrival—then every +one takes them by the hand and greets their return.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Thus the spoon contributes to man’s joys, in prosperity, +and diminishes his sorrows when in pecuniary +trouble. It is a friend that sticketh closer than a +brother. Like a Grecian or Roman nurse, its labors +cease not with the death of its master—it continues +to serve him in his descendants. Made an heirloom, +it bears his initials or his name, and is sent +down to succeeding generations, a cherished memorial +of the friendship that existed between them.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER III.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Proverb respecting Long Spoons—Attempt to define its origin—Female +Costume—Trains, Steeple Caps, Fardingales +and Ruffs—Extract from an old Sermon—Homily on Dress—Enormous +cost of Ruffs—George Heriot—Oriental long Spoons—Satan’s +Household—Other Proverbs—Conjurers—Mountebanks—Lotteries—Feats +of the Spoon on the Stage—Curious +Practice of Morris-dancers—Superstition of the Goths—Dryden—Gruel—Possets—Spoons +doing duty as ferulas—Sir Thomas +More—The Spoon or Spoon-meat typical of Infancy.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>The spoon, as is well known to most readers, +gave rise to a once celebrated proverb, indicative of +the advances of sin and the lengths to which the +wicked are led—“<i>He wants a long spoon who sups +with the devil.</i>” The saying is now nearly obsolete, +but it was formerly, like the implement itself, in +every one’s mouth. Thus Chaucer, in the Squire’s +Tale:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>What he answerd it nedeth not reherse;</div> + <div class='line'>Who can say bet than he, who can do werse</div> + <div class='line'>Whan he hath al wel said than he hath done.</div> + <div class='line'>Therfore behoveth him a ful <i>long spone</i></div> + <div class='line'>That shal ete with a <i>fend</i>.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Shakespeare, in the Tempest, makes Stephano +exclaim, oh beholding Caliban, “Mercy! Mercy! +This is a devil, and no monster; I’ll leave him; I +have no <i>long spoon</i>.” And in the Comedy of Errors, +the whimsical mistakes occasioned by the resemblance +of the twins to each other, led the parties +to suppose Satan himself was in the performance. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>Antipholus of Syracuse is invited by a female +to dinner, his servant hints to him the character +of the hostess:</p> + +<p class='c013'><i>Dromio.</i>—Master, if you go, expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a <i>long spoon</i>.</p> + +<p class='c013'><i>Ant.</i>—Why, Dromio?</p> + +<p class='c013'><i>Dromio.</i>—Marry, he must have a <i>long spoon</i> that must eat with the devil.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There was in Shakespeare’s time a more substantial +reason why those who supped with ladies as well +as such as partook of Satan’s hospitality, should have +long spoons; and why ladies themselves should +have been, as they actually were, furnished with +them. “Indeed!” exclaims some female reader; +“pray explain.” Certainly, madam; but before doing +so, it is expedient to allude to something else.</p> + +<p class='c006'>From the times when primitive British ladies were +clad in skins sewed together with sinews and pinned +on the person with thorns, to those when Anglo-Saxon +dames wore tunics and mufflers, and Norman +females wrapped themselves in broidered mantles +and copes, and thence to the present days, every +age has been distinguished by innovations in <i>costume</i>, +and of a very marked character. Norman +fashions were succeeded in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries by the English gown, bibs, aprons, +and corsets. Immense trains were attached to the +skirts of gowns. Horned and also steeple caps for +the head made their appearance, thus lengthening +both extremities of the person to a monstrous extent. +A lady, on a visit of ceremony, is said to +have sometimes been in the centre of a drawing-room, +while the tail of her dress was still in the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>street. Chaucer is severe on this and other parts +of female dress. In the Parson’s Tale, he rails at +“the superfluitee of the foresaide gounes, <i>trailing in +the dong</i>, and in the <i>myre</i>, on hors, and eke on foot.” +In Dunbar’s Poems, they are represented as performing +the part of a besom:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in8'><span lang="sco">Sic fartingaillis on flaggis als fatt as quhailis</span></div> + <div class='line in8'><span lang="sco">Fattit lyk fulis with hattis that littel availis;</span></div> + <div class='line in8'><span lang="sco">And sic fowill <i>tailis</i> to <i>sweip the calsay clene</i>.</span></div> + <div class='line'>[<i>Poems by W. Dunbar, from the MS. of George Bannatyne. Perth, 1788, p. 52.</i>]</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Steeple caps towered about a yard above the +heads which bore them, so that ladies in full dress +could hardly pass through an ordinary door, or stand +in a modern room. Queen Elizabeth, it is well +known, carried her head pretty high, in more senses +than one, but she had sometimes to bend. Visiting +Burleigh, when he was laid up with the gout, she +was much incommoded by her head-dress in entering +his dwelling. As the stateman’s servant conducted +her through the door, he cautioned her to +beware of the lintel, saying, “May it please your +Highness to stoop.” The haughty dame replied, +she would not incline her body to the Spanish King, +but on this occasion would bend to see his master. +For specimens of steeple caps, see illustrations in +current editions of Froissart, copied from illuminated +MSS. particularly Isabella, wife of Edward I. entering +Paris; the Dutchess of Montfort entering +Nantes, and Philippa, consort of Edward III.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The sixteenth and part of the seventeenth century +were characterized by long bodices, puffed sleeves, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>the famous fardingale, and celebrated ruff. The +huge cylindrical petticoat was projected by hoops as +much at the hips as at the feet, so that the wearer +seemed as if she stood through an opening in the +centre of a round table, the linen cover of which +reached down to the ground, and upon which she +could arrange a variety of apparatus, such as a lady’s +work-bag usually contains—strongly reminding one +of Chinese pedlars of small wares, who carry about +goods on a somewhat similar looking contrivance. +“The great ladies at Genoa (observes Evelyn) go +in horrible overgrown vertigals of whalebone, which +being put about the waist of the lady, and full as +<i>broad on both sides as she can reach with her hands</i> +bear out her coats in such a manner that she appears +to be as broad as long.” See a portrait of +Anne of Denmark, wife of James I. usually found +in works on costume.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The stiff ruff round the neck sometimes projected +so far that a plumb-line dropped from its edge +would nearly coincide with the periphery of the petticoat. +At other times, it was pinned up round the +ears, forming a fluted and inverted truncated cone +or rather, it resembled the outer leaves of a rose +protecting the blushing beauty within. Portraits of +Queen Elizabeth exhibit both modes of wearing the +ruff. A smaller kind was worn by men in like manner, +as may be seen in portraits of Bacon, Dudley, +Sidney, Cecil, and others of that and the following +age. See also Dutch portraits, of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries, and illustrated +<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>works of those periods—the ruff is represented +enormously thick and proportionally broad. Both +it and the fardingale are noticed by Cervantes.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Few parts of female apparel excited more notice +than ruffs, and on none were bestowed more attention +and regard. Cambric was first imported into +England, (from Cambray in Flanders, and hence its +name,) for the purpose of making them, and numerous +were the devices for forming and stiffening +the plaits. About the year 1574, an invention of +great merit, in the estimation of ladies, was made, +since it rendered the ruff much more commodious +to the wearer, and increased the facility of +dressing and putting it in shape. This was the famous +“poking stick”—a polished steel implement +which, when heated, was used for stiffening and +plaiting the starched frills. The ladies had cause +to rejoice that “setting pins” (slips of whalebone, +&c. formerly concealed in the plaits in the manner +of fans) were thus superseded. These uncomfortable +adjuncts formed a species of <i>chevaux de frise</i>, enclosing +the neck, and not only keeping other people, +but in a manner themselves, at arms length. Ruffs +were not unlike the Chinese <i>cangue</i>, a thick board like +a table, resting on the shoulders of a criminal, his head +being passed through a hole in the centre—a device +often compared to “a frill or collar.” It prevents the +wearer from reaching his mouth, so that unless fed +by his friends he would inevitably perish with hunger.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Now, it has doubtless already occurred to our fair +querist that, however elegant and fashionable ruffs +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>formerly were, they must have been extremely incommodious +at <i>meal times</i>. It is manifest no lady +could with an ordinary spoon convey food to her +lips without crushing or otherwise spoiling the most +cherished part of her attire. The result was, long-handled +implements came into vogue, and were not +disused till “setting-pins” and “poking sticks” were +laid aside, and the dimensions of ruffs diminished.</p> + +<p class='c006'>For ladies’ sakes, the following enumeration of +fashionable articles of costume is taken from a sermon +preached in the fourteenth century to worldly-minded +misses: “Thus the devil farith with men and women: +first, he stirreth them to pappe and pamper their +flesh, desiring delicious meates and drinkes; and so +they hop on the pillar of the devil’s temptation, with +their <i>horns</i>, <i>locks</i>, <i>garlands of gold and rich pearls</i>, +<i>cauls</i>, <i>fillets</i> and <i>wimples</i>, and <i>riddled gowns</i> and +<i>rockets</i>, <i>colors</i>, <i>laces</i>, <i>jackes</i>, <i>paltockes</i>, with their +long <i>crakowes</i>; and thus the devil beareth them upon +the pillar to teach them to fly above simple folk, and +saith they shall not hurt themselves—but he lieth +falsely, for unless they are as sorry therefore as ever +they were glad, they shall leap down from the pillar +into the pit of hell!” Horned caps were too conspicuous +objects to escape the good father’s censure. +The <i>wimple</i> was a species of hood that covered the +head, neck, and shoulders. <i>Paltockes</i>—doublets, +and probably pantalettes; such as worn by Turkish +females. <i>Crakowes</i>, long pointed shoes.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Of the homilies appointed by Queen Elizabeth to +be read in churches, the one on excess of apparel +<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>has some warm denunciations against wimples, mufflers, +head-bands, crisping pins, ladies mincing as +they went, and nicely treading with their feet. The +gentlemen catch it also, with their <i>velvets</i>, <i>furred +gowns</i>, <i>corked slippers</i>, <i>trim buskins</i>, and the multitudes +of <i>changes of dress</i>—<i>one of this colour, another +of that</i>, one for <i>morning</i>, another for <i>afternoon</i>, this +in <i>Spanish</i>, that in the <i>Turkish fashion</i>, &c. The +evil had risen to such a height that “neither Almighty +God by his word, nor godly and necessary +laws, could stop it.” “One spendeth his patrimony +in <i>pounces and cuts</i>, another bestoweth more on a +<i>dancing shirt</i> than might suffice to buy apparel for +his whole body. <i>Some hang their revenues about +their necks, ruffling with their ruffs!</i>” All the world +knows immense wealth, in the shape of jewels, is +often pendant from a lady’s neck, but few persons +are aware that gentlemen formerly laid out fortunes +on <i>frills</i>, and had peculiar <i>shirts</i> to dance in.</p> + +<p class='c006'>George Heriot, goldsmith to James I. is figured +with a ruff consisting of plaits piled one over another, +the whole being at least six inches thick, and +projecting in proportion. He never could have +conveniently fed himself with “cock-a-leekie,” or +“crowdy,” the favorite dishes of King Jamie, with +anything like a modern spoon, without deranging if +not defiling his frill. Yet his and his master’s were +of moderate dimensions compared with those of the +gallants of their days.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Long spoons are common with the Turks, Persians, +and most Asiatics. They are mentioned by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>old travellers as “reaching a great way.” The proverb +associated with them no doubt arose from the +primitive custom, still prevalent over the greater part +of the earth, of the inmates of a house eating out of +one dish. The tables on this account approaching +a circular form, so as to give every individual an equal +chance at the provision; like the knights at Arthur’s +Round Table. In large households, the tables were +necessarily made in proportion, and as the dish was +placed at the centre, the implements were adapted +to reach it without rising. An idea has always prevailed +that Satan’s household never was a small one; +spoons therefore much longer than common were +supposed to be required by those invited to a seat +at his table.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Other proverbs are connected with the subject. +Henry IV. quoted one, when rebuked for his clemency +to his foes—“More flies are caught by a +<i>spoon</i>-full of honey than with a hogshead of vinegar.” +Perhaps the best description of a vain-glorious +person is one in which he is represented as +taking in praise like porridge, and “<i>licking the +spoon</i>!”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Silver spoons, almost as much as anything else, +afforded employment to conjurers and wise women +of yore. Frequently stolen, their disconsolate owners +had recourse to rustic oracles, who, with ‘wand,’ +‘magic mirror,’ ‘key and book,’ ‘sieve and sheers,’ +or other cabalistic implements, found out the rogues. +Sometimes the more learned professors of occult +sciences were employed—men who consulted the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>stars on the fate of kingdoms, stray cattle, lost keys, +and goods of every description and value.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>They’d search a planet’s house to know</div> + <div class='line'>Who broke and robbed a house below;</div> + <div class='line'>Examine Venus and the moon,</div> + <div class='line'>Who stole a thimble or a <i>spoon</i>.—<i>Hudibras</i>, <i>Canto</i> I.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Another class of men, whose glory has also departed, +found a source of profit in spoons, viz.: +<i>Mountebanks</i>, who were originally travelling venders +of physic—a species of merchandise associated +with rather unpleasant ideas—one ill adapted to +form the staple of a lucrative trade. But, shrewd +and observing, the itinerant quack knew the weak +points of the species, and that to succeed he had only +to keep his customers in good humor. Like a nurse +coaxing sick children into love with the doctor’s prescription, +he tickled his hearers with the wonders his +nostrums had wrought, and sold pills out of the same +package for every complaint of man or beast. As +people, however, are not always sick, he reminded +them that they were daily in danger of being so; +and hence the wisdom of buying pills which not only +removed disease but prevented its approach. In the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he added to his +stock various light articles, as tapes, rings, ribbons, +bodkins, scissors, spoons, knives, razors, tea-pots, +trays, calicoes, and eventually introduced them in +lotteries—expatiating on their superior qualities with +a fluency which rivaled that of ‘Kikero’—as a country +pedagogue of our acquaintance insists on pronouncing +the name of the Roman orator.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>The poets of the last century often complimented +these amusing artists, as Gay in his Sixth Pastoral:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>The mountebank now treads the stage and sells</div> + <div class='line'>His pills, his balsams, and his ague spells;</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'> · · · · ·</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Of lotteries, next with tuneful note he told,</div> + <div class='line'>Where <i>silver spoons</i> were won, and rings of gold.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The same gentry were very numerous in ancient +Greece and Rome, and quite as clever as their present +representatives. They dealt in trinkets and +small wares, whose virtues were fully equal to modern +ones. Eudamus, mentioned by Aristophanes, +peddled finger-rings, for protecting the wearers from +the bite of serpents or other venomous animals! +Like recent artists of the same profession, he probably +sold razors so sharp as would shave sleeping +cats without wakening them, and spoons which rendered +loathsome food pleasant, and poisoned food +innocuous.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Modern mountebanks sometimes wound up the +business of a lottery with general satisfaction, by +providing from two to six bowls of <i>hasty pudding</i>, +to partake of which an equal number of their patrons +were invited to step on the stage. The food was +scalding hot, and being retained in wooden bowls +lost little of its heat ere passed to its destination. +He who transmitted the contents of one bowl to his +stomach in the shortest time was the victor, and bore +off the prize; which was sometimes the spoon he +had used. When every thing was prepared, the +contest began on a signal given by the generous provider +of the feast, and instantly accompanied with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>acclamations of the bystanders. The witty remarks +of Mr. Merryman caused roars of laughter to become, +like approaching thunder, louder and louder, +until the rain descended, and the faces of the multitudes +were fairly washed in their own tears. Before +the performers half finished the task, their visages +acquired the temperature and color of fire, in +spite of streams of perspiration with which they +were flooded.</p> + +<p class='c006'>This employment of the spoon was at one time +so common as to have given rise to the soubriquet +by which the principal performer was, and still is, +distinguished—<i>Jean Potage</i> in France—<i>Jack Pudding</i> +in England.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Here we see the spoon taking an active part in +the <i>public sports</i> of the people, as well as in furthering +their private pleasures. It entered into an <i>innocent</i> +contest, which the knife or the sword never +did. It achieved a bloodless conquest, and as an +emblem of victory was often stuck on one side of +the hat, by way of cockade. And let not the disciple +of Chesterfield sneer at these rustic entertainments +of ignorant times, for the effects on both +actors and spectators were more beneficial in shaking +off the gross humors of the system than cart loads +of physic or wagon loads of sermons.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon in another respect assisted old charlatans, +and in that part of their performances most interesting +to themselves and trying to spectators—viz. +in making the collection. The morris dancer, +at the close of every act, put a large spoon or ladle +<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>in the mouth of the hobby-horse and made it career +round the ring to solicit donations, when we may +suppose few could resist the moving appeal. [<i>See +Douce’s Illustrations of Shakespeare.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The caldron and ladle have been employed in +forbidden matters. Witches made ‘hell broth’ in +one, and stirred up the ingredients with the other—making +the gruel thick and slab—but the food entered +no mortal stomach, and hence no mortal spoon +was wanted. This may be inferred from older writers +than Shakespeare—from Saxo Grammaticus +and Olaus Magnus. They tell us about the practices +of ‘women witches of the North, where the +devil truly hath his seat’—of the ‘gruel’ and ‘earthen +pot wherein the juices, herbs, worms and entrails’ +were boiled, &c. but not a whisper about the spoon. +Eventually the law of nature taught the Goths to +detest devils and their dams, for it often happened +that famines ensued when men obeyed them: ‘birds +and beasts forsook the woods, and fish the waters, +and would not come back again [to be eaten] until +such time as the Divine Majesty was pacified by +prayers and benedictions of the sacred clergy.’ So +says the Reverend Archbishop of Upsal.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In satirical writings, allusions to <i>spoon-meats</i> were +formerly common. When a passionate combatant +had no other resource, he too often vented his wrath +in gross personalities. Thus Dryden: ‘Go back to +where thy infancy began, eat pap and <i>spoon-meats</i>;’ +or when a fling was made at people’s diet, as in the +Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher: ‘Faith, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>sir, here are no <i>oats</i> to be got, unless you’l have ’em +in porredge; the people are so given to <i>spoon-meats</i>.’ +A similar allusion to oatmeal gruel is made by Du +Bartas:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And in a dish, for want of plate or glass,</div> + <div class='line'>Sups oaten drink instead of hippocras.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries oatmeal +gruel constituted the regular breakfast and supper +of children. Dryden has an allusion to it in the +‘Wild Gallant’:—‘<i>Boy</i>: These last three weeks I +have almost forgot what my teeth were made for. +Last night good Mrs. Bibber took pity on me, and +crammed me a mess of gruel <i>with the children</i>, and +I popt and popt my spoon three or four times to my +mouth before I could find the way to it.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the spoon was the first thing wanted in a +morning, it was often the last thing laid aside at +night; for when youngsters broke their fast with +porridge, old people wound up the day’s labor with +posset,—a hot mixture of milk and mulled wine, and +frequently taken in bed. The custom is repeatedly +mentioned in old writers. Page promised Falstaff +a posset, and Mrs. Quickly cheered Rugby with the +hopes of another. Lady Macbeth drugged the +posset of Duncan’s grooms. Thomas Heywood, a +contemporary of Shakespeare notices the custom: +“Thou shalt be welcome to beef and bacon, and +perhaps a bag pudding; and my daughter Nell shall +pop a posset upon thee when thou goest to bed.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Besides feeding boys and girls, the spoon has +been known to remind them when they do ill, its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>bowl being now and then applied to their pates, to +teach them better manners. Among refined people +or with mild housewives, this of course never occurs; +but passionate cooks, when teased by young impertinents, +seldom stop to reflect on the impropriety of +using the same implement to baste a boy’s head and +a roasting pig. In country parts this practice is +probably more frequent than in cities, <i>one</i> thing +there being often necessarily put to <i>many</i> uses. +Like a faithful nurse, the spoon goes out of its way +to benefit young folks by performing duties towards +them that do not belong to it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In some regions, poor people are not over-nice in +their tastes—it’s a merciful dispensation they are +not. When the Highland hostess took her son’s +cap off his head, and immediately boiled in it a +pudding for Sam. Johnson’s dinner, she made the +most of her resources, did the best her limited stock +of dry goods would permit, and displayed as much +ingenuity in the application of an old thing to a new +purpose, as one half of those do who secure their +inventions by patents. There is no doubt that such +a lady, when busily engaged in making “stirabout” +for her family, would hasten the movements of a +desidiose boy by applying the implement she was +wielding to his sconce, as well as by threatening to +withhold the contents of the kettle from his lips. +To be sure, such a practice is not very cleanly; but +what can a country matron in like circumstances +do? She cannot leave the porridge to “burn” or +“boil over,” in order to seek a suitable rod; if she +<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>did, in all probability the individual for whose benefit +it was sought, would be <i>non est inventus</i> when she +returned.</p> + +<p class='c006'>During the fierce contests between the advocates +of faith and the champions of works, in the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries, the spoon was sometimes +introduced. On one occasion it proved a powerful +weapon in the hands of Sir Thomas More. See +how skillfully he wields it:—“I would wene one +<i>sponeful</i> of good works should no more kill y<sup>e</sup> soule, +then a potager of good wurts should kill and destroi +y<sup>e</sup> bodie.” Wurts is the old name for unfermented +beer—a sweet infusion of malt—and is an aperient. +This was an argument <i>ad hominum</i>, or rather <i>ad +stomachus.</i> In it the Chancellor administered, and +in a very quiet way, a medicine that could not help +moving their bowels; and it did move them—for +those whom he thus addressed at length slew him. +But such occasions are not the only ones where the +spoon was associated with religious controversies or +ceremonies, as the sequel of this essay will show.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon, or ‘spoon meat,’ and ‘strong meat,’ +have ever been typical of infancy and manhood—of +weak and vigorous intellects. Paul tells the +Hebrews they could only digest pap or spoon meats +of children, instead of the strong food of men. +“Ye have need of milk, and not of strong meat. +Every one that useth milk is a babe, but strong meat +belongeth to them that are of full age.” Solomon +has the same idea: it is in fact common as the +spoon.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Heraldic Emblems—The Spoon neglected—Families of +Spooners—Dutch Coat of Arms—Crest for Bishops—Warriors—Punishment +of Death—Discontented People subdued by the +Spoon—Peace made by it lasting—A Teacher of Military +Tactics—Waterloo—Manual Exercise—The Spoon once a +Side-Arm—Ancient Tenures—Curious Deed of Land—Bishop +of Exeter—Sheep-Walk and Wooden Spoon—Tears collected +by Spoons—Heaven opened by them—Property given to the +Church—Mahommedans use Spoons in Paradise—Wash-Basin—Rebuke +and Malediction.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Looking over some works on Heraldry, we were +surprised at the multitude of culinary utensils +adopted into that ‘heavenly science,’ as one of its +professors calls it. As we proceeded, the reason +became plain; for everything <i>eatable</i>, whether fish, +flesh, or vegetable, being portrayed on escutcheons +or crests, nothing was more natural than to introduce +apparatus for cooking. As a symbol for beef, +veal, mutton, lamb, pork, or venison, a gentleman +selected for his crest, (as his palate preferred one +dish or another) a bull or cow, a calf, a sheep, or +goat, a lamb, boar, or stag. Those who lived more +delicately chose a fowl, hare, or rabbit;—others, +pheasants, partridges, pigeons, snipe, quails, wild +ducks, geese, herons, and every kind of game. +Such as loved fish, selected perch, pike, flounders, +salmon, trout, and so on, up to sturgeons and dolphins. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>Some had painted on their armorial ensigns, +cockles, muscles, crabs, lobsters, and turtles. +Those who relished vegetable diet, had sheafs of +barley, rye, and wheat, beans, peas, asparagus, +celery, turnips, cabbages. People fond of pies and +desserts, had apples, pears, pomegranates, cherries, +and grapes; and such as had more pleasure in +handling the tumbler than the knife or spoon, +selected for their crests, barrels [for beer], urns or +vases [for wine], drinking cups, horns, goblets, +mazars, &c.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Of devices taken from kitchen paraphernalia, we +cannot name half; here are a few: The hearth +and fire, being essential for preparing dinner, often +occur; so do torches to light the fire, billets of wood +to feed and bellows to blow it. A spit to roast +meat, and sometimes the roast on it. Fire-dogs or +andirons, caldrons, skewers and flesh-hooks. +(Heads, limbs, and joints of animals, ready for the +spit or kettle, are quite common.) Colanders, +watering-pots, cleavers, carving-knives, plates and +dishes, salts, cups and tankards. Stools to sit on, +tables to eat off, hand-bells to call waiters, buckets +of water, basins and ewers, to wash after dinner; +combs to dress the hair before sitting down, scissors +to trim the beard, and caps to place on the head.</p> + +<p class='c006'>“Well, but where is the spoon?” To tell the +truth, we have not been able to find it! A disgrace +to the science of heraldry it is not emblazoned, or +if it be, it has escaped our notice. The ingrates! +Or, were they ashamed of adopting it to conceal +<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>their love of spoon meats? As if the world perceived +not their design in concealing a round of beef +under the figure of an ox, a chine of pork under a +boar, a haunch of venison under a fat buck, a loin +of veal under a calf—or as if the reverend gentleman +who adopted “two shin-bones” for his crest, could +by such an affectation of abstinence hide from a +prying world his attachment to marrow and strong +broth. [<i>See Kent’s Grammar of Heraldry, Lond. +1724, and also Guillim, where the above “devices,” +and hundreds more, may be found.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>There might be some excuse for Messrs. Fish, +Flour, Bull, Bacon, Cook, Sprat, Drake, Taylor, +Miller, Smith, Potts, Sadler, Wheeler, Fisher, +Drinker, Baker, Carter, and others, rejecting from +their coats of arms the object of our research; but +surely the ancient and honorable families of the +<span class='sc'>Spooners</span> should have known better. They, at +least, might have had the grace to acknowledge and +adopt the implement from which their patronymic +is derived. What could have been more proper? +But alas! the earth is as full of pride as ingratitude, +and many besides the Spooners are indifferent about +inquiring into the condition and deeds of their +ancestors.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In an ancient and imperfectly depicted coat of +arms, the supporters are a man and a woman: one +flourishes what appears a ladle, and the other holds +something like a spoon; but Guillim, or some one +else, explains the hieroglyphics in a different manner. +With this exception, the arms of an old Dutch +<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>family come nearest the mark. Their crest was a +<i>Spoonbill</i>, the most singular looking of European +birds, and a native of Holland; but whether it was +selected on account of its name, the form of its +mouth, or the length of its neck, we are not informed. +If the gentleman who chose it was a ravenous feeder +on soups, and a believer in the doctrine that the +pleasures of eating and drinking are proportioned to +the length of the channel through which food reaches +the stomach, his heraldic ingenuity surpassed that +of any gourmand on record; that is, unless the +musician mentioned by Aulus Gellius adopted it as +an armorial ensign, which is not unlikely, since he +used to wish for a neck as long as a crane, that he +might <i>longer</i> enjoy the victuals he ate.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As an heraldic device, the Spoon is infinitely +more becoming Christian men than spears, daggers, +bows and arrows, catapults, hatchets, clubs, knives, +and other murderous weapons, which knights and +even bishops sport on their plate and the panels of +their carriages. To church dignitaries it seems +peculiarly appropriate—a symbol of benevolence, of +a disposition “to feed the hungry.” Charity, however, +has always been at a discount, and the spoon, +as its emblem, is neglected by heralds and bishops.</p> + +<p class='c006'>O, that warriors would adopt it! It would be +consistent with sentiments many of them affect. +Besides, the times are rapidly approaching when +conquest in battle—the subjugation of nations by +brute force—will no longer make a hero; when +people cannot be treated by their rulers like cattle, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>and slain in hordes by professional butchers; by +men whose acts fools vaunt and idiots gloze over. +It had been well for the world had soldiers never +handled any weapon but the spoon. As kindness +is, and, from the constitution of the human mind, +ever must be more effective than compulsion to +overcome the wayward, victories more glorious and +permanent than any attained by the musket and +cannon would have been the result. Is this doubted? +Let the plan be tried: it is based on philosophy, on +principles implanted in man’s nature; whereas the +other conflicts with them all.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Public sentiment is fast demanding the abolition +of the punishment of death in civil communities—a +punishment which does not and cannot protect +society from crimes, because it is itself a violation +of the laws of humanity. Vindictive in its nature, +it deliberately commits that which it condemns. If +one man kill another in a passion, who can innocently +put him to death in cold blood? But what, +then, shall those scenes of wholesale slaughter be +deemed where human beings, reeking with gore, +are butchering one another—not that they are at +enmity, but because their employers require it of +them?</p> + +<p class='c006'>The murmurings of a discontented people may +be silenced by thrusting bayonets into their bodies—’twould +be a better way to put spoons in their mouths. +Starving people have long enough been conquered +by killing them; why not stifle their complainings +by feeding them—by killing them with kindness +<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>instead of with cannon? The spoon not only subdues +the rebellious but makes them good citizens. While +conveying food to their stomachs, it transmits love +of country, and admiration of its products, to their +hearts. This the bayonet never did and never will. +No peace can be lasting, and no people content, +without the spoon. It is ridiculous to expect patriots +in those deprived of one, or, what is the same thing, +who cannot get sufficient employment for one. How +can such dispose their hearts or their throats to sing +a Te Deum, or with what kind of stomach can they +join in a national anthem?</p> + +<p class='c006'>Captain Shandy carried on the siege of Dendermond +in his garden, using pickets for men, and the +dense volumes from Corporal Trim’s pipe for the +smoke of his cannon; but Joel Barlow, or some one +else, has shown how military tactics may be more +agreeably taught with a spoon; a platter of hot hasty +pudding being the fortress attacked; and the citadel +to be won the lump of sugar or butter ensconced in +the centre.</p> + +<p class='c006'>After reconnoitering the thick circular wall to +determine the point of attack, the spoon is brought +to play; when, like a battering-ram applied to new +buildings, it quickly makes an impression, and to +keep the ground clear, bears off the materials broken +down. Repeating the operation, an attempt is at +length made to penetrate the centre in a radial +direction; but no sooner is a practical opening +formed, than the adjoining masses, as if endowed +with instinct, rush down from both sides and make +<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>the breach good. A short breathing spell follows, +and then a furious onset is made; the barriers give +way, and a dashing effort carries the war into the +bowels of the besieged; but the heat of the smoking +ruins becomes insufferable, confusion ensues, and +a retreat the only alternative. The destructive +engine is now brought to bear on one point, and +now wheeled to another, without any decided effects, +till the fatal plan is adopted of weakening the enemy +uniformly all round; thus slowly but surely diminishing +the distance from the besieged. This is pursued +until, by a little manœuvring, a passage is suddenly +forced to the centre, and, by a <i>coup de main</i>, the +greater part of the treasure borne off at a swoop! +Such are the innocent sweets which victory confers +on the spoon.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the horrible contest at Waterloo had been +settled by the same weapon, it had been well for +blushing humanity. Had the opposing heroes been +seated on opposite sides of a sufficiently extended +table, and entered into battle in the manner of hasty +pudding heroes on a mountebank’s stage, the victors +would have acquired as much <i>true</i> honor as they +have, and indeed a great deal <i>more</i>. Such would +be quite as philosophical, and almost as Christian-like +a way of ending national quarrels as that of +stimulating combatants to shoot cold lead into each +other’s stomachs. There is also reason to believe +it would be an acceptable one to a majority of troops; +besides, kings, and even queens, could safely fight +with commendable eclat at the head of their armies, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>and set them a royal example. Some, it is well +known, could have rivaled the best field-marshals, +and given additional evidence of “<i>divine</i> right” to +their crowns. There would be fine opportunities, +too, for military engineers to display their skill and +secure promotion: <i>e. g.</i> in devising the best means +for diminishing the sensibility of the gullet and +thorax; or, in the language of old Morton’s cook, +in “causewaying the thrapples” of warriors—in +ascertaining the shortest modes of preparing ammunition, +and the readiest methods of using it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The ‘manual exercise’ might be taught in a more +gentle manner than by the musket—in a way more +agreeable to nine-tenths of living soldiers; and, could +they be consulted, to ten-tenths of deceased ones. +Thus, ‘Prepare your spoons’—‘Charge your spoons’—‘Discharge +and charge again.’ How pleasant! +Females could take part in the good work, to encourage +the timid and cheer the mighty. Officers +might address them in the language of Todelet, (in +Davenant’s comedy, ‘The Man is the Master,’) +“Ladies, pray take your spoons.” Adopt this plan, +and who would desert? Verily, there would be few +absentees at roll-call—few would wilfully neglect +the morning and evening parade, or be remiss in +keeping their weapons in trim.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon might with propriety be worn as a +‘side-arm.’ Enclosed in a sheath and suspended +from the belt, or stuck in the sash, it would be as +becoming an ornament for Christian heroes as a +poignard. It would afford equal room for variety +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>in the qualities of its material and case: both could +be plain or enriched according to the rank of the +wearer, from a brigadier to a drummer. The fact +is, it has often been efficacious as the sword in +securing victory, viz. by demolishing the provisions +of an enemy—the best way of fighting, and the only +things worth fighting for. Does some mustached +martinet bluster, or do young Hotspurs feel their +pride wounded by the proposition? What will they +say if we tell them, one of the most warlike legions +of ancient or modern times carried the spoon in the +way indicated, and afterwards stuck it in front of the +cap in place of a feather—that a soup-kettle was +their banner, and the titles of their officers derived +from kitchen utensils and scullion duties! But we +are anticipating what belongs to another part of the +subject; meanwhile, we would recommend those +who think of selecting war as their profession—as +the theatre of their labors through life, and who +long to rival the glory of successful plunderers of the +species—to study a certain chapter by Agrippa, upon +the value of soldiers’ services to mankind.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon is occasionally mentioned in the curious +tenures by which land was held in former times. +Many domestic implements, duties, culinary dishes, +&c. are enumerated, as well as some singular customs. +Let us notice one or two: In the time of +Edward I. a noble family held their lands on condition +of furnishing “rushes to strew on the king’s chamber,” +(in place of the modern carpet) and “<i>two green +geese</i>” for his dinner at Christmas. Under Edward +<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>IV. a manor was held by furnishing, at the feast of +St. Michael the archangel, “<i>a goose</i> fit for the lord’s +dinner.” Others paid <i>twenty-four pasties of fresh +herring</i>. Some, <i>a mess of pottage</i>—<i>a mess of meat</i>. +The yearly rents of other rich estates were a <i>bottle</i> +or <i>jug</i>, a silver or maple <i>cup</i>—a <i>whittle or little +knife</i>—a <i>pair of spurs</i>—a <i>pair of tongs</i>—a <i>washbowl</i> +and <i>ewer</i>—a <i>spindle</i> and thread on it—a <i>tub +of butter</i>—a <i>silver tankard</i>, &c.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The manor of Creswell was held by the service +of carrying a <i>bottle of wine</i> for the king’s breakfast. +Fulk Fitz-Warren held lands in Gloucester by carrying +a <i>hunting-horn</i> whenever the king hunted in the +vicinity. The Hastings family held a manor in Sussex +for this service: they were to find <i>an oar</i> by +which to row the king over the haven at Hastings. +Henry VIII. granted to Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, +the site and precincts of a monastery, on condition +of “finding the king a right-hand <i>glove</i> at his coronation, +and support his right arm that day while he +held the sceptre.” To Walter de Marisco, was given +a rich manor in Nottingham, “on condition of +his presenting the king yearly <i>a pair of scarlet hose</i>.” +Lord Stafford, in Edward the First’s reign, held land +in Warwick, for the service of <i>three shillings</i> and a +<i>pair of red stockings</i> yearly furnished to the king. +One manor was granted by Henry VIII. to whom +the grantees were to pay one pound of cummin seed, +<i>two pair of gloves</i>, and <i>a steel needle</i>. Lands were +held in Essex by paying a <i>silver needle</i> into the Exchequer.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>The rich manor of Hopton was given to the ancestor +of the family of that name by William the +Conqueror, on condition of being supplied with <i>a +bow and arrow</i>, whenever he hunted in the neighborhood. +The grant, in an ancient black letter MS, +is in verse, and is brief and curious. The mode +by which the king confirmed the gift, by leaving +the impression of <i>his teeth</i> on the seal, instead of +“making his mark”—his sign <i>manual</i>—may be considered +characteristic of the grantor and of the times.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>“To the heyrs male of the Hopton,” &c.</i></div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in2'>“To me and to myne, to thee and to thine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>While the water runs, and the sun doth shine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>For lack of heyrs to the king againe,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I William, king, the third year of my reign,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Give to the Norman Hunter</div> + <div class='line in2'>To me that art bothe line and deare,</div> + <div class='line in2'>The Hoppe and Hoptoune,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And al the bounds up and downe,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Under the earth <i>to Hell</i>,</div> + <div class='line in2'>Above the earth <i>to Heaven</i>:</div> + <div class='line in2'>From me and from myne</div> + <div class='line in2'>To thee and to thine,</div> + <div class='line in2'>As good and as faire</div> + <div class='line in2'>As ever they myne were.</div> + <div class='line in2'>To witness that this is sooth,</div> + <div class='line in2'>I <i>bite the white wax with my tooth</i>.</div> + <div class='line in2'>Before Jugg, Marode, and Margery,</div> + <div class='line in2'>And my thirde son Henry,</div> + <div class='line in2'><i>For one Bow and Arrow,</i></div> + <div class='line in2'><i>When I come to hunt upon Yarrow</i>.”</div> + <div class='line in26'>[<i>Blount’s Ancient Tenures, Lon. 1679.</i>]</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Sometimes a lord acted once a year as hostler, +“holding the king’s stirrup till he mounted;” others +performed the duties of butler, cup-bearer, carver, +valet, cook, taster, &c.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Sir Hugh Courtenay, in the fourteenth century, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>held lands of the Bishop of Exeter. Some controversy +having arisen respecting the service, it was determined, +A. D. 1308, that when a bishop first came +to take possession of the see, Courtenay or his heirs +should ride to the east gate of the city to meet him; +and at the feast in honor of his installation, carry +the “first mess to the table. In consideration of +which service, [besides the lands,] the said Courtenay +and his heirs shall have, for their fee, four silver +dishes of those carried to the table with the first +mess—two salt cellars, one cup, wherein the bishop +shall drink at that meal—one wine pot, <i>one spoon</i>, +and two basons, wherein the bishop shall then +wash—all which vessels are to be of silver.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>In one old English tenure, by which a right of +sheep-walk was held, the spoon was indispensable. +Every shepherd presented on New Year’s Day an +apple-pie, (the crust of which contained a peck of +flour) and a sweet cake to the lord of the manor, +and carried with him “<i>a wooden spoon</i>.” The bailiff +of the manor provided furmenty in a large dish, +sunk level with the ground, on an open space near +the manor house. Each shepherd was required to +sit down and eat of the dish—taking a spoonfull in +his turn. If any neglected to bring his spoon, he +was required to lay down on the grass and put his +lips into the dish, or forfeit the right of pasture. [<i>See +an account of this ‘Jocular Tenure,’ in Hone’s +Every Day Book</i>, vol. ii. 24.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Another alleged application of spoons is too singular +to be omitted in this enumeration of their uses. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>Every person has read of the ancients collecting +<i>tears</i>, shed by friends of a deceased person, and burying +them in a bottle with the corpse. The custom +is alluded to by the Psalmist: “Put thou my tears +in thy bottle.” (Ps. lvi. 8.) Now, it is very natural +to enquire—In what manner was the fluid collected +and conveyed into lachrymatories? as the little +bronze and glass or earthenware phials were named. +Many of these are extant; all have narrow necks, +but some have in addition a concave mouth or lip, +intended (as has been alleged) to embrace the eye, +and consequently to catch the tears as they gushed +forth. Other antiquarians think the precious drops +were gathered first in narrow <i>spoons</i> and transferred +by them into the phials! Pennant has engraved a +figure of one. It resembles a marrow spoon, (<i>See +Plate VIII.</i>) and from its form was well calculated +for the purpose. Perhaps both modes were in vogue—if +either.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Something odd is forcibly associated with ideas of +the custom. Suppose it were revived—would it not +be a hard matter sometimes to get a moderate spoonfull +of genuine tears? and would it not at all times +be a curious sight to witness their accumulation? +We know not how the ancients acted; whether, +when the friends of the deceased were assembled, +a slave handed round to each a lachrymatory on a +salver, that every mourner might bottle his own tears +as he brewed them—or whether an attendant waited +with a spoon, and, on a signal from a weeper, applied +the instrument to the cheek and neatly caught +<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>the descending pearl. It is very certain no mourner +could use the spoon himself, because he could not +direct it with sufficient celerity and precision to intercept +the limpid stream—he would lose more than +he could secure. The whole subject, although about +tears, is fraught with matter for enticing speculation. +We must leave it, however, lest entering farther upon +it, we should forget or be unwilling to return.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon has greater claims on the gratitude of +mankind than any yet named. Not satisfied with +comforting its owner through life, and assuaging his +pains at death, it used to assist in opening the gates +of heaven to his spirit! Churches were formerly +crowded, like pagan temples, with altars, dedicated +to different saints or demigods, and many are so still. +On the walls were suspended every variety of votive +offerings, exhibiting an assortment of goods not +much unlike those in a modern pawnbroker’s shop. +A vast amount of plate, jewels, table linen and furniture +was accumulated by officiating priests. Spoons +often figure in catalogues of this holy merchandise; +hence they not only fed the bodies of men, but were +believed to contribute to the salvation of their souls. +If there are people now-a-days who doubt the efficacy +of such donations to the church, on their own +heads be the effects of their infidelity. Houses, land, +mines, manors, fish-ponds, and all kinds of real estate, +were given to the church with the same view.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Thomas Caupemanura gave “to God and Saint +Mary of Furness an oxgang of land,” A. D. 1269. +“Radulph de Bethum gave to the Abbey of Furness, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>for the good of his own soul, and his wife Ingrith’s +soul, a saltwork,” &c.—Adam de Asmunderlawe +left funds to provide two pounds of wax for the +church, at the feast of the Purification, for ever. +Margaret de Boyvill, with the consent of her children, +confirmed to the monks of Furness a rent of +eight shillings “for the good of the soul of Robert +her husband.”—[<i>Antiquities of Furness</i>, 1774.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Richard Qwykke, surgeon, by will, dated November +18, 1501, ordered his body to be buried in the +cathedral, before the image of St. Ursula; and bequeathed +(<i>pro salute animæ</i>) “to the altar of St. +James, in the said church, a cloth of diaper; to the +altar of St. Ursula, a plain towel marked with black +silk; to the altar of Jesu and of St. Ursula, to make +either of them an altar-cloth, a fyne shete; to the +gentlemen’s table in the hall, to wash daily therein, +a bason of laton [brass] and an ewer with a rose in +the middle. Item, <i>three sylver spones</i>, an ownce +of broken sylver and three shillings in money, to +make the <i>spones</i> in the fratrie, an <i>honest dosyn</i>:—item, +to our Lady Jeson, a purse of gold and beryl, +and coral stones to be broidered about it, and five +pence in money:—item, six shillings and eight pence +to buy a marbyl stone to lye upon his grave.”—[<i>History +and Antiquities of Rochester, Lon. 1772.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The vessel with a rose in the middle was probably +similar to the brass basins still used in Egypt and +other parts of the East. At the bottom is a cavity, +covered by a rose or strainer. At the beginning +and conclusion of a meal, a person washes his hands +<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>by holding them over it, while a servant pours water +upon them. The liquid instantly disappears beneath +the strainer, and the attendant presents the +purifying apparatus to the next person, who makes +his ablutions without perceiving any of the fluid +used by his predecessor.</p> + +<p class='c006'>According to the Koran, the spoon is not confined +to the earth, but contributes to the joys of the faithful +in heaven. The disciples of the Prophet are to +imbibe nectar, and take electuaries from it there as +they do here:—but it is time to end the chapter; +and if the reader’s anger will not be excited, we will +close it with a malediction.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Every person who handles a pen is indebted to +the spoon—indebted to it for his daily food; and +yet, who among them has ever written a line in its +praise? Shame on ye editors, poets and moralists, +who prate against ingratitude while wiping your +mouths, and superciliously pushing aside the old +servant that feeds you—preaching against that which +you practice in the act of your preaching! How +long has this industrious and unobtrusive contributor +to your health and your comforts been sailing, like +an argosy, from you empty, and returning laden with +treasure! Treasure which you have eagerly seized +and enjoyed, without bestowing a thought on the +bearer! May you, then, have the grace to peruse +these pages with profit, and may your improvement +be made manifest by appreciating other household +slaves to your pleasures, for whom you have never +spoken a good word, nor even thought of the obligations +<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>you owe them. If you do not this much, +may you never eat rice or any other pudding again, +except <i>a la Turke</i>—with your fingers; and when +sore pressed with hunger, pick up single grains with +a Chinaman’s chopsticks!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER V.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Trifling—Publishers’ Rebuke—Habits of Animals and Men—Their +Organization—Man designed for a Mechanic—Arts—Origin +of Spoons—Descended from the Ladle and Caldron—Original +pottage—Defects of Recorded History—Spoons coeval +with Soup—Adam and Animal Food—Artificial Forms—Natural +Utensils—Spoons of Marine Shells—Who first beheld +the Ocean—Primitive Spoon-Handles—Devices common to all +Times—Chowder Parties—Visit to the Sea—The Cockle an +ancient Symbol.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>It is now time to attend to the more serious part +of the subject. When schoolboys have consumed +their allotted hour at noontide in sport, their attention +is required to less diverting studies in-doors; and +we, after wearying grave readers with trifling, must +endeavor to gain their forgiveness by closer attention +to the lesson before us. We confess proceeding +to the remainder with reluctance, and a wish +that it was over; because we regret to part from +those congenial spirits with whom we have hitherto +frolicked. It were unreasonable to hope for their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>company to the end of our task, and presumptuous +to press them to stay, lest entering on the following +chapters should be to them like passing into school +after play. We hope, however, like a veritable truant, +to meet them again ‘as soon as school’s out,’ +and sooner, if the master’s back should be turned.</p> + +<p class='c006'>While closing the last sentence, the bell wires +suddenly lashed the walls of our humble domicil, +making one start like an idler whose back unexpectedly +tastes the pedagogue’s cane. A presentiment +came over us that all was not right; and sure enough, +the postman handed in a note from the publishers, +reminding us that they dealt in sterling works, and +had no intention of vending ephemeral brochures—and +that unless the rest of ‘the copy’ was divested +of such volatile matter as pervaded the pages already +printed, they should not risk any more of their +money in setting up the type, and none of their reputation +in selling the work! As there is no withstanding +these men, the reader will bear in mind, +when the subject becomes remarkably dull, that it is +so in obedience to orders, and whenever a little life +or pleasantry appears, the writer has for a moment +slipped off the shackles so cruelly imposed upon him.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The history of man is more fluctuating than +waves or the wind; its aspect is never the same for +an hour. That of animals is uniform, because they +pursue the even tenor of their way undiverted by +unnatural or visionary speculations; they live, rear +and educate their young, and die, as they ought to +do; hence the annals of a tribe serve for the species +<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>wherever located, and for that species forever. Their +ideas of propriety, (they certainly have such, for a +matronly cat slaps her kitten when it does wrong, +as neatly, and frowns on it as demurely as a lady +correcting her boy—so a monkey pinches the +ear of its baby and grins its rebuke as intelligibly +as ever did M. Picard,) their manners, customs, +vocations, and devices, never vary, except where climate +and peculiar circumstances require slight modifications. +Pursuing the same course through life, +one which experience has established as the best, the +present races enjoy the blessings of existence in a +degree equal to their ancestors, nor will their descendants +partake of them in a greater.</p> + +<p class='c006'>But not so with man. Here, one people riots in +luxury; yonder, groans another with the pangs of +penury. There, science develops new motive forces +to supercede human labor; here, men toil like cattle, +and not even for themselves. This community +is enlightened; the inhabitants of a thousand others +are ignorant almost as the beasts among which they +dwell. In one place, man is a philosopher; in another, +a savage. Yonder, he exists in primeval forests, +clothed with skins, sheltered in huts, and destitute +of the commonest conveniences; here, he +rolls through streets in chariots, his raiment silks +and brocade—he banquets in palaces, taking his +food from plates of porcelain, with forks of silver +and spoons of gold.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The <i>origin</i> of spoons, like that of every primeval +device may be traced to man’s organization. Though +<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>lord of this planet, he is destitute of many physical +endowments conferred on inferior beings; but, in the +superiority of his reasoning powers, he finds a thousand +substitutes for every deprivation; hence, with +a tender, a comparatively feeble, and a naked body, +one unfurnished with defensive or destructive weapons, +he overcomes the largest animals, subdues the +fiercest, overtakes the fleetest, and brings to his feet +both the feathered and finny tribes. Except him, +all things living have natural apparatus or appendages +to seek and seize their food. Such as live in +liquids, or which frequently imbibe them, are equally +provided for every emergency. The leech tribe, and +myriads of insects, extract blood by natural lancets +and cupping implements. Dogs, and the feline race, +lap or scoop up water with their tongues. The elephant +draws it through his trunk, as through the +hose of an engine, while other quadrupeds plunge +their mouths into a stream. Some birds pump it up +as by a sucking syringe, and others hoist it mechanically +in their bills—that is, in spoons attached to +their heads.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing088.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 3</i><br> <br> <i>Roman</i><br> <br> <i>Lith of E. Jones 128 Fulton S<sup>t</sup> N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>There is, then, a marked line of separation between +man and other inhabitants of the earth, in +this—he fabricates for himself artificial tools; they +possess in their bodily organs natural ones. In other +words, he was intended to be, <i>par excellence</i>, a mechanic—an +inventor and maker of machines. Here +we see the arts in their origin and design are of God; +being based on the deficiencies of our natural organs, +and on our capacities for devising substitutes. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>No truth shines so clear on Nature’s page. Without +arts, man could not, as an animal, exist; the +wolf, lion and bear would hunt him as their certain +prey; but if none of these prowled in forests, the +simplest of his wants could not be realized without +implements of some form or other; he could neither +procure water from pits, nor fruit from trees—nothing +beyond the reach of his hands. He could have no +beds to repose on, no clothes to cover nor fire to +warm him. He would be the most loathsome and +helpless of beings. <span class='sc'>The Arts</span> make him what +he is. Essential to animal life, they also form the +ladder by which alone he rises in the scale of intelligence. +They are the foundation of all his greatness; +and while the world endures, those people who +cultivate them the most will be found the most +wealthy, powerful, and intelligent.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Man has no natural appendage for carrying fluids +to his lips. The half-closed hand is at best a leaky +and a poor substitute for a ladle or spoon; consequently +never made for either. With hot liquids, it +is wholly inapplicable. If the Creator, therefore, +designed our species to cook food and feed on warm +fluids, he also designed us to invent ready means of +heating and convenient apparatus from which to receive +them. Let us see how this duty has, in part, +been performed; for the history of the spoon, so far +as it goes, is, as well as that of the caldron, the history +of man.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There are two views in which the origin of the +implement may be considered: 1st, as a convenient +<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>device for taking a mouthful of hot fluids; 2d, its +like employment for cold ones. Though now often +used with food at natural temperatures, the spoon +proper was not invented till victuals were boiled. It +is a genuine descendant of the caldron: but comes +more directly from the ladle. Another member of +the family may here be mentioned—the basin or +bowl—for the spoon is to the latter what the ladle +is to the kettle or pot. The spoon is known in some +countries as the bowl-spoon, and the ladle as the pot-spoon—‘<i><span lang="fr">cuiller +à pot</span></i>.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>These cognate companions are so proverbially +fond of each other’s company that wherever one is, the +others are sure not to be far off. When one is mentioned, +the rest are implied—a fact of material benefit +to us in pursuing the subject. Thus, when +the servant of Elisha put on the great pot, as directed, +‘and poured out the pottage for the young +men to eat,’ we are as certain he furnished each with a +spoon, as if the fact had been particularly detailed. +The order of precedency, then, according to seniority +or birth-right, stands thus: the kettle, the ladle, the +bowl, and the spoon.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Is it asked—When was the first pottage made? +We cannot tell. All similar questions bring antiquarians +and historians to a stand, and for the simple +reason, the annals of the early ages are lost—or +rather, were never written. If we look back three +thousand years—and what are thirty centuries in this +planet’s history?—we find little else than monstrous +fables, puerile legends, and incredible traditions, in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>which scarcely a ray of truth can be perceived. The +early history of man is a blank; that of succeeding +ages, a chaos. The mythologic or legendary lore +of antiquity is of the same character as modern barbarians +give of their ancestors and country, and about +the same reliance may be placed on one as on the +other. All savages are ignorant of their origin as +a people, and on the same subject enlightened nations +are little better informed.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Take what is called ancient history, and what is +it but a few isolated scraps relating to minute portions +of the earth, and, comparatively speaking, extending +back but to yesterday? What men were +doing elsewhere, absolutely nothing is known—there +is not a whisper about them. Unheard of nations +have agitated the surface of this planet, have been +tossed to and fro by political and civil commotions, +and have sunk into the fathomless depths of the past. +Of them, neither we nor all who come after us can +learn anything. In fact, we are wholly ignorant of +the early adventures of our species. Oblivion has +swept away all memorials of the first races of men, +while the arenas of their exploits are, for aught we +know, covered by the ocean.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the first chapters of Genesis are to be taken +in their literal sense, and the first pair of Moses for +the original progenitors of mankind, (<i>i. e.</i> not of a +race only, as some writers suppose,) spoons may be +dated from the epoch of Adam. They are certainly +coeval with soup, and soup with the boiling of liquids. +’Tis true the idea of flesh meats not having +<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>been used in Adam’s time is commonly entertained, +notwithstanding animals were offered in sacrifices, +their skins used as clothes, and the strange fact of +his second son being a breeder of cattle, (strange, +indeed, if vegetable food, only was used); but we +are fully persuaded the old gentleman, at least during +the latter part of his life, ate venison with a +relish equal to Isaac’s, and conveyed pottage to his +mouth with a spoon, in the manner of Esau. Meat +broth was a favorite dish with the patriarchs, and +there is little reason to suppose antediluvian farmers +and keepers of sheep were not as fond of it as +Abraham, Jacob, or Job, or those who in later times +prepared soup for the ‘sons of the prophets.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>The same instinct which leads man to seek food +leads him to cook it; that which induces him to +quench his thirst suggests the means of carrying +fluids to his lips. Every close observer knows that +the primitive contrivances of men were counterparts +of Nature’s. In all he received the first hint from +her, while in many she supplied him with the object +he wanted ready formed, or nearly so, to his hands. +This might have been expected <i>à priori</i>; for, as an +ignorant pupil, placed in her school, it was necessary +that he should have examples to imitate—patterns +to copy. Without these, what could he have done +or known? He might have felt wants, but could +not tell how to remove them. If natural objects +had not, like types, impressed their images on his +mind, and their adaptation to various purposes become +obvious to his senses, a knowledge of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>properties of matter, of the principles of fusing, +forging, modeling and carving it, and the influence +of <i>figure</i> in its modifications, would have been slowly +acquired, if acquired at all. The development of +the intellect depends on external things; without +these the mind would be a receptacle of dark and +shapeless visions—a chaos. If innate ideas existed, +they would have been useless, for they could have +no relation to physical creation unless derived +from it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It would be a curious speculation to inquire what +might have been the forms of the current productions +of our workshops, if the Creator had molded +every object after one figure. Could the human +mind have produced the exquisite goblets and vases +of Greece and Etruria, if beauty in these and endless +other shapes had not been displayed in the +vegetable kingdom? Where would have been the +stately column, the wreathed shaft, Corinthian capital, +and their appendages? And but for mineral +and marine productions, could the primitive savage +have developed the implements upon which his existence +depended—tools, the parents of those on +which the happiness of civilized society rests? We +believe he could no more have invented the bow or +sling than the musket—the spoon than the smokejack.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In utensils adapted for culinary purposes, nature +is lavish of her gifts. Vessels of capacity, from a +mug to a barrel, she supplies in abundance; leaving +man simply to determine the uses to which to put +<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>them. Pitchers, pipkins, ladles, buckets, plates, +&c. of all sizes, are derived from the vegetable +world—from husks of cocoa-nuts, joints of bamboo, +from the calabash and other varieties of the gourd. +In the East Indies, says Dampier, ‘cups, dishes, +ladles, spoons, and in a manner all eating and +drinking vessels, are made from the shell of the +cocoa-nut.’ Marine shells are distinguished by naturalists, +from their resemblance to artificial devices. +One genera is named Patella, from their likeness to +a <i>dish</i>; another is known as the <i>Dippers</i>. Of +species, there is the Haustrum or <i>Bucket</i>, Urceus +the <i>Pitcher</i>, Trocus the <i>Cup</i>, &c. Others are +named after the <i>Razor</i>, <i>Rasp</i>, <i>Lancet</i>, <i>Awl</i>, <i>Bell</i>, +<i>Bodkin</i>, <i>Needle</i>, &c. [<i>See Wood’s Catalogue, +Lon. 1828.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The first spoons were all natural ones. A large +class of prototypes were shells of the limpit, (a univalve) +those of the cockle, muscle, clam, and similar +bivalvular inhabitants of salt and fresh waters. +They are so obviously adapted to convey small +quantities of liquids to the mouth, so numerous and +accessible, so neat and cleanly, that people in all +ages have used them for such purposes. [<i>See Plate +I.</i>] The choicest liquors of the old Picts and Scots +were served in cockle shells; hence, “rejoicing in +the shell,” was a term with them equivalent to modern +expressions respecting the glass. Till recently +Highlanders drank whiskey in the same way, holding +the shell with the thumb on the thick part. Of late +years, natural shells have given place to artificial +<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>ones. [<i>See Scottish Gael, 349.</i>] Pearls were formerly +found in fresh-water muscles of the River +Ban, in Ulster, Ireland. The shells, says an old +gazetteer, “are used by the poor as spoons.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>People now sip tea with a spoon to which the +name of the decoction has been given; but formerly +northern ladies took it from the same kind of vessels +as their lords used for usquebaugh. Scott has an +allusion to the practice in ‘St. Ronan’s Well’—the +old nabob ungallantly describes the ladies as sipping +catlap out of cockle shells.</p> + +<p class='c006'>An interesting question, could it be answered, is +here suggested: Under what circumstances were +shells originally used for artificial purposes? Perhaps +not till the ocean had been seen by human +eyes; but no one has told us where, nor at what +epoch, this took place, nor who the individuals were. +In fact, we are ignorant of the physical condition of +the earth at the time, and of the location of the progenitors +of our race with regard to the sea. Ages +may have elapsed ere the grand terrestrial reservoir +was made known. Who can imagine the feelings +of those who first approached the coast, and their +amazement when they reached it! How intent they +gazed upon the rising and receding waves, and +marvelled at the breakers—at the roaring surf, as it +rushed in foam towards them! But when their +emotions had somewhat subsided, with what rapture +did they bound along the white and glistening shore, +and seize the strangely formed and variously colored +objects! With what volubility did they descant +<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>upon them, and the uses to which to apply them! +And how gladly were these primeval travellers hailed +on returning to their homes, laden with knives, saws, +cups, spoons, and other natural utensils! Immense +treasures must have adorned the virgin borders of +the oceanic basin at the birth of man. Shells of +every shape, and size, and hue, accumulated through +unknown periods, had laid undisturbed until our +species came.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Shells have been incorporated with the arts. +Vessels for a thousand purposes are modeled and +decorated after them. Some are perfect spoons, +including the handles. [<i>See Plate I.</i>] Such are +used where they abound, and of course were much +more in demand in early times. When a muscle, +cockle, or similar shell, was required for scooping +up heated fluids, an artificial handle was necessary, +to avoid scalding the fingers: now, of what material +were the handles, and in what manner were they +attached to the bowls? These questions may appear +unanswerable, but we think we can solve them as +certainly as if we had lived among the first spoon-users: +Man, under the same circumstances, always +adopts the same or similar devices. This is a general—a +universal truth. It is the result of a species +of instinct, invariable in its impulses as in the lower +tribes; and hence, we are sure the original mode +of putting handles to limpit, cockle, and clam shells, +was identical with that now practiced by African +negroes, American Indians, Arabs, Malays, and +mountaineers, viz. by forcing the split-end of a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>short stick over the edge, as represented in the plate. +Shells of the cockle and soft clam thus make capital +spoons, and fastidious indeed must he be who cannot +relish his food from them.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Such contrivances are common to man—made +patent from the beginning, and repeated in every +age and clime. In them the origin of many useful +arts and devices may be traced. They are among +the ‘early lessons,’ the ‘easy problems,’ printed by +nature in her horn-book for mechanics; and simple +as they are, they offer delightful matter for reflection +on the process by which man was led, step by step, +to explore and beneficially employ the wonderful +sources of pleasure and wealth placed at his disposal—in +other words, to accomplish his destiny here.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Civilized parties of pleasure, when thrown upon +their own resources to prepare food on the beach, +or inland, &c. insensibly copy the devices of untutored +children of the forests—making spoons of +shells, forks and flesh-hooks out of pointed sticks, +knives of flint or sharp-edged shells, and handling +hot coals with tongs formed of a couple of twigs. +By placing ourselves in such situations, we can +study our species in times of which no record remains, +and perceive how invention began and progressed. +A sketch of an Indian “chowder party,” +to illustrate more fully the use of shell spoons, was +prepared, but subsequent arrangements required its +exclusion and our lucubrations with it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Perhaps no recreation, for people whose lives are +spent in cities, is so beneficial as occasional fishing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>trips to the sea. The fresh air, the new feelings +which floating on water gives rise to, the excitement +produced by sly fish nibbling, the palpitation consequent +on ravenous bites, and the fluttering at heart +when the biter is fairly hooked, &c. salutarily agitate +both body and mind. The appetite created by the +sea breeze and the exercise—the hoisting of the +anchor and sailing to the shore to cook what is +caught—one preparing the pot; another gathering +fuel; a third, head cook; and a fourth converting +shells into spoons, &c.—is real enjoyment. On +such occasions the blessings of life are felt, uncontaminated +with drawing-room rules and parlor distinctions.</p> + +<p class='c006'>To persons dwelling far inland, a visit once in +their lives to the ocean constitutes an epoch in their +existence, and a never-failing theme of grateful recollection +and discourse. If such do not now wear +scallop shells in their hats as emblems of having had +a glimpse of the wonders of the deep, they retain +vivid impressions of the scene in their heads. The +adventure forms a pleasing reminiscence—its history +a little romance and the gem of fire-side tales.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Much learning has been expended on the cockle +as a badge of pilgrims in the middle ages. Worn +in the hat, it indicated that the wearer had visited +the shores of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. +But it was an emblem of Astarte, the famous Syrian +goddess. Possibly its symbolical application originated +from its primitive use as a spoon, and as such, +carried about the person.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Other natural Spoons—Debris of Animals—Horns—Ancient +uses of them—Horn Spoons—The Earth given to Mechanics—Indian +Spoons—Laplanders—Custom at Highland Christenings—Horners—Proverbs—Ivory—Wood, +and its importance to +Man—Wooden Spoons—Invention scarcely a human attribute—Wooden +Spoons from Africa and Oceanica—American Indian +Spoon.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Another class of natural spoons was, and still is, +derived from the animal kingdom; from <i>horns</i> of +goats, sheep, the bison, buffalo, ox, &c. Animals +are the oldest occupants of this planet, and man the +youngest. Their previous existence through countless +ages was necessary to prepare the earth for his +reception; to impart to it a suitable soil for the +growth of grain and every kind of vegetable food—to +put it into a condition, that when he appeared, he +might become “a tiller of the ground.” Having +done this, unknown multitudes retired forever from +the scene: probably the changed condition of the +earth was no longer fitted for their continuance.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Bones, horns, and other organic debris must have +been exceedingly numerous at the birth of our species. +Scattered on mountains, strewed over prairies +and forests, they were met with every where, for ere +man appeared they lay unmolested till dissolved by +the elements. At first, they would be viewed as +mementos of death—curious relics of beings which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>had careered in life, and had laid down and died. +Strange must have been the remarks made on them, +singular the reflections they suggested. But when +time and familiarity with them overcame a natural +repugnance to handle such relics of mortality, the +properties of buffalo and other horns would become +obvious, and eventually implements and utensils be +formed of them. The ancients had altars built +wholly of horns, and Plutarch (in Theseus) mentions +one formed of “<i>left-sided</i> horns.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Horns were the first trumpets: perhaps the first +musical instruments, of which some are still named +after them, as the French-horn, bugle-horn, &c. +Primeval cups were natural horns. The Greeks, +Romans, Celts, and all the people of antiquity drank +out of such. To ‘take a horn’ was, and still is, an +expression equivalent to quenching the thirst. Tumblers +and other drinking vessels are yet occasionally +called horns. Bows were anciently made of horn, +and archers wore ferules of the same material on their +thumbs. Ink-<i>horns</i> have been used since writing +was practiced, while combs, pins, needles, lanterns, +knife-hafts, and spoons, &c., have been formed of +the substance since such things were invented. As +with other materials, its adaptation for one purpose +quickly suggested its appropriation to another.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Little art was required to cut or carve spoons out +of horn. The substance is soft, and by holding it to +the fire, or immersing it in warm water becomes +more so, and susceptible of being bent into any position +or receiving any impression. From its plastic +<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>properties, it was well calculated for man to practice +on in the beginning of his apprenticeship to the arts. +The lessons he learned by it prepared him to undertake +less pliant materials, as bone, ivory, wood, metals, +&c. Every advantage gained from one acted +as a stimulus to proceed to others. In this way the +useful professions began and progressed till they +became what they are at this day.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Horn spoons are small matters, but their material +was the first animal substance employed in the fabrication +of implements, and they themselves were +among the first things made of it. When it is remembered +that man’s existence and improvement +through all time was to depend on the development +of his character as a mechanic; that this was to be +his distinguishing attribute, one in which he approaches +the nearest to the Creator—for what are +the useful and ornamental arts but sources of physical +and mental refinement, and what the universe +but tangible, beneficent mechanism—it certainly is +not useless to recur to those early lessons which contributed +to form that character.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the earth was given into the charge of one class +of men more than others, it was to intelligent artisans—a +term including farmers—they support all. +Without them no other class could exist, and nature +would resume the phase she wore before our species +came. If our first parents were located, as generally +imagined, at a distance from the sea, horn +spoons were probably in use before those made of +shells. Dispersed over the earth wherever animals +<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>roamed, horns were always at hand, and no doubt +were often used in their natural forms, as exhibited +in <i>Figures 1, 2, 3, Plate I</i>, or with slight alterations. +The <i>Figures</i> marked <i>4</i> and <i>5</i> are American Indian +spoons, in the Philadelphia Museum. They are +made of buffalo horns, but present nothing remarkable. +The first is plain and about seven inches long. +The other is much the same in size; the end of the +handle being the natural termination of the horn, +which was probably that of a cow or calf. The horns +of the buffalo cow are much smaller than those of +the bull. The bowls of both implements are shallow. +Northern Indians have spoons, which hold +several quarts, obtained from the animal named +<i>Gros Corne</i>, or “Big Horn.” In travelling they +scoop up water with them to quench their own thirst +and that of their dogs, which drag their sledges or +carry their packs. Pliny (xi. 37,) mentions barbarians +of the north drinking out of buffalo horns which +contained several gallons, and were probably used +as with our Indians, for buckets, scoops and spoons.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The natives of Nootka Sound prepare a species of +broth by putting flesh of the dolphin in a square +wooden trough containing water. Heated stones +are then thrown in, by means of cleft sticks, till the +meat be sufficiently stewed. They sup the broth +“with a large spoon or scoop, made of horn.” +[<i>Cook’s Voyages.</i>] The Greenlanders boil meat in +wooden dishes of fir wood, and “drink the soup or +eat it with spoons made of horn or wood.” In the +regions of Behring’s Straits flesh is stewed in cylindrical +<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>caldrons, formed of the rind of the birch, the +only tree that withstands the rigor of arctic winters. +The liquid is heated by stones, and the decoction +supped with “large horn spoons.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Laplanders carry a little bag hanging over the +breast. Divided into two compartments, it contains +in one tobacco and a pipe, a tinder-box and a +spoon in the other. Some of the rich possess two +or three pewter dishes and a few silver spoons, but +the general household furniture consists of a brass +or copper kettle, often a stone one, wooden bowls of +birch wood, a basket, “and horn spoons.” Infants +are fed with milk through a small opening made in +the end of a horn. The flesh of the rein-deer is the +principal food, and generally boiled: it is previously +cut into small pieces, which, when eaten, are dipped +into liquid fat and “washed down by a ladleful of +broth taken occasionally during the repast.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>An old account of the Scotch Highlanders states +that when a child was christened, it was put in a +basket along with bread and cheese, and handed +across the fire or suspended on the pot-hook or +trammel! Immediately afterwards a dish of “crowdie” +(a mixture of oatmeal and hot water) was handed +round, and each person present “took three horn +spoonfuls.” This was designed to counteract the +power of evil spirits and witches! The custom of +passing the child over a fire is analogous to one common +in China. When a bride first reaches the residence +of her husband, she is lifted by matrons over +a brazier of charcoal. Horn spoons were considered +<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>in old times as “the meetest instruments to eat furmenty +and porage withall.” [<i>Nichol’s Progresses of +Elizabeth.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The working of horn is one of the old professions +descended to us through the Romans. Pliny enumerates +a variety of uses to which the material was +put in his time; one was inlaid work, for which purpose +it was stained with different colors. It was also, +he says, much used for lanterns, being “cut into +thin plates:” (xi. 37.) In the early acts passed by +the English Parliament for the protection of trades +and handicrafts, ‘horners’ are often mentioned. At +their solicitation the importation of ‘horns for lanthorns’ +was expressly forbidden by an act of Rich. +II. A.D. 1480. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, +speaks of the exportation of horns being prohibited +for the benefit of two insignificant trades—that +of the <i>horner</i> and comb-maker.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing104.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 4</i> <i>Middle Ages</i><br> <br> <i>Lith. of E. Jones 128 Fulton S<sup>t</sup>. N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The antiquity of proverbs goes back to the infancy +of our race. One of the oldest extant, though only +occasionally now met with, may here be mentioned, +as it shows how common horn spoons at one time +were. ‘<i>To make a spoon or spoil a horn</i>’ was an +ancient mode of expressing a determination to accomplish +an object at whatever risk or however +thwarted. The incident on which it is based must +have been constantly occurring in primitive times, +and to some extent it occurs in all times. In attempting +to make a spoon, the horn was often frittered +away by bunglers, until sufficient material was not +left for the smallest object. A farmer selected a log +<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>of timber to make a gate, but he sawed, chopped, +and planed, until what barely sufficed for a rail was +left—hence the saying, ‘To spoil a tree or make a +rail.’ Spaniards have the idea in another form: +they say, in shaping the skirts of a gown, the material +was cut down to a sleeve—cloth for a coat to a cuff. +The Romans took the maxim from a potter, who, +undertaking to make an enormous jar, turned out a +small saucer.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The leisure incident to rural and pastoral life elicited +the art of carving—one of the earliest of human +arts, and what can be said of few, one that has been +practiced in considerable perfection by most savages. +It necessarily developed the peculiar properties of +solid materials, and in so doing, must have originated +many inventions. It is the most prominent mechanical +profession mentioned in the Old Testament, and +was carried to a wonderful extent by people of old. +After horn, <i>bone</i> and <i>ivory</i> were used for personal +ornaments and useful implements in the first ages; +for pins, knives, spoons, and a hundred other matters.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Ivory formed a large item in the commerce of +Tyre. (Ezek. xxvii.) Solomon imported it from India. +We read in both sacred and profane authors +of beds, thrones, and even houses built of it. It +seems to have been as much used for <i>spoons</i> as it is +at this day. Some ancient Egyptian ones will be +shortly noticed. The famous Curule chairs were</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Wrought from those valued tusks Syene lends,</div> + <div class='line'>Which the swart Moor, or swarthier Indian sends</div> + <div class='line'>From Nabath’s forest, where the unwieldly beast</div> + <div class='line'>Drops his huge burden of its weight released.</div> + <div class='line in30'>[<i>Juvenal</i>, xi. <i>Sat.</i>—<i>Badham.</i>]</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>A material difference in the properties of horn and +ivory must quickly have been seen by the patriarchs +of the arts. The former softened by heat, retains +when cold, impressions stamped on it; but the latter +and bone must be carved in detail. Spoons formed +of marine shells are not used by all people, but those +of bone, ivory, or horn, are everywhere met with.</p> + +<p class='c006'>How beneficial to men have the horns, &c., of +quadrupeds been. More durable than the rest of +their bodies, and possessing peculiar properties, they +would seem to have been ordained as a material for +useful manufactures. We forget half the obligations +we owe the lower tribes, when we forget the +numberless uses to which their skins, hair, bones, +&c., are put.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Another substance of primitive spoons was <i>wood</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The earth, as one of Nature’s workshops, is stored +with every kind of stock its occupants can require. +It is the same throughout the Universe; for all physical +beings are artisans, and every orb an <i>atelier</i> in +which they are at work. The proprietor of these +wonderful establishments employs, we may presume, +in each a distinct order of intelligent laborers, and +supplies them with materials adapted to their capacities +and wants. Compared with the magnitude of +others, this globe is one of the Creator’s minor establishments, +and we, in whose charge it is placed, +may be among the least intellectual and skillful of +his artificers. When first man took possession, the +development of his energies, and the direction given +them depended upon the natural productions around +<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>him. These necessarily arrested his attention, excited +his curiosity, and became identified with his +existence, his habits, thoughts and pursuits.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Of terrene substances, none has exercised a greater +influence over human destiny than <i>wood</i>. None +is more indispensable—hence we find it diffused +over all lands. Its consumption is enormously large, +and as an indication that it was designed to be so, +provision is made, in the reproductive powers of +plants and trees, to secure a supply for all generations. +Without wood, man had probably never used +fire, nor known what artificial light and heat meant. +He would have been a troglodyte. The metals had +not been worked: for want of fuel ores had not been +reduced. Wood is the basis of the arts, savage or refined. +It is the key which first unlocked the agricultural +and mineral treasures stored away in the +vaults of this terrestrial factory. No substance is +more extensively used, and few, if any, possess so +rich a variety of qualities, or have been applied to +such a multitude of purposes. Essential in the construction +of the palace as the hut; the primitive +bridge as well as ship or canoe; the great agent of +domestic conveniences to rich and poor; it constitutes +the elaborate furniture of the one and the homeliest +utensil of the other—<i>the spoon</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Unlike those made of vegetable, of horn, or marine +shells, every feature of wooden spoons is brought +out by art. Still they can hardly be deemed a human +<i>invention</i>, since they are but imitations (in another +material) of natural types. Indeed, so far as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>relates to <i>figure</i> man has little claim to originality—it +is not in his power to produce a purely new form—all +that he has done or can do is to copy, modify, +combine and apply those which nature has given. +Every artificial object, no matter how irregular or +uniform its contour, is a proof of this—the stately +column or elaborate capital, an ordinary goblet, a +pipkin, a pyramid, or a spoon.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As regards natural utensils, little mental effort +was required to determine or extend their application. +Their fitness for certain purposes—as shells +for cups, scoops, and spoons; gourds for buckets, +bottles, vases, ladles, caldrons, &c.—was so obvious +that they were adopted at once; and when artificial +ones were introduced, they only so far deviated in +figure and dimensions as change of circumstances +suggested. All our vessels of capacity retain a resemblance +to their originals—art may disguise the +likeness, but cannot obliterate it. Invention in its +strictest sense is applicable only to God—with man +it merely signifies imitation and combination—all +his works are reducible to these, and he can never +exhaust them.</p> + +<p class='c006'>We have no accounts of wooden spoons in very +remote times. History descends not to such things, +and no important fact is recorded with which they +were associated. But what could history have told +us about them which we do not know? We are +sure they bore a general resemblance to those now +made, were applied to the same uses, and fabricated, +chiefly, by the same class of men. Specimens of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>Egyptian and Roman ones are extant, but before referring +to them we shall notice a few produced by +modern barbarians, to serve as samples of those +made by uncivilized man in the first ages. In mechanical +devices, in tools, modes of operating, taste +for, and style of ornament, the untutored child of +nature is ever the same.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figures 6</i> and <i>7</i>, <i>Plate I</i>, are African wooden +spoons. The first is from <i>Tome V.</i> page 188, of +<i>Histoire Générale des Voyages, Hague, 1748</i>. It is +represented along with jewelry, furniture, pots, +knives, &c. made by negroes on the western coast +of Africa.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figures 8</i> and <i>9</i> are from the Fejee Islands, +They are made of a light wood resembling beech, +and are as neatly finished as the ordinary wooden +spoon of civilized countries. The bowls are nearly +circular and 2½ inches over—the handles 6½ and 7 +inches long. Both are ornamented, but <i>Fig. 9</i> the +most. The front and back part of the handle are +stained of a dark brown color—the effect of scorching +the surface by drawing a hot stone or other +smooth body over it. Waving, dotted, and other +lines of a light color are then produced by cutting +through the dark surface—a species of ornament affording +room for great variety of patterns, and skill +in working them out.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 10.</i> Another spoon from the South Sea Islands, +and preserved in the Philadelphia Museum. +The bowl is round; the handle of a peculiar form, +and not inelegant. The ornamental spots, at the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>lower part, are openings cut entirely through—a feature +common in Persian spoons. The entire length +is about six inches.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 11.</i> A very neatly made spoon, deviating +considerably from ours both in the bowl and handle. +The former is oblong, pear-shaped, and 3½ inches in +length; the latter, attached to the smaller end, is an +inch longer. This spoon is of sandal wood. Both +it and <i>Figs. 8</i> and <i>9</i> are from Dr. Chilton’s cabinet, +New-York.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 12.</i> A singular specimen of American Indian +spoons in the Philadelphia Museum. It is of a +dark colored wood, and about eight inches in length. +The handle terminates in a wolf’s head, upon which +stands a human figure with a high cap, in a bent +position, and with the arms raised in front of the +breast, somewhat as in the attitude of prayer. It has +been supposed that the natural form of the root or +branch of which the spoon was made, suggested the +figures. This may have been true; but there is a +beautiful moral in the characters given them, whether +intended or not. The animal, whose head is here +carved, is the universal emblem of hunger. To +‘keep the wolf from the door,’ is to keep famine +from a house. Now, no people on earth are more +familiar with the literal and metaphorical wolf than +the Indians of North America, and none are more +accustomed to invoke the ‘Great Spirit’ for power to +keep them at bay. What device, then, more expressive, +and, of all things in the world, more appropriate +for a <i>spoon</i>, than a man praying for bread on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>the head of a wolf! The idea is in character with +the symbolic imagery of the aborigines, and we +question if a more comprehensive and beautiful one +can be drawn from the works of classical artists.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The few spoons on <i>Plate I.</i> are, of course, mere +specimens. Savages are known to vary their forms, +proportions, and ornaments, as much almost as educated +artists. In some respects they display a tact +and resource which enlightened mechanics would +hardly think of.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Spoons unknown in Polynesia—People of Guinea at Dinner—Spoons +of the Peruvians and Astecs—Caldron and Spoon +indigenous to Northern Climes—Hot Fluids and Ultra Dietists—Warm +Drinks sold in Pompeii—Chinese Opinion—Natural +Aliment of the Esquimaux—A Fuegian eating Fresh Fish—Cooking—Original +Sin—Sacrifices—Athenian Boiling Feast—Anglo-Saxons—Unsavory +Superstitions—Persians—Guatamalian +Kitchen—Tartar Cookery—Laplanders—Greenlanders—Cosmetics +and Domestic Economy in the Polar Regions.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>It should be remarked that, notwithstanding the +preceding specimens of spoons from the South Seas, +there is no question of the implements being in many +parts of Oceanica a modern innovation. In the +Sandwich and other islands of Polynesia they were +unknown till introduced by whalemen or national +<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>navigators. The inhabitants did not use them, because +they had no use for them. They had no idea +of heating liquids, and no vessels (except a small +wooden bowl) in which to heat them. It was the +same with most if not all the people of Australasia. +Their cookery was confined to roasting and baking. +Rutherford says the New Zealanders never drank +any thing hot or warm. Their only vessel for holding +water was the calabash which they never dreamt +of turning to a boiler or skillet.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Some African tribes use the spoon, but many do +not; yet all are acquainted with the process of making +pottage. Villault, speaking of Negroes on the +coast of Guinea, says: <span lang="fr">‘Ils mangent avec beaucoup +de mal propreté. Leurs ongles leur servent de +couteau; et n’ayant ni fourchettes ni cuillers: ils se +lancent avec les doigts chaque morceau dans le +gozier. On les voit porter tous ensemble la main +au plat, et prendre leurs ragouts a poignées.’ [<i>Histoire +Générale, Tome V.</i> 197.]</span> To take up solid +and even semifluid food (as boiled rice) with the +fingers, is of great antiquity. The custom prevails +universally in the Eastern world, except China; but +this is not owing to ignorance of the spoon, either +with Africans or Asiatics. If neither use the implement +in eating rice, it invariably assists them to cook +that great pabulum of life.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Perhaps it may be doubted whether the aborigines +of America had the spoon previous to the arrival of +white people: most of them certainly had. Here, +as in other parts of the earth, wherever the caldron +<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>was known, spoons were in use. The Peruvians +had them of silver and gold; so had the Mexicans. +The Astecs, in their feasts, ablutions, and table furniture, +approached in many respects to Asiatic customs. +They kept meats warm with chafing dishes. +The tables of the wealthy were ornamented with +vases of silver and sometimes of gold; ‘their drinking +cups and <i>spoons</i> were of the same costly materials.’ +Montezuma took no other beverage than +chocolate flavored with vanilla and other spices, so +prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency +of honey, which gradually dissolved in the +mouth. This beverage, if so it could be called, was +served in golden goblets, with spoons of the same +metal, or of tortoise-shell, finely wrought.’ [<i>Prescott’s +Mexico.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>But the less refined people, of both continents +were found in possession of the caldron and spoon. +The brutalized Brazilians boiled victuals in earthen +vessels, and used knives of flint and spoons of wood +and horn. [<i>See Lafitau’s Mœurs des Sauvages, Tome +I.</i> 572, <i>Plate 19</i>, and <i>Tome II.</i> 114.] The Virginia +Indians had clay pipkins of a very superior quality, +and wooden bowls, &c. of their own manufacture. +[<i>Phil. Trans. Abrid. III.</i> 572, and <i>IX.</i> 474.] The +Mandans, a tribe now nearly extinct, still fabricate +earthen caldrons as their ancestors did. They alone, +of those occupying the Missouri valley, are believed +to make them.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The boiler and spoon would seem to be indigenous +and indispensable to northern climes. The +<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>former, made sometimes of a skin, at other times of +wood, and the latter of horn, bone, &c. are used at +this day, as they ever have been since man first took +possession of the arctic regions. A few Indians about +Hudson’s Bay purchase brass kettles at the factories, +but the greater part prepare their food in the +large upright boilers of birch already mentioned. +When animal food is scarce, and it often is so, they +have no resource but to make pottage with a species +of moss that collects on stones. To render it palatable +or nutritive boiling is essential.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The utility of hot fluids is a mooted point, but it +is not our intention to discuss it. If they are not +natural to people in high latitudes, they are to none, +and the caldron and spoon, as vehicles for preparing +and receiving them, must be denounced as injurious +devices. If heated decoctions are violations of nature’s +laws, warm or hot food of every description +must be deemed such, whether taken in sickness or +in health; but who, except the most ultra of dietists, +will believe this—men that not only reject animal +food but every artificial preparation of aliment—who +insist that we should eat only raw fruit and unground +grain, and drink nothing. Of course, mills then +should be abolished as enervating inventions, preventing +people from grinding their own grist with +their natural grinders. On the same principle, +clothing, dwellings, and fire might be dispensed +with; for within the tropics people make little use of +the first, and not much of the second; while the +Terra del Fuegians can endure their severe climate +<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>apparently without the other. Abandon the use of +fire in cooking, and there would be little demand for +fuel even within the temperate zones. Probably +three-fourths of the arts connected with the working +of metals are more or less allied to the dining-room, +kitchen, and toilet.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Nearly every device characteristic of civilization +might with equal propriety be abolished; not trifling +things only, as knives and forks, in place of teeth +and fingers; plates and dishes, for leaves and slabs +of slate; napkins, instead of wiping the mouth with +the hand; but articles of dress, as shoes, that supersede +the thick and more elastic soles which nature +bestows on those who go barefoot; straw, beaver +and other fancy coverings for the head, when +she is ready to furnish gratis matted or felted caps +to all who have no dealings with the hatter.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Beneficial or not, the ancients had shops expressly +fitted up for the sale of hot drinks. Several <i>Thermopolia</i> +have been discovered in Pompeii, with the +urns in which the decoctions were made, and furnished +with metallic heaters and cocks, like our tea +and coffee urns. The Chinese (a pretty good authority +as far as relates to antiquity of customs connected +with domestic life) drink all their beverages +warm. Cold liquids, even pure water, they say, engenders +disease. Ice is employed by them to cool +meats and fruits, but not to refrigerate water. [<i>Chinese +Repos. III.</i> 464.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Animal diet and warm fluids may be dispensed +with in some countries, but not everywhere. It is as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>absurd to suppose that man can in civilized society +live in the manner of the savage, as that he could +in all climates exist on the same food. Under the +influence of science and the division of labor consequent +upon an advanced state of the arts, the physical +as well as the mental constitution is changed, and +a different aliment required to sustain the one as +well as the other. If the Creator designed the arctic +regions of our planet to be inhabited, he designed +man to sustain himself there on animal food, since, +generally speaking, no other is within his reach, and +in some parts absolutely no other. Besides food, +the Esquimaux derive material for clothing, dwellings, +light and fuel from the whale, seal, and a few +land animals. Olaus Magnus, speaking of the wild +people of the north in his time, says, “they dwell in +caves made of the bones and ribs of sea-monsters; +they live without bread, but only on fish and deer.” +Pulse, grain, fruit or roots are not to be had; but if +they were actually produced by the soil the natives +could not live upon them there.</p> + +<p class='c006'>With these people, then, the use of animal food +cannot be wrong, nor the cooking of it a crime. Indeed, +so far as they are concerned the kettle and +spoon may be considered of divine origin; though +like more valuable gifts in more favored climes, these +implements are too often neglected; for the brutalized +men and women of the north frequently feed, +like the bear, on raw flesh; while at the opposite extremity +of the continent, the Fuegian, on catching +a fish, is in the habit of taking it by the gills and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>instantly making a repast on the struggling victim—lowering +the tail into his mouth somewhat like a +Neapolitan swallowing strings of macaroni: thus +literally obeying the injunctions of those reformers +who denounce “every species of cookery as polluting +the food which the God of our natures has provided +for the sustenance of man.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>So far as history goes, people without cooking +have ever been savages, and no refined nations ever +eat their food raw. Individual and partial exceptions +may of course be found. Cato, the censor, seldom +drank anything but water, and often ate dinner +prepared without fire. Epicurus is slandered as a +voluptuary, for his ordinary diet was bread and water, +pulse, milk and cheese. The cynics lived austerely, +water being their beverage, and the ground +their bed. Diogenes, it is well known, lived more +like a brute than a gentleman: his manners too were +allied to those of a Hottentot. But some modern +ascetics leave the most eccentric of the ancients behind, +for they reject not merely flesh meats, but +bread, salt, milk, and even water itself! contending +that juices of fruits and herbs yield fluid sufficient +for the human system; and as animals bake not nor +boil, make neither puddings, porridge nor pies—they +conclude such things are superfluous to us: nay, +some look on cooking as original sin—as the very +crime for which Adam and his consort were driven +out of Eden!—not satisfied with celestial food, it +is said they began to improve (<i>i. e.</i> to spoil) it by +art, and were therefore expelled, that they might +<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>carry their wicked devices elsewhere. Hence the +nature of their punishment, and why so large a portion +was inflicted on Eve; she being the original +transgressor and the greater sinner of the two, just +as all her daughters, in the same respect, have been +since; for where food is spoiled by cooking, it is woman +generally who still commits the crime.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Boiled meats have been common from the earliest +periods which history has noticed, and according +to the scriptures, with divine approbation. Sacrifices +were so frequently boiled that capacious caldrons +were permanently erected near temples for the +purpose. As the virtue of the flesh was extracted +by the soup, spoons must have been in as great demand +at Jewish and heathen festivals as knives, fleshforks, +or any other implement of the table. [<i>See +Ewbank’s Hydraulics</i>, p. 392.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Athenians had an annual boiling-feast, dating +back to the times of Theseus and the fabulous Minotaur. +It was instituted, according to Plutarch, to +commemorate the return of the hero and his companions +from their perilous adventure at Crete, and arose +from the fact of their having made a species of olla-podrida +the moment they got safe ashore—mixing the +remains of their provisions, “and boiling them in one +pot.” Theseus is supposed to have been contemporary +with Gideon, and to have flourished 1350 B. C. +about 1400 years before his ancient biographer.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Anglo-Saxon and contemporary people +chiefly boiled their meat. Large houses had “a +boiling place for small meats and a boiling house +<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>for the great boiler.” One resistless argument that +nature designed men to prepare food by fire is derived +from the fact that some roots, upon which +large portions of mankind live, are positively noxious +if eaten without being cooked—the <i>potato</i> is a sufficient +example. In some parts of the earth water for +drinking requires to be boiled to render it wholesome. +Several ancient people besides the Persians +found this necessary.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Most northern nations have been noticed for a +want of cleanliness, especially in cooking. The further +northward we proceed, the less regard for this +virtue appears. It diminishes with degrees of longitude, +and within the arctic may be said to have +vanished. But it is not confined to one people or +one continent. We shall conclude this chapter with +a few examples of unsavory superstitions, of which +some have direct reference to the ladle and spoon. +Let not the reader who is particular in his tastes +turn sick at the manners of his species, for not many +ages have elapsed since his forefathers became freed +from practices as filthy and foolish as any about to +be noticed.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The polite and effeminate Persian grandee, so +scrupulous in his ablutions and personal purity, takes +up his food with his hands, and dreads to change +his table cover. “On the ground before us,” observes +Mr. Morier, in describing a dinner given to +the British embassy by the governor of Bushire, +“was spread the <i>sofra</i>, a fine chintz cloth, which perfectly +entrenched our legs, and which is used so +<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>long unchanged that the accumulated fragments of +former meals collect into a musty paste and emit no +very savory smell; but the Persians are content, for +they say that changing the sofra brings <i>ill luck</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Irish women were formerly described as very “unmannerly +[unwomanly] in making butter,” because +they held it extremely unlucky to wash their milk-vessels! +But the daughters of St. Patrick were not +alone addicted to this filthy superstition. In some +parts of Scotland the same prejudice to soap and +water exists or did recently exist. It is humorously +referred to in the Cottages of Glenburnie: “‘Don’t +you clean the churn before you put in the cream?’ +asked Mrs. Mason. ‘Na, na,’ returned Mrs. McClarty; +‘that wadna be canny ye ken. Naebody hereabouts +wad clean their kirn for ony consideration. I +never hard o’ sic a thing in a’ my life!’”</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Dirt bodes luck’ is an old Scottish proverb.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the middle ages in Europe, candle-bearers in +large houses were allowed, among other perquisites, +the broken meat which the <i>king</i> or <i>lords</i> spilt on the +floor from their plates! No wonder that kings’ houses +were then littered with straw like modern stables.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Most travellers complain of South American cookery. +Among others, Dunn, in Guatamala, observes, +“The whole of these messes were prepared under a +shed, in a large dirty yard, which served as a kitchen, +and was full of filth of all kinds. The knowledge +of this, with the sight of the servants had no tendency +to quicken our appetites. The <i>spoons</i>, cups, knives, +and forks were of silver.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>Bell, in passing through Tartary, in the suite of +the ‘Russian Embassador to Pekin,’ mentions a hospitable +matron, whose cooking was not quite to his +taste. Entering a tent, the mistress immediately set +to work to make him and his companions some tea. +After placing a large iron kettle over the fire, she +wiped it out with a horse’s tail which hung in one +corner of the tent. Then some water was put in, +coarse bohea tea, and a little salt. When near boiling, +she took a large brass ladle and tossed the tea +till the liquid became quite brown. It was next taken +off the fire and poured into another vessel. The +kettle was now again wiped out with the same implement +as before, and a paste, made of meal and +butter, put in and fried; some cream taken from a +sheep-skin was added. The tea previously made +was poured in, and the whole beat together with the +ladle. After being allowed to cool, it was handed +round in wooden bowls.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Maundeville, who 500 years before, seems to have +passed through Tartary on his way to or from China, +says: “The Tartarienes han gret conscience, and +holden it for a gret synne to casten a knyf in the +fuyr, and for to drawe flessche out of a pot with a +knyf.... Thei eten but littille bred, but zif it be in +the courtes of gretr Lordes. And thei han not in +many places nouther pesen ne benes, ne non other +potages, but the brothe of the flessche. For littille +ete thei ony thing but flessche and the brothe. And +whan thei han eten, thei wypen hire hondes upon +hire skirtes; for thei usen non naperye ne towayelles, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>but zif it be before grete Lordes.... And whan thei +han eten, thei putten hire dissches <i>vnwasschen</i> in to +the pot or cawdroun with remenant of the flessche +and of the brothe, til thei wole eten azen.” [<i>Travels</i>, +<i>cap.</i> xxiii.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The cookery of the Laplanders is generally performed +by men, and in the dirtiest manner possibly. +It is said “the dishes and spoons are seldom washed, +or at most, only by squirting water upon them from +the mouth, and rubbing them with their fingers!” +A favorite dish is made by boiling in a deer’s paunch +a mixture of minced meat, blood, and fat; “but the +fat is previously chewed by the men and boys to +prepare it for mixing more intimately with the other +ingredients!” [<i>Ed. Encyc. Arts. Lapland—Hudson +Bay.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>With the Greenlanders, “the color and odor of +the last dish are left to remove those of a former +one.” When a stranger is present, the woman of +the house takes a piece of meat from the kettle, <i>licks</i> +off the scum and blood, and presents it to him in her +hands. This is considered a mark of respect—to +decline on his part an insult! The inhabitants of +the Marquesas are still more polite: at San Christina +it is considered an act of civility to offer the +food already chewed, to a friend, that he may have +no other trouble than that of swallowing it! Verily, +there is no accounting for tastes. The aboriginal +women of Brazil prepared an intoxicating drink by +masticating manioc, and boiling the substance thus +reduced to a pulp. So the ladies of Otaheite made +<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>a beverage for their lords by chewing yava and spitting +the juice into a bowl, when it was mixed with +cocoa-nut liquor, and left to ferment.</p> + +<p class='c006'>All the inhabitants of the polar regions resemble +each other in their manners and customs. Their +bodies are coated with a varnish of dirt and grease, +the accumulation of years—the color of the surface +beneath being as effectually concealed as in articles +covered with paint or japan. With regard to the +kitchen, Esquimaux dames would seem to bear off +the palm, since they cleanse every culinary utensil, +the caldron as well as the spoon, with their tongues; +continuing the operation as long as a particle of +blubber remains. When Captain Parry bought a +lamp of a matron, the economical owner <i>licked</i> it +quite clean, devouring the soot and oil with which it +was covered, as forming no part of the bargain, and +too precious to be given away.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Antiquarian Value of Ancient Table Furniture—People of +Egypt—Specimens of their Spoons—Humorists—Other Spoons +of Ivory, Bronze and Wood—Salt and Salt-Cellar—Roast +Goose in Egypt—Golden Spoons of the Tabernacle and Temple—Simpula +of Wood, Bronze and Gilt—Reflections.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Having given samples of primitive spoons formed +of shells, horn, and wood, we might proceed to +the introduction of those made of pewter, brass, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>iron, silver and other metals—of which some were +undoubtedly made in ages anterior to those of history; +but all would be sheer conjecture. The fortunes +of the first races of men have not been recorded—much +less the adventures of their spoons. We shall +therefore confine our future observations chiefly to +actual specimens, arranged in chronological order +and beginning with the oldest extant.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It would have been an agreeable task to have +traced a connection in the table utensils of the famous +nations of old—in those exported from Tyre, +and such as were produced in the silversmith shops +of Persepolis or Troy; but no pattern-card of Tyrian +or Sidonian spoonmakers has reached us, nor, any +specimens placed on the sideboards of Priam or Nebuchadnezzar. +The blank might indeed be in a +great measure filled by a few from the neighborhood +of Memphis and Thebes—such as old Egyptian artists +supplied their own and other countries with, +when the useful and ornamental arts flourished in +the Nilotic valley. Such would have given us an +idea of prevailing tastes in the forms and decorations +of the implement. We could at a glance have +compared them with our own, and told in a moment +whether Moses and Joshua, Nehemiah or Ezra—whether +Egyptian gentlemen or Jewish maidens +took pottage with implements fashioned like ours. +How interesting would a sight of such spoons have +been! What would not lovers of antiquity give to behold +them, or for drawings and descriptions of them! +Does the reader enter into the spirit and feelings of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>such philosophers? Does he take pleasure in tracing +the characters of remote people in vestiges of +their arts—ascertaining their domestic manners in +their culinary utensils, and the state of the useful professions +among them in products of their workshops? +Well, spoons made and used by the old inhabitants +of Egypt <i>are</i> in existence! The assortment is limited, +but it might have been less; and small as it is, +we are enabled to produce drawings of ‘a round +dozen.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>What a wonderful people were these children of +Ham! The greatest benefactors of their race the +world ever saw, they seem to have lived only for +posterity—to perpetuate the useful arts—to hand to +their successors their knowledge; and lest future +physiologists should dispute about their persons, they +have come down themselves, and submitted their +bodies to our inspection—not in small numbers, but +in millions! The catacombs have for ages been +quarried like coal mines for fuel, and are yet said to +contain more mummies than Egypt living men. How +surpassing strange is it, then, that we should have +before us spoons used (perhaps) three or four thousand +years since, with the men and women they +nourished—the identical hands that handled them—the +very mouths they entered! What people but one +ever did this much for posterity; and what people +will ever repeat it? Four thousand years hence (or +even one thousand) antiquarians, on referring to our +days and our arts, might as well search the soil for +our souls as our bodies.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>Is the reader anxious to look on spoons made under +the Ptolemies or Pharaohs? Let him exercise +a little patience, and, ere he casts his eyes on the +next illustration, think within himself what can they +be like—of what forms are the bowls—do they resemble +shells—are all of one shapes—how decorated, +if decorated at all? Then the handles—are they flat +like modern ones, round or square, plain or carved? +And of what materials are these relics of ancient +days?</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/image126.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>See! there is half a dozen—each of a different +pattern, and of assorted sizes, too; unless, as is +most likely, the artist who copied them has not +drawn all to the same scale. The originals are in +the British Museum. Do not they, few as they are, +present about as much variety as every species of +modern spoons? But if they do—if these stragglers, +picked up among tombs or ploughed out of the soil, +exhibit such fertility of design, what rich displays of +the article must the shelves of goldsmiths, hardware +<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>and fancy stores in Memphis, Thebes, and On +have afforded!</p> + +<p class='c006'>[As we have unfortunately little or no specific information +respecting the originals of several of our +illustrations, the reader will, we presume, be better +pleased with some reflections than with absolute silence. +It is awkward to introduce specimens without +comment; hence, where descriptive data are not +within reach, we shall occasionally offer such remarks, +serious or otherwise, as the figures themselves +may suggest.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Not two of the bowls in the preceding spoons are +alike; and as for the handles, they are as different +as they well could be. In <i>Fig. 1.</i> the bowl represents +a slightly scolloped shell, supported on the +head of a human figure, which serves as a handle, +and whose feet rest on the capital of a column. The +handle is short compared to the size of the bowl, (a +remark applicable to others,) but it was no doubt +proportioned to the particular purpose for which +such spoons were made. The pattern seems to have +been borrowed from architecture; but there is something +bizarre in making Atlantes bear spoons instead +of entablatures or domes of temples. The Egyptians +were great humorists, and freely indulged in +burlesque. If we could suppose a joke was intended +in the design, the figure might be taken for a +caricature of Atlas or Hercules bearing the celestial +or terrestrial sphere, as an intimation that the spoon +was all the world to gastronomes, its effects a heavy +burden fat men groaned under, and its pleasures +<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>their highest delight. In this respect the figure is +not an inapt representation of some people’s achievements +in life.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In <i>Fig. 2.</i> the handle appears as if turned in a +lathe: where it joins the bowl it assumes the form +of the lotus flower, out of whose leaves the bowl like +a ripe fruit is seen to rise. The shape of the bowl +is precisely like that of ours, viz: a longitudinal segment +of an egg shell.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 3.</i> is of wood, and very unlike a modern one +in shape, unless compared to a marrow spoon. The +bowl resembles the cartouche or royal oval, in which +the names of the kings of Egypt are inscribed in +hieroglyphics on the monuments. It obviously could +only have raised fluid matter from shallow dishes or +plates. The ornaments may be arbitrary, but we +should rather suppose they had an allegorical meaning. +The ibex or gazelle, an animal which supplied +the chief material for broth; and the fish, with sprigs +of parsley or other herbs, in their mouths, as if ready +for the table, were certainly not inappropriate decorations +of an implement employed in transmitting +portions of these victims to the human palate.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 4.</i>—a bronze spoon, and more nearly resembling +the modern one than any of the preceding. +The shank is made to represent the human hand and +arm—a copy of the <i>first</i> spoon handles, when cockle +and muscle shells only were in use. Perhaps there +is an allusion to that custom in this ancient implement; +but the artist did not forget to introduce a +victim of the caldron or spit: he has made the handle +<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>terminate with the head of a goose, a bird in +much repute with the Apician literati of Egypt, and +as such often figured on spoons.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 5.</i> Here we have a spoon representing a fish +swimming into a kettle, as if anxious to be macerated +and served up at table. The material is wood, +and the bowl circular. One part of the fish is made +to turn on a pin near the tail, so as to expose a +small cavity or box in the thick part of the body. +This was probably a sportman’s or traveller’s portable +spoon, and the cavity occupied with salt or other +condiment—a feature of some interest, since it +shows us that ingenuity in such matters dates back +to remote periods. In <i>Plate V.</i> is a spoon with a +concealed toothpick, an instrument more appropriate +to a knife or fork. The Egyptian artist adhered +more closely to propriety in introducing a receptacle +for seasoning, especially in an utensil employed only +with fluid aliments.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 6.</i> is the plainest of the whole, but not devoid +of ornament: the handle, which is long and +stout, having one extremity carved into a horse’s +head, and the other a projecting piece or shoulder +that unites it to the bowl.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Another group, taken from Wilkinson’s ‘<i>Manners +and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians</i>,’ will be +found on the following page.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 1.</i> is of ivory, about four inches long, and +preserved in the Public Museum at Berlin. It was +discovered at Thebes along with a deep stand or +chest containing a number of small jars or bottles—supposed +<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>to have been part of the stock of an apothecary, +or to have belonged to the toilet of a Theban +beauty. The style of the handle of this spoon is +unique, and independent of the carved head, displays +much taste.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/image130.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The implement itself is not unlike some of our +small spoons—possibly it belonged to an ancient salt-cellar. +Salt, it will be remembered, was used at +table in remote antiquity just as it is at this day, +and several superstitions were associated with it. +Omens drawn from spilling it, observes Fosbroke, +are equally antique with its use. The salt-cellar was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>placed on the table with the first dish containing +offerings to the Gods. Its presence was supposed +to sanctify the food, and great importance was attached +to keeping it bright and clean. Fabricius, +the conqueror of Pyrrhus, was distinguished for the +simplicity of his manners: history informs us that a +small salt-cellar, with horn feet, was the only article +of silver in his house.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 2.</i>—of bronze, eight inches long, and with a +flat handle; perhaps the common table-spoon of the +people, occupying the place of the modern iron or +pewter one. The form of the bowl is very like that +of wooden and pewter spoons of the last century. +Here we have the head of the goose again, one of +the favorite, though certainly not most healthy viands +of both priests and people. The occupants of the +temples, says Herodotus, were not obliged to live on +their private means, but each individual had sacred +victuals ready dressed assigned him, and in addition +a daily allowance of beef and <i>goose</i>, (ii. 37.) In the +tombs near the pyramids are representations of dinner +parties, at which the goose figures as a prominent +dish. Other scenes exhibit Egyptian cookery +in detail, where the victim is undergoing the various +operations preparatory to its appearance at table. +The end of the handle of <i>Fig. 2.</i> being curved was +doubtless designed to suspend the spoon over the +edge of a vessel, or over a nail or cord. Several +utensils are seen hanging from lines in an Egyptian +kitchen, portrayed in the tomb of Rameses III. at +Thebes.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span><i>Fig. 3.</i>—another bronze table spoon. The handle +is round and tapered, partly formed in the lathe, +enriched with carving, and having on the whole a +tasteful appearance.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 4.</i>—also of bronze, found at Thebes by Mr. +Burton: smaller than 2 or 3, it was probably a +child’s spoon. It is the plainest of Egyptian spoons +yet found.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 5.</i>—a small wooden spoon, formed like a +spade—a shape so singular that it has been refused +a place at the dining table. It is, however, a genuine +spoon. The Romans used such, (<i>See Plate II.</i>) +and similar formed implements are not uncommon +with the Chinese, as will be noticed in a future page,—a +people among whom many primitive arts and +implements are preserved in their purity.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/image132.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SPOONS.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>In the first two figures above we have another elegant +variety of the spoon. They represent the back +and front of a wooden one. The handle is round, +straight, and short, and handsomely set off with a +wreath, terminating with leaves at the junction with +the bowl. The latter is long and pointed, and seems +<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>well calculated for a pap spoon for infants—a purpose +for which it was probably designed. In comparing +this implement with those which have preceded +it, some readers will be agreeably surprised at +finding so great a diversity of forms in so simple a +thing; but ere they arrive at the end of these pages +the feeling will probably rise into wonder; and yet +the whole of the illustrations embraced in this essay +are but part of what might have been introduced.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 3.</i> resembles one figured on page <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>; but +it is not like that formed of metal, but of ivory—a +circumstance from which we may infer that the +goose and human hand were staple ornaments of +Egyptian spoons, and frequently adopted with every +material of which the latter were made.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/image133.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SHELL AND SPOON.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The relationship between spoons and their natural +originals is exhibited in the above figure. The shell +is an artificial one, of alabaster, and is among the +antiquities preserved in Alnwick Castle. Its dimensions +are those of an ordinary mussel shell or +table spoon. The minikin spoon figured within it +is supposed to have belonged to a lady’s toilet. +Where the handle unites with the bowl it assumes +the form of the favorite lotus.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>No better proof could be adduced of the refined +taste of Pharaonic artists than this copying after +nature; for it is the perfection of skill to follow her +instructions. In the infancy of the arts man runs +from her, preferring puerile conceits and monstrous +figures; but as the mind ripens and the judgment +matures, he returns to the only true teacher and +guide.</p> + +<p class='c006'>We are not aware of any <i>silver</i> or <i>golden</i> spoons +having been disinterred. It is certain the wealthy +classes had such, and as the richest taste and greatest +skill were lavished on them, it is to be regretted +that none have been discovered. The first spoons +mentioned in history were golden ones, made by +Egyptian artists, viz: those furnished for the Tabernacle. +(Exod. xxv. 29.) So were those presented +by the princes of Israel at the dedication of the +sanctuary. (Numb. vii.) Is it said they were fabricated +by Aholihab and Bezaleel, or workmen employed +by them, that is, by Israelites? True, but in +every sense of the word, except as regards religion, +and even that need hardly be excepted, these men +were Egyptians—natives of the land, both they and +their fathers, for many generations. What did the +people whom Moses led out of Egypt know, except +what they learned there? And what had they, but +what they got there? If he himself was learned, it +was with ‘the wisdom of Egypt.’ Neither had they +nor their ancestors any other country. In Egypt they +were born and brought up, and when they entered +Canaan, it was to them a foreign land.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>The Jews always neglected the useful arts. The +splendid mechanics who left Egypt with Moses died, +and all their generation, in the wilderness. With +them the arts were buried, and were never resuscitated +on the other side of Jordan. When Solomon +built the temple he had workmen from Tyre; it +was a Phenician founder who made the bronze and +golden bowls, basins, snuffers, spoons, &c. required. +(1. Kings vii.—2. Kings xxv.) Both spoons and ladles, +or simpula, were extensively used in Pagan +worship. A few of those of ancient Egypt are +figured below.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/image135.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>EGYPTIAN LADLES OR SIMPULA.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Simpula have been found of great variety of forms +and materials. Those of bronze were frequently +<i>gilt</i>, which made them richer in ornament, and prevented +wine or acids retained in them from being +contaminated with solutions of copper. They were +used chiefly for dipping fluids from amphoræ or jars. +The two upper ones in the cut are of bronze, in the +Berlin Museum. The first has a <i>folding joint</i> in +the middle of the handle; and the next one has its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>handle lengthened or shortened (according to the +depth of the vessel) by one part sliding behind the +other. <i>Fig. 3</i> represents an extremely small wooden +ladle; the fixed part of the handle being only five +inches in length, and the sliding rod which rises and +falls in a groove extending down the centre, about +the thickness of a darning needle. The last (<i>Fig. 4</i>) +in Mr. Wilkinson’s possession, is eighteen inches +long, the bowl three inches deep and nearly the same, +in diameter. It is of bronze and has been gilt.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In taking leave of Egyptian spoons figured in this +chapter, one can hardly avoid thinking of the persons +they belonged to, of the families of their owners, +the mouths they fed, the food they assisted to cook +and serve up, of the scenes of festivity, of sickness +and sorrow, of high life and low life, in which they +took a part; of the workmen who made them, the +merchants who sold them, and the many strange +conversations held in their presence! In their forms +we have the turns of thought of old artists; nay, +casts of the very thoughts themselves; such as inspired +the cunning artists, companions of Bezaleel +or of Hiram, and like them, skilful to devise curious +works in gold and silver, brass and iron, ivory and +pearl. We fancy we can almost see a Theban +spoonmaker’s face brighten up as the image of a new +pattern crossed his mind; behold him sketch it on +papyrus, and watch every movement of his chisel or +graver as he gradually embodied the thought, and +published it in one of the forms portrayed on these +pages—securing an accession of customers and a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>corresponding reward in an increase of profits. We +take it for granted that piratical artisans were not +permitted to pounce on every popular invention +which the wit of another brought forth. Had there +been no checks to unprincipled usurpers of other +men’s productions, the energies of inventors would +have been paralyzed and the arts could hardly have +attained the perfection they did among some of the +famous people of old.</p> + +<p class='c006'>What a transient, ephemeral being is man! How +short is his life compared even to that of a spoon! +Notwithstanding his pride and his power, the grasp +of his intellect, the noise he makes in the world, +and the lasting wonders he works, he is himself a +bubble—no sooner inflated than burst! The meanest +of his labors survive, while he vanishes as vapor. +Probably not less than one hundred generations, including +some of the mightiest spirits of Egypt, have +passed away since the implements delineated above +were made! Strange that a thing should endure +longer than the head which conceived and the hands +that formed it; that a pot should live longer than a +potter. Here have we the identical spoons which, +twenty or thirty centuries ago, men, women, and +children handled at dinner!—individuals perhaps +contemporary with those who encamped with Moses +at Elim, or fought under Joshua at Jericho; or, it +may be, such as were acquainted with Plato or Solon, +with Helen and Herodotus, when these Grecian +wanderers were in the land of Mizraim.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Roman Spoons—Useful Arts in Athens, Sparta and Rome—Mamurius +the Brazier—Downfall of the Romans—Military +and Mechanical Professions—Discovery of Herculaneum—Silver +Spoons—Pompeii Disinterred—Kitchen Utensils and Spoons of +Silver, Brass, Wood and Ivory found—Reflections on Pompeii—Street +of the Silversmiths—Few Ancient Spoons described in +Print—Antique Plate—Description of Plates II and III—Latin +Name of the Spoon—Shell Spoons and Garum Sauce—Mercury +Spoon—Soldiers’ Iron Spoons—Specimens from Piranesi—Simpula—Indian +Ladles, &c.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Having noticed a few spoons made under the +Ptolemies or Pharaohs, let us next refer to some fabricated +in Rome or its provincial towns, under the Cæsars. +We have no particular specimens from ancient +Greece to lay before the reader, but the deficiency +is not material, since a manifest conformity +prevailed in the social economy of the Greeks and +Romans.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The ancients generally paid little respect to mechanical +professions; where one people fostered +them a hundred treated them with contempt. This +was the case even in Greece; the Lacedemonians +and others despised, the Athenians alone respected +them. Lycurgus forbade his countrymen to become +artisans, but Solon made a law that no son should +be compelled to support a destitute parent, if the latter +had neglected to teach him a trade. The Athenian +<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>lawgiver rendered the useful professions honorable; +the goddess of the arts was adopted as the +protectress of the city, and a distaff and spindle +placed in her hands. Every school boy knows how +much more the world is indebted to Athens than to +Sparta. It is the same now—the most enlightened +people are those who cultivate the arts most, and the +weakest and rudest such as neglect them. There +can be no science where there are no arts, and for +the future there can be no national power but in proportion +as they are cultivated. The age of the +sword and brute force is passing away; that of the +arts and intellectual power beginning to dawn.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the infancy of their career the Romans promoted +the useful professions. Numa, their second king, +was incomparably the best they ever had. A philosopher, +he preferred peace to war, and set himself +to tame the ferocity of the people, by infusing into +them a taste for agriculture and the arts; to induce +them to rely on the fruits of honest industry rather +than on the plunder of their neighbors. The people, +says Plutarch, were divided into classes or corporations, +according to their trades. Those of each profession +had their respective halls, &c. a practice +derived from the East. He mentions goldsmiths, +dyers, tanners, coppersmiths, &c. Publicola also +fostered domestic manufactures by exempting artificers +from tribute.</p> + +<p class='c006'>That workers in metals were expert in Numa’s +time is evident from the story of the buckler reported +to have fallen from heaven, and the eleven copies +<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>of it made by Mamurius. But mechanics in those +days were not the ignorant and sordid beings their +enemies have generally represented them. Pliny, +deploring the deteriorated workmanship of his time, +observes, that every man labored only for money; +whereas, in the days of our forefathers, says he, they +worked for <i>fame</i>. The celebrated brazier just named +asked no other reward for making the sacred shields, +than to have his name mentioned in the hymns sung +during the feasts of the Ancylia. Plutarch intimates +that an ode was chanted to his memory by the Salians +along with the Pyrrhic dance.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Twenty centuries have elapsed since the Romans +were in the height of their power. As a nation war +was their profession, and pillage their wealth; they +rose by the sword and by it they fell—a righteous +Providence having meted to them the measure they +meted to others. History is full of recitals of their +conquests, of the victims they slew, and the terror +their armies spread among nations, the triumphs accorded +to their generals, with kings and spoils of kingdoms +dragged in their trains; but not a page is devoted +to those arts and professions which contribute +to the permanent happiness of men. The world +yet resounds with their feats of arms; but of the +more useful and honest occupations of the <i>people</i>, +all writers are silent. Of the click of the hammer, +speed of the shuttle, creaking of the file, buzzing of +lathes, roaring of bellows, of manufacturing machinery +driven by men, horses, water or wind, Tacitus and +Livy, Sallust and Suetonius have nothing to say. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>Ancient annals may be said to give no more idea of +the manners and customs, social habits and general +employments of the people, than descriptions of modern +battles do of the nations to whom the contending +idiots belong. What Olaus Magnus said of the +Goths was true of all nations, and is still true of too +many: “They supposed all other arts nothing, when +compared with military arts.” The world is yet +crowded with Goths.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Although the Romans formed the last link in the +chain of nations, which connects us with the people +of remote times, and as such should be somewhat +familiar to us, yet so long and dark a night of turbulence +and barbarism set in on their fall, that the +knowledge of their arts and manufactures has in +a great measure been lost. From the number of +their colonies, a few products of their workshops +have occasionally been picked up in various parts of +Europe; but with all the collections and labors of +antiquarians, comparatively little is known of the extent, +and less of the processes, of mechanical manipulations +among the classical ancients.</p> + +<p class='c006'>A very trivial circumstance occurred in the beginning +of the last century (in 1711) which led to a discovery +unexampled in the annals of our globe—one +which reflected more light on ancient private life and +on some branches of the useful arts than any thing +else:—An Italian peasant, digging a well near his +cottage, found some fragments of colored marble. +These attracting attention, led to further excavation, +when a statue of Hercules was disinterred, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>shortly afterwards a mutilated one of Cleopatra. +These were found at a considerable depth below the +surface, and in a place which subsequently proved +to be a temple situated in the centre of the ancient +city of Herculaneum. This city was overwhelmed +with ashes and lava, during an eruption of Vesuvius, +A. D. 79, being the same in which the elder Pliny +perished. Herculaneum therefore had been buried +1630 years! and while every memorial of it was lost, +and even the site unknown, it was thus suddenly, +by a resurrection, then unparalleled, brought again +to light; and streets, temples, houses, statues, paintings, +jewelry, professional implements, kitchen utensils, +and other articles connected with ancient domestic +life, were to be seen arranged, as when their +owners were actively moving among them.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There are some interesting letters in the early volumes +of the Philosophical Transactions, from which +it appears that slow progress was made in excavation +at Herculaneum for several years. One from +Mr. William Hamilton, dated Naples, March 1731, +runs thus;—“At <i>Resina</i>, about four miles from Naples, +under the mountain, within half a mile of the +sea-side, there is a <i>well</i> in a poor man’s yard; down +which about thirty yards there is a hole which +some people have the curiosity to creep into, +and may afterwards creep a good way under ground; +and with lights find foundations of houses and streets, +which, by some, it is said, was in the time of the Romans, +a city called <i>Aretina</i>, others say Port Hercules, +where the Romans usually embarked for Africa. I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>have seen the well, which is deep, and a good depth +of water at the bottom that I never cared to venture +down.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Signor C. Paderni writes from Rome in November, +1739, to Allan Ramsay, that the king of Naples +had appointed an artist to take charge of the articles +found. Of these there were thirty or forty paintings, +a chariot and horses in brass, several statues +and basso-relievos, eight rings, containing engraved +cornelians, a golden bracelet, a large brazen dish, +&c. “They enter the place by a pit, like a well, to +the depth of 88 Neapolitan palms, and then dig their +way under the bituminous matter.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>M. Geo. Knapton says, the ancient city of Herculaneum +is now under a town called Portici, a quarter +of a mile from the sea, at the foot of Vesuvius, +and has no other road to it but that of the <i>town +well</i>, [the same begun by the peasant in 1711] which +is none of the most agreeable, being in parts very +straight, in others wide, and cut in a most rude manner. +Towards the bottom, where you go into the +city, it is very broad, which they have made so to +turn the columns which were brought up.... The +entrance is 82 feet from the top of the well.... It +is difficult for the first person let down to get in, but +when once landed at the opening, “he pulled us in +by the legs as we came down.” This writer does +not mention how far above the bottom of the well +the opening into the city was, but the depth of water +was considerable, for on account of it, excavations +were not made to the foundations of the buildings.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>Mr. Crispe, writing from Rome in April, 1740, +after mentioning paintings, houses, statues, busts, +&c. observes: They have found several antique +rings, with cameos and intaglios set in them, a case +of surgical instruments, a triumphal car of bronze, +vessels full of rice, mouse traps, several kitchen utensils, +a fork, and a <i>silver spoon, made in the handle +like a modern one</i>, and the bowl pointed like an olive +leaf. [<i>See Phil. Trans. Vols.</i> xli. xliv. xlix.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Excavations were continued for several years, and +vast treasures found, with which several museums +have become enriched, besides those of Italy. As it +would have been an immense undertaking to raise +through the well all the materials displaced, the plan +was adopted of filling up old excavations with the +rubbish of fresh ones, and thus no series of buildings +or streets are to be seen. The theatre only is +open, and it is very imperfectly viewed by torch +light, at so great a depth below the surface.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In 1755, another city, overwhelmed at the same +time with Herculaneum, was discovered. This was +Pompeii, the very name of which had been almost +forgotten. As it lay at a greater distance from Vesuvius +than Herculaneum, the stream of lava never +reached it. It was inhumed by showers of ashes, +pumice and stones, which formed a bed of variable +depth from twelve to twenty feet, and easily removed; +whereas the former city was entombed in ashes and +lava to the depth of from seventy to a hundred feet. +With the exception of the upper stories of the houses, +which were either consumed by red hot stones +<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>ejected from the volcano, or crushed by the weight +of the matter collected on their roofs, we behold in +Pompeii a nourishing city nearly in the same state +in which it existed eighteen centuries ago! The +buildings unaltered by newer fashions; the paintings +undimmed by the leaden touch of time; household +furniture left in the confusion of use; articles +even of intrinsic value abandoned in the hurry of +escape, yet safe from the robber, or scattered about +as they fell from the trembling hand which could +not stop or pause to pick them up.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The work of disinterment has been prosecuted to +the present time, and every year adds to the treasures +of the Portician Museum. Cooking utensils +and kitchen furniture in great abundance, found in +both cities, are very similar to our own, but generally +of more durable materials and better finish; sauce-pans +being lined with silver instead of a thin coating +of tin; colanders, strainers, fish-slices, water-pails, of +brass, and elaborately finished. Some sauce-pans +have been found wholly of silver. Fire grates like +ours were not used, but large braziers placed in the +middle of the kitchen; and ranges of small furnaces, +of brick-work raised breast high, in which charcoal +was used; identical with those often seen in the +kitchens of the wealthy, and which have been almost +universal in Europe to the present century; fixed +and portable ovens, oil-flasks, bottles and glasses of +every variety, glazed plates of earthenware packed +in straw, cups and saucers of silver, like those now +used for tea, gridirons, frying-pans, dripping-pans, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>molds for pastry, caldrons, graters, mortars, knives, +and <span class='fss'>SPOONS</span> of <i>bronze</i>, <i>ivory</i> and <i>silver</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Here is a female’s toilet, essences, tortoise-shell +combs, bracelets, mirrors, needles, a box of pins, ear +and finger-rings, broaches, &c. as she left them, perhaps +to visit the theatre, whence, with hundreds more, +she never returned. (It was an opinion of the ancients +that the inhabitants were surprised by the volcanic +storm while in the theatre.) Few of the antiquities +possess so melancholy an interest as those +relating to children. It is obvious from Pliny’s letters +to Tacitus, and from the nature of the catastrophe, +that numbers of these innocents perished; trod +down by distracted crowds rushing out of the city, +and seeking to fly from the supernatural darkness +that enveloped it; killed by showers of falling stones, +from which some few grown people fortunately protected +themselves by tying pillows on their heads; +suffocated by an atmosphere of ashes and cinders; +their shrieks after their parents, as well as their mothers’ +cries after them, were gradually stifled with +noxious vapors and dust. <i>Toys</i> have been found in +some houses—the domicils, we may suppose, of +benevolent couples, who, like Plutarch and his +wife, were delighted in beholding their young offspring +play and chatter ‘with babies and dolls.’ +These, only relics of their romping little owners, +thrown down in alarm when the terrors of the calamity +entered each dwelling, have been picked up +where they were left. The Pompeians moreover had +not only toys to please their children, but pictures +<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>and stories to frighten them, similar to such as have +reached us through the middle ages. There is a +dark looking personage roughly drawn with black +paint on a wall; he has horns, cloven feet, and altogether +resembles modern portraits of the wicked +one.</p> + +<p class='c006'>A solitary wanderer in the avenues and alleys of +Pompeii might almost anticipate the feelings of the +“last man.” It is awful to walk alone through a +city in which no human being has moved for so many +centuries; through dwellings fitted up with every +convenience for large and small families, for rich and +poor ones; through streets deeply rutted with carriage +wheels, and on side-walks worn by foot passengers; +to read the names of tradespeople on the +doorposts and observe articles on counters; enter +palaces of patricians and apartments of plebeians, +the studios of sculptors and painters; and find every +where household goods, utensils and tools, arranged +as if their owners had just stepped out, and might +be expected every moment to return.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In one house we find the chief rooms decorated +with exquisite paintings and statuary; sleeping +apartments appropriately adorned, and the kitchen +furnished with every requisite; loaves of bread in +one oven, a pie in another, flour in the kneading-trough, +pickles and sauces in jars and glass bottles, +oil in flasks, wine in amphoræ, and wine-glasses in +abundance; here a pail half full of water, there a +row of small furnaces with charcoal in them ready +for kindling: a caldron close by, a sauce pan, a frying +<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>pan for eggs, a knife, a silver bowl, several ladles and +a spoon;—all laying as if the cook, about to prepare dinner, +had stept into the adjoining garden for +esculent roots or pot herbs. It is almost impossible +to look on, think on or handle such things, without +being startled by the least noise, turning round and +imagining the owner rushing into his dwelling and +demanding the cause of one’s intrusion.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In 1826 were found in an arched cellar the skeletons +of two or more persons who had taken refuge +there, carrying with them four gold rings, a pair of +ear-rings, many coins of gold and silver, and <i>four +silver spoons</i>. Subsequently we, find enumerated +vases, basins with handles formed of the wings of +swans, pateræ, bells, inkstands, locks, an oval caldron, +hundreds of common glass bottles, besides decanters, +fluted tumblers and cups of green glass. In +another place were found an oval ball, a pair of golden +ear-rings, together with a <i>silver ladle</i> or <i>spoon</i>.—[<i>Gell’s +Pompeiana, I.</i> pp. 6, 41–2.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The handsomest avenue yet discovered in Pompeii +is known as the ‘street of the silversmiths,’ a designation +given it from quantities of plate found in +the shops. The practice was universal of old for +mechanics of one profession to locate together, and +it is still kept up throughout the east. It would +have been better to have named the street after ‘the +goldsmiths,’ for under this designation workmen in +the precious metals have always been included. +They are so in old French and English statutes +and in the Scriptures. ‘The goldsmith spreadeth +<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.’ [<i>Isaiah.</i>] +‘They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver +in the balance, and hire a goldsmith’ [<i>Ibid.</i>]—literally +exemplified daily in Cairo and other oriental +cities. That this class of artisans were influential +and wealthy in Pompeii may be inferred from a notice +of a gladiatorial show, got up at their cost, in +honor of ‘Caius Cuspius Pansa, the Ædile.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>We believe few silver and other spoons found in +Herculaneum and Pompeii have been described in +print. Gell complains bitterly in his preface and +appendix of the difficulties thrown in the way of +foreign artists, and the unworthy policy of prohibiting +sketches to be taken of antiquities found. They +have yet to learn at Naples, he observes, that the +only use or glory in the possession of these things +consists in the promulgation of them to the world. +The examination of antique works in metal by practical +men can alone determine the modes of their +manufacture. For want of this, the question whether +sheet iron, copper, &c. was laminated by <i>rollers</i> is +not determined, nor whether dies were used in producing +ornamented hollow-ware; besides other questions +of interest.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Allusions in classic authors to table furniture, and +specimens extant, are calculated to impress us with +high ideas of the skill of Roman gold and silver +smiths. Besides models furnished by Etrurian, Grecian +and oriental workmen, luxury and a general +taste in the patricians for objects of <i>virtu</i> tended +to foster these professions. The younger Pliny +<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>speaks of the frugal repasts of Spurinna being +served ‘in antique plate of pure silver,’ which he preferred +to a more fashionable and ‘complete service of +Corinthian metal’ in his possession. (The composition +of this alloy is wholly unknown. It was esteemed +vastly more precious than gold.) That +spoons were elaborately wrought, so as to keep pace +with more splendid appendages of the beaufet, there +is no doubt; but few, if any such, are extant. Perhaps +the best of those to which we are about to refer +were in no respect superior to silver ones in ordinary +use.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Description of Plate II.</span>—<i>Figures 1, 2, 3</i>, are +Roman <i>pateræ</i>, or rather scoops. They clearly +show how the classical ancients preserved the form +of shells in utensils allied to the ladle and spoon. +But the marine origin of the latter was preserved +by the Romans in its <i>name</i>, for <i>cochleare</i>, a spoon, +is derived from <i>cochlea</i>, a shell or cockle.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 4</i>—an antique spoon fashioned after a peculiar +shell, and having a row of minute dots or openings +as a border—perhaps in imitation of those in the +haliotis and kindred productions of the deep. The +short handle is modeled after the tail of a fish, and +the interior of the bowl ornamented with a figure +of a dolphin swimming in his native fluid—an indication +perhaps that the implement was used at table +with fish; for the ancients were often exceedingly +happy in rendering their ornamental devices appropriate. +This spoon could only have been employed +for removing fluids from shallow dishes or saucers. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>It was probably an olive spoon, or belonged to the +small dish or cup containing anchovy or the famous +<i>garum</i> sauce, both used at Roman tables, and the +latter one for the manufacture of which Pompeii was +celebrated. It was, says Pliny, (B. xxxi. 7, 8) the +most exquisite and dainty of all condiments, “so +costly and so much in request that every two congii +thereof might not be bought under the price of 1000 +sesterces,” [about five dollars a quart.]</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 5</i>—another Roman spoon with a handle +little longer than the bowl, but one displaying much +taste. It is unique of its kind, and equals any other +in elegance we have seen. The bowl is perfectly +modern in its outline. Montfaucon is remarkably +barren on this and <i>Fig. 4</i>: three words, ‘found +at Autun,’ comprehend all he says. Hence we +know neither their dimensions nor materials, nor +how they were made. From the general appearance +of <i>Fig. 4</i>, one might suppose it was struck up in a +die from sheet metal.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 6</i>—a very elaborate silver spoon—the bowl +pointed like a French one, and the turned handle +not unlike such as formerly prevailed in Europe. +The notch or bend near the bowl is a common feature +in Roman spoons—supposed to have been designed +to rest the implement against the edge of the +dish. The ornaments in the bowl are mythological. +Mercury, seated on a rock, holds in his right hand a +purse, and in his left the caduceus. His winged hat +lays at his feet, and before him stands a cock, a goat, +and a tortoise—animals often represented on temples +<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>and monuments dedicated to him. The whole +of this spoon must have been cast unless the bowl +and the figures on it were chased or stamped. The +handle is short but strong, increasing in substance +as it approaches the bowl. Chinese spoons were +noticed by Van Braam as having very short handles. +From the great beauty of ancient medallions, we +may be sure articles of plate, if ornamented with the +die, were sometimes equally well finished.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 7</i> to <i>12</i>, inclusive, are from the second volume +of Montfaucon’s antiquities: 7 and 8, spoons +four inches long, and hence about the size of modern +mustard spoons; their handles plain and tapered +to a point; their section a square. Their material +is not mentioned; but in the second volume of his +supplement the learned father has figured three similar +spoons which he says were of silver, and used, +as he supposed, for taking incense out of vases. +In <span lang="fr">Recueil d’Antiquities Egyptiennes, Etrusces, &c. +Paris, 1752, p. 325,</span> a similar spoon is described. +It was of <i>silver</i>, and between six and seven inches +in length. <i>Fig. 9</i>—a utensil more like a shovel +than a spoon, and from that circumstance conjectured +by Montfaucon to have been employed in putting +incense on the altar. He does not seem to have +known that spoons of this shape have been used in +the east from remote times. Modern salt and mustard +spoons of the same form are quite common. +In <i>Fig. 8</i> the handle is attached to the smaller +end of the bowl—a very common feature in ancient +spoons.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span><i>Figs. 10, 11, 12</i>—ordinary household spoons. +The handles are all square or nearly so, and the tip +of No. 11 is molded into a minute spoon, perhaps +designed to extract marrow from bones—a good +idea and one worthy the attention of modern manufacturers. +Of what substance these spoons were +made we are not informed. <i>Fig. 13</i>—an iron one +from the first volume of the Antiquarian Repertory, +Lon. 1775. It was found with other antiques in +Gloucestershire, Eng. and is perhaps the same kind +as used by Roman soldiers. The long pointed +handles, Grose thinks, were designed to open shellfish +and doubtless for several other purposes. Stuck +in the wall, or side of a tent, they answered for nails +or pins, on which the inmates hung their armor or +arms, and when required at meals performed the part +of our forks in toasting or handling hot morsels.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 14</i>—from Stukely’s Stonehenge, and supposed +to have been used for measuring small quantities +of liquids—perhaps the cyath, which held the +contents of an ounce vial. As a vehicle from which +to take medicine, as well as to determine the quantity, +the spoon was as much used by the ancients as +by us. For both purposes it is repeatedly mentioned. +To remove pains in the abdomen, Pliny says, +“two spoonfuls of plantain, and of poppie one spoonful, +mixed with four cyaths of wine,” and taken night +and morning, is an effectual remedy. [B. xxvi. 8. +<i>Holland’s Trans.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The figures in this and the following plates being +derived from different sources, and the articles +<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>themselves having been discovered at various times +and portrayed on every scale, it is impossible to present +them properly proportioned. Generally speaking, +the <i>form</i> is all for which we must be held responsible.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Description of Plate III.</span>—<i>Fig. 1</i>—a silver table +spoon ‘found at Autun.’ The bowl is almost a +fac simile of <i>No. 6</i> in <i>Plate II</i>, both in form and decorations. The handle is peculiar, consisting +of two separate bars, suggesting an idea that the +smaller and lower was intended to stiffen the upper +one. Both terminate in a neat button or cap. This +implement we may suppose, was named a ‘Mercury +spoon.’ If it did not belong to some temple of +that god, it would seem as if a variety with staple +ornaments and designs were kept on hand by manufacturers, +so that every purchaser could select his +spoons (and other utensils) decorated with the established +emblems of his patron saint or deity. If +such was the practice—and there is much in history +to confirm it—it must have been a great source of +profit to gold and silver smiths, and may serve to account +for that amazing variety of design and decorations +which characterized their works. A similar +custom was continued down to mediæval times, as +will be seen in our notice of ‘Apostle spoons.’</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 2</i> to <i>7</i> are from Piranesi’s great work, the +‘Antiquities of the Kingdom of Naples,’ Paris, 1804. +The first three are beautiful specimens. The handles +of two are elegantly turned, and in quite a modern +style of ornament. They present the remarkable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>bend near the bowl, before alluded to; the metal +is there made deeper than at any other place, +thus imparting strength where it is required. Plain +and modern in the bowls, they might be almost taken +as products of a living silversmith. It is not improbable +that handles formed like these will again be +in fashion. <i>Fig. 5</i> more resembles a patera than a +spoon, and one like it is figured by Montfaucon; but +it is impossible to determine in all cases where the +one ends and the other begins. It is more like a +spoon than some utensils acknowledged to be such. +The general form is pleasing. The handle terminates +in a ram’s head. <i>Figs. 6</i> and <i>7</i>—small bronze +spoons for unguents. They are the only ones figured +in the last French edition of the Antiquities of Herculaneum, +in eight volumes octavo.</p> + +<p class='c006'>We have occupied the remainder of the plate +with a collection of ancient ladles, spoons, &c. from +various authorities, principally Piranesi and Montfaucon. +The originals were chiefly bronze. Nothing +is said respecting them, so that the forms only +are left to remark on. Those with perpendicular +handles were generally used to draw wine from amphoræ. +Some of the smallest were liquid measures, +&c. One with a cylindrical bowl or cup, marked 18, +is identical with those used by our milk men, and +with Egyptian simpula on page <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>. Those numbered +<i>13</i>, <i>14</i>, <i>15</i>, and perhaps <i>16</i> and <i>17</i>, are mere +variations of the spoon. <i>Fig. 8</i>—a rich ladle, while +9 is nearly a literal copy of a modern cream spoon. +<i>Figs. 10, 11, 12</i>—other varieties; <i>19</i> is remarkable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>for the turn of the handle, and <i>20</i> has so clumsy +an appearance as to suggest the idea of its having +been carved out of wood by an ancient Calabrian +peasant. We know the ancients had simpula of +earthen ware, and also of wood as well as of metal.</p> + +<p class='c006'>American Indian ladles of considerable antiquity +are not very rare. An oblong one with a short pointed +handle, and rudely carved out of wood, and excessively +deformed, is in the Boston Museum. They +are occasionally met with of <i>stone</i>, and so are spoons. +Of the latter some are neatly formed and well polished, +while others have a bowl at each end of the +handle. Canadian Indians frequently make the +bowls of their spoons and ladles out of <i>bark</i>—folding +smooth pieces into the form of the common tin scoop, +and tying to each a short stick as a handle. They +carve spoons of the same shape out of solid wood.</p> + +<p class='c006'>By the way, it is not a little singular that beautifully +formed spoons have been made for ages by +people who never thought of employing such things +in connection with food. They developed them for +a very different purpose. Specimens are now before +us—to be sure, their dimensions render them +more suitable appendages to the breakfast table of +Polyphemus, or for Goliath to take his porridge withal, +than for feeding modern gentlemen or ladies. +Has the reader never observed in public or private +collections of curiosities, elaborately wrought wooden +spoons, the bowls of quite a modern shape, but +varying from 12 to 18 inches in length, from 4 to +6 in width, and of a proportionate depth—the handles +<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>also tastefully designed, richly ornamented and +two or three feet long? Such are the <i>paddles</i> of +many South Sea islanders—the concave side of the +bowl holding the water and more effectually propelling +a canoe than the ordinarily formed blade of +an oar. Certes, if these paddles had been now unknown, +and a few specimens were dug out of the +soil, among other relics of past ages, archeologists +could hardly avoid receiving them as samples of the +kitchen furniture of the Titans.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER X.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Description of Plate IV—Anointing of Kings and the Process—Miraculous +Utensils—Oil Bottles brought from Heaven—The +Spoon among Regalia—Relics of Becket—Coronation +Spoon described—Its Antiquity—Spoons of Henry VI—Cadenat—Apostle +Spoons—Ancient Customs at the Naming of Children—Christening +Shirts—Scripture Biography taught by +Spoons—Anecdotes of Henry VIII. and Cranmer, of Ben Jonson +and Shakespeare—Plate presented to Guests—Spoons carried +off—Sacramental Spoon—Sanguisuchello—Snuff Spoons—Chinese, +Scotch and Malagasy Snuff Takers—Snuff an Ingredient +used in Witchcraft.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>It may not be generally known that the spoon +takes part in the most pompous of national pageants. +We have spoken of exhibitions of mountebanks, +wherein it amused common people: let us +now refer to the part it performs in the hands of political +raree-showmen for diverting another class of +spectators.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span><i>Anointing</i> monarchs at their coronation has always +been deemed indispensable. Barely to touch +royal sconces with the holy unguent, as sometimes +now practiced, was formerly insufficient. Baker, in +his Chronicles, says Richard I. the hero of the Crusades, +“put off all his garments from his middle upwards +but only his shirt, which was open on the +shoulders, that he might be anointed. Then the +Archbishop of Canterbury anointed him in three +places: on the head, on the shoulder, and on the +right arm.” The same writer gives the particulars +at the ceremony of crowning Richard II.—a child +of eleven years: “After a sermon the king took his +oath, (!) and then the archbishop blessed the king, +which done, he took off his garments and stripped +him into his shift; then he anointed his hands, +head, breast, shoulders, and the joynts of his arms +with the sacred oil.” Henry IV. (of England,) says +Froissart, was “stripped of all his state before the +altar, naked to his shirt, and was then anointed and +consecrated at six places, that is to say, on the head, +the breast, the two shoulders before and behind, on +the back and the hands.” [chap. cxvi.] Henry’s title +to the crown was a very dubious one—perhaps on +that account a greater quantity of the consecrating +ointment was expended on him and a larger portion +of his body exposed to its influence.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It seems that much the same process was gone +through with in the case of queens! Mary, of +Smithfield memory, was crowned and anointed by +Gardiner “with all rites and ceremonies of old accustomed.” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>Similar language is used by Baker in +the case of Elizabeth; so also of King Jamie and +his wife: they were “crowned together and anointed +at Westminster.” The pageant of Charles I.’s +coronation, got up by Laud, was, as may be supposed, +a great affair. Obsolete customs were introduced, +as well as old forms of prayer. When the +king had taken an oath “to protect and defend the +bishops and the churches under their government,” +his robes were taken off “and <i>offered at the altar</i>; +the king stood for a while, stripped to his doublet +and hose of white satin; then, led by the archbishop +and the Bishop of St. David’s, he was placed in the +chair of the coronation, having a close canopy spread +over him; and while the archbishop anointed his +head, shoulders, arms and hands with a costly oyntment, +the quire sung an anthem of these words:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>‘Zadock, the priest, anointed King Solomon.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>So Charles was stripped to his hose and doublet +when the crown was put on his head, as well as +when he lost both his head and his crown. In him +the magic shield which the scriptural passage ‘touch +not mine anointed’ had for ages thrown around +kings, and which some of these gentry used with effect +in silencing the murmurings of their oppressed +people, was shattered to the winds.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The blasphemous application of such passages of +scripture as the foregoing to the vilest tyrants, was +but a small part of that atrocious system of ecclesiastical +delusions which prevailed through the dark +ages. The monarch swore when crowned to ‘protect +<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>bishops,’ and they, from Dunstan downwards, +returned the compliment. To preserve their immunities +and extend their influence, they performed the +part of pagan priests and made the oracles speak +what they and the king pleased. But they did +more: through their instrumentality it was that almost +every utensil employed in coronations had a +miraculous origin—was fabricated in heaven by angelic +artists or beatified saints, and sent direct for +the use of ‘his sacred majesty’ by a special embassy, +consisting of one or more celestial messengers! The +<i>ampoule</i> or small bottle containing the holy oil seems +to have been most distinguished in this respect.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When Clovis of France embraced Christianity, +he was baptized in the Church at Rheims in a consecrated +lavatory, (on Christmas day, A. D. 496.) +Three thousand of his people followed his example, +and with him wore white robes for eight days. Now +so great was the joy in heaven at their conversion +that an angel appeared to a holy hermit, and deposited +with him for the king’s use, “a royal standard +adorned with the oriflamme, a shield sown with the +fleur de lis, and an ampoule of sacred oil.” This +celestial bottle is (or was in the last century) preserved +in the cathedral church of Rheims, and is +still used in the coronation of French kings. <span lang="fr">“On +appelle la Sainte Ampoule, certaine petite bouteille +venue du ciel, où il y a de l’huile qui sert à sacrer +les Rois de France, laquelle on garde bien soigneusement +dans l’Abbaye de saint Remi de Rheims.”—[<i>Dict. +de Trevoux and Mazeray.</i>]</span></p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing160.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 5</i> <i>Middle Ages & Oriental</i><br> <br> <i>Lith of E Jones 128 Fulton S<sup>t</sup> N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>When Charles was conducted by the Maid of Orleans +to Rheims and crowned in her presence, the +holy oil and miraculous ampoule performed their +part in the ceremony, as historians have taken care +to inform us.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Hincmarc, Archbishop of Rheims, in the time of +Charles the Bald, declares (in his life of St. Remi) +that the precious vial was sent from heaven by a +white dove. Many French disputations have been +written on the miracle, pro and con! The English +ampoule (still used) was also of celestial origin, having +been brought down by the Virgin Mary herself, +and presented by her ‘to St. Thomas of Canterbury +[Becket] when he was in France.’ It was, observes +Mazeray, of lapis, with a golden eagle on the top +and enriched with pearls and diamonds.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Now the consecrated fluid was not poured directly +from the ampoule on the candidate for royalty, but +into a <i>spoon</i>, whence it was transferred to its destination. +As we presume our readers may gather +a few facts from these speculations, with which they +were not previously acquainted, it may be that some +now learn for the first time, that besides crowns, +orbs, sceptres, swords, globes, spheres, staffs, cups, +plates, rings, and other royal rattletraps, which constitute +what is known as ‘the regalia and crown jewels,’ +the spoon holds a distinguished place! To those +who admire such things it is shown, with the articles +enumerated above, in the Tower of London at a shilling +a head, and indeed to those who admire them +not, at the same price.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>Lord Herbert in his history of Henry VIII. mentions +among other ‘notable trumperies’ by which the +public were deluded, ‘the <i>penknife</i> and <i>boots</i> of +Becket, with a piece of his <i>shirt</i>.’ Large sums, it +seems, were received from ladies in a certain condition +for permission to handle the last article.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The reader will now turn to Plate IV. <i>Figs. 1, 2</i>, +represent the English coronation spoon, [from Shaw’s +splendid work, “Dresses and Decorations of the +Middle Ages, from the seventh to the seventeenth +centuries.”] If drawn by Shaw to the full size, its +length is 9 inches, that of the bowl 2¼, and its width +1¾ inches. The whole is of gold, and whether made +by a mortal goldsmith or not, a fine piece of work. +The bowl is thin, with an elegant arabesque pattern +engraved on its inner surface. At the broadest +part of the handle are four pearls. The enamel +with which it was once enriched is destroyed. There +is a slight elevation or ridge dividing the bowl. +When used a portion of the consecrating fluid being +poured into it, the officiating bishop dips two fingers, +one into each cavity of the bowl, and transfers what +sticks to them to the head and other parts of the +royal neophyte, who thus receives unction as a sign +of investiture of regal power.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Hence the spoon is not the least useful of the numerous +insignia employed on such occasions, and +we may fairly presume it performs a more laborious +part than any of them when the ceremonies are over +and the actors are seated at dinner. In unison with +this there is one feature in the official implement +<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>which we must be excused for noticing. It will +be seen that the upper part of the handle is twisted +and the end terminates with a hemispherical button +precisely like a punch spoon. This beautiful specimen +of ancient art is in truth the oldest spoon of that +kind known. Whether the maker designed a practical +joke or not, it is not a bad one, considering the +history of royal carousals, from Belshazzar and Alexander +to George IV—the accomplished companion +of modern Falstaffs, Pistols and Quicklys. Of all +men, kings have been least stinted with punch or +sack; few persons are known to have indulged more +in it or got it on easier terms.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There is some uncertainty respecting the date of +this royal spoon. Cromwell and the Long Parliament +made sad havoc among ‘the baubles,’ as that +irreverend man named the regalia. It seems most +of them disappeared during the civil wars—probably +melted down and the proceeds applied to the public +service. When Charles II. returned, it is said, his +inauguration was delayed on account of the absence +of these necessary articles belonging to the ceremony! +Shaw thinks some of the old ones were concealed +and recovered, and among them the spoon. Its +antiquity he says is undoubted. He supposes it to +have been in use since the twelfth century.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Of coronations, their expense, inutility and puerilities, +an English writer has well remarked, that they +are only calculated to superinduce in the individual +vanity upon vanity, and are characteristic of imperfect +civilization.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>We have not done with royal spoons:—In 1422, +Henry V. the Hal of Shakespeare, died, and was +succeeded by his son, an infant. As Henry VI. grew +up he exhibited indications of a feeble mind. Harmless +and passive, he was wholly unfit for controlling +the destinies of his country and the ambition of its +warlike nobles. His reign was one of perpetual domestic +war. He had, says Sir R. Baker, virtues +enough to make him a saint, but not to make him a +god, as kings are said to be gods. He was fitter +for a priest than a king, and for a sacrifice than a +priest. A mere instrument in the hands of the ministers +and his masculine wife, Margaret of Anjou, +his fate was that of a shuttlecock, tossed to and fro +and treated with contempt by the adherents of both +the white and red roses. Repeatedly taken prisoner +by one party or the other in battle, he at last ended +his melancholy life in the Tower.</p> + +<p class='c006'>After the sanguinary battle of Hexham, in Northumberland, +the fate of his family was distressing. +Margaret with their son fled into a wood, where they +were rudely seized and plundered of their jewels by +thieves. While the robbers quarreled about the division +of the plunder, the miserable captives crept +unperceived into the thickest of the forest, where +they sank down overcome with darkness, distress +and fatigue. One of the robbers subsequently found +them; to him Margaret made herself known, and +appealed to his generosity for protection, especially +for the son of the king. He was amazed at the +strange occurrence, swore to protect them, and kept +<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>his word. He concealed them until an opportunity +offered for conducting them to the coast, whence +they sailed to Flanders.</p> + +<p class='c006'>How Henry escaped is not very well known. By +the vigilance of friends he lay concealed in different +parts of the country for twelve months. Shifting +from place to place, he at length was seized while at +dinner at Wadington Hall, in Lincolnshire, and carried +to the tower. Ere being taken away he left +with his host his <i>inkhorn</i>, one of the last articles retained +about his person. It is of leather, like a knife +sheath, with three cells, one for the ink and two for +pens. It is ornamented with much elegance, and +was worn suspended from the girdle. Before reaching +Wadington, he was hid nine days at Bolton Hall; +and here he left with the proprietor, as a token of +his friendship, his boots, one glove (or a pair) and +<i>his spoon</i>. [<i>See Antiq. Repertory, III.</i> 168.]</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 3</i>, <i>Plate IV.</i> represents this interesting relic +of the fifteenth century. It was we presume of gold, +though the account does not say so, but merely that +its length was 6¼ inches. The handle is short, and +in its union to the small end of the bowl resembles +both Roman and Egyptian spoons. The handle is +a plain cylinder capped at its extremity with a molding +and a hexagonal finial. Although void of ornament, +this spoon exhibits considerable taste in its +contour. Its dimensions, as will have been perceived +from its length, did not exceed those of a +modern dessert spoon. If made for Henry, it dates +from the time of Jack Cade, Joan of Arc, the great +<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>Earl of Warwick, and the introduction of Printing. +The circumstance of a king carrying his spoon +about with him may strike some readers as singular, +but the practice was not uncommon in olden times. +Almost every wealthy individual had a portable case +containing one and a knife, to which in after times +a fork was added. Even guests took their own implements +when invited to a feast. Kings more than +other people have always been particular in having +feeding apparatus exclusively for their own use: the +custom is an eastern one. Spoons which nourish +royal palates must not enter meaner mouths. <i>Cadenat</i> +was the old French term for the portable case +in which was secured a prince’s knife and spoon. +It was afterwards written <i>cadenas</i>. The case was +often of gold or silver gilt, and contained minute receptacles +for salt, pepper, and other condiments. +From the following extract it will be seen that kings +and nobles used such pocket conveniences in the beginning +of the last century, as well as in the previous +ones:—</p> + +<p class='c006'><span lang="fr">“Cadenas est aussi une espèce d’assiette carrée +ou l’on serre la cuillière, la fourchette et le couteau. +Un des côtés est retroussé et élevé de deux doigts, +avec un petit courvercle où l’on met du sel, du sucre +et du poivre. On s’en servoit <i>autrefois</i> chez les +Rois et les Princes. C’est <i>maintenant</i> une espèce +de coffret d’or ou de vermeil doré, où l’on met le +couteau, la cuillière, la fourchette, &c. qu’on sert à +la table des Rois et des Princes.” [<i>Old Dict. de +Trevoux.</i>]</span></p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span><i>Figs. 4</i>, <i>5</i>, and <i>10</i>, <i>Plate IV.</i> are from ‘Ackerman’s +Designs for Gold and Silver Smiths,’ publish-without +any description. We know not the source +whence they were derived, but as they were associated +with ‘Apostle Spoons,’ known to be ancient, we +suppose they are of the same character. The handle +of <i>Fig. 4</i> is of twisted wire, folded into two +knots, as in <i>Fig. 6</i>. The bowl, of a fanciful form, +differs from every other we have met with. <i>Fig. 5</i>—an +elaborate specimen, and well suited to a monastery +or abbot. The heart at one extremity and the +cross at the other are quite in character with the ecclesiastical +tastes of the middle ages, and would afford +matter for interesting reflections. <i>Fig. 10</i>, a +salt spoon, partakes of the same religious character. +It presents a motto, the initial and arms of the +owner—acknowledged features of many ancient +“<span class='blackletter'>spuuns</span>.” Moral sentences and maxims of prudence +are painted by the Chinese on most of their +furniture and utensils—on tea pots, chop stick cases, +combs, apparatus for striking fire, cups, lanterns, +vases, &c. and might be advantageously imitated. +<i>Fig. 6</i>—an ivory spoon of the sixteenth century. It +is French, and preserved along with a knife and two +pronged fork in the collection of the Louvre.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Apostle Spoons.</span>—<i>Fig. 7</i>, <i>Plate IV.</i> represents +a class of implements intimately allied with the social +and religious customs of former times. Nothing +smooths the asperities of life like friendship. When +evinced by kind offices and gifts, it unlocks the human +breast and excites within it the holiest affections. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>All people learn this truth, and no lesson is +more readily understood by juveniles; the pure and +buoyant joys they feel on receiving novel or rich presents, +may be portrayed on the mental tablet but not +on paper. Now it is a fact that for ages the very +<i>first</i> gift which boys and girls received, consisted of +one or more spoons—these being the established +presents of sponsors at christenings; hence the implements +may be said to have not only fed the bodies +of children but to have given them a taste of +the sweetest of mental pleasures—indicating to the +young travellers that enter this rugged world one of +the pleasantest means of passing through it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Greeks, Romans, and older people than either, +held family feasts when a child was named. +Relatives and friends attended as witnesses, and +made presents of various articles to the little stranger. +The pouring on, or immersion in, water, (baptism) +at the nomination of children, is also of heathen +origin. It was practiced both in the old world and +the new. When a child among the Astecs was to +be named, a priestess sprinkled its lips and bosom +with water, and invoked the goddess Cioacoatl that +original sin might be thus removed and the child born +anew. On these occasions friends and relatives +brought presents of dresses and ornaments suitable +to the circumstances of the parents and wants of the +child.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the earlier ages of Christianity sponsors provided +a frock or shirt in which the infant was christened—hence +named the ‘christening shirt.’ Its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>value of course depended on the circumstances of +the donor: when he or she was wealthy, it was often +trimmed with silk and gold. The Anglo Saxons +continued this custom for many ages, but it subsequently +went out of fashion, and the older one of +giving small articles of plate succeeded.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When spoons were given they were called <i>Apostle +spoons</i>, because the handle of each was carved into +the figure of an apostle with his appropriate symbol, +as Peter with the keys, Andrew with his cross, &c. +Wealthy godfathers generally gave a <i>dozen</i>, each +being named after one of the twelve it was designed +to represent. People, whose circumstances did not +admit of giving so many, or who were penurious, +compounded by sending the <i>four</i> evangelists; while +those who could not do better ingeniously presented +a <i>single</i> spoon, with the effigies of the saint after +whom the infant was named, or under whose protection +it had been placed by its parents.</p> + +<p class='c006'>This practice was in imitation of the heathen, who +introduced figures of their gods upon almost every +utensil—spoons, as we have seen, as well as the rest. +The idea as adopted in the middle ages was excellent. +A child no sooner learned to feed himself—to +use his own spoons—than he began to acquire a +knowledge of scriptural and ecclesiastical biography. +Every spoonful of food he received, conveyed, or +might convey a useful lesson to his mind. The custom +might be revived with advantage—at any rate +important truths or facts connected with scientific +individuals or with science and the arts, might thus +<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>be communicated to, and indelibly impressed upon +the minds of the young.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Allusions to Apostle spoons are common. In the +play of <i>Henry VIII. Act 5, Scene 2</i>, Shakespeare +makes the king say to Cranmer that he must stand +godfather to the young princess, Elizabeth. The +Archbishop expresses his unfitness for so great an +honor, upon which Harry, bantering him, says he is +afraid of the expense of the usual gift to a godchild: +“Come, come, my lord, you’d spare your <i>spoons</i>.” +In <i>Scene 4</i> the directions are, “Enter trumpets, +lord mayor, Cranmer, dukes, &c. two noblemen +bearing great standing bowls for the <i>christening +gifts</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>In a manuscript of L’Estrange, preserved in the +British Museum, an anecdote is related of Shakespeare +himself and Ben Jonson directly in point. +Shakespeare was godfather to one of Ben’s children; +and after the christening, being in a deep study, Jonson +cheerily asked him why he was so melancholy? +“Ben,” said he, “I have been considering what +would be the fittest gift for my godchild, and I have +resolved it at last.” “I pri’thee, what?” said Ben. +“I’ faith, then, Ben,” answered Shakespeare, “I’ll +give him a good dozen of <i>latten spoons</i>, and thou +shalt translate them;” an example of friendly pleasantry +betwen the two wits—the word ‘latten’ being +a play upon Latin. Latten, sometimes written <i>laton</i>, +was formerly applied to tinned iron, or articles made +of it, but more generally to brass, of which examples +will be found in these pages.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, and other dramatic +writers, refer to christening or Apostle spoons. +Thus also Congreve:—“<i>Angelica</i>—Will you lend +me your coach or I’ll go on—nay I’ll declare how +you prophesied popery was coming, only because +the butler had mislaid some of the Apostle’s spoons, +and thought they were lost—away went religion and +spoon meat together.”—[<i>Comedy of Love for Love, +Act 2, Scene 1.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Mr. Hone, in his Every Day Book, [vol. i. 177,] +has given a representation of a dozen in his own +possession, and besides the anecdote of Shakespeare +just recited, quotes the following lines from a poem +published in 1666, in which the custom of giving +spoons is stated to have been on the decline:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Formerly when they used to troul</div> + <div class='line'>Gilt bowls of sack, they <i>gave</i> the <i>bowl</i>,</div> + <div class='line'><i>Two spoons</i> at least—an use <i>ill kept</i>;</div> + <div class='line'>’Tis well if now our own be left.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon figured on Plate IV. is in the writer’s +possession. It is larger than those described by +Hone, the bowl being 2¼ inches wide and nearly 3 +inches long. The handle is 5¼ inches in length, including +the figure of the apostle which is <i>gilt</i>. The +hat or flat cap is common to this class of spoons, +and was probably designed, as Hone suggests, to +preserve the features from effacement; but this was +not its only use; when the figure was not sufficiently +characteristic of the particular <i>one</i> of the twelve +whom it was intended to represent, an additional +symbol of him was impressed on the crown of the +cap; as an eagle, a dove, an ox, &c. emblematical +<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>of the evangelists. The weight of this spoon is 2¼ +ounces. The only mark stamped on it is an X with +what appear the remains of a crown above it, but it +is very illegible. The face of the punch was a circle +three eighths of an inch in diameter. The impression +has been struck twice on the back of the +handle and once inside of the bowl, (the usual place +in old spoons.) The implement was forged, except +the image of the apostle, which was cast and soldered +on the handle. It is not of English manufacture, +since neither three leopards, the ancient government +stamp, nor a rampant lion, the modern one, is impressed +upon it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>These implements are interesting, as showing the +influence of religion on the arts in mediæval times—how +ingeniously ecclesiastical matters were interwoven +with almost every thing—how even a spoon was +made to infuse religious truths into the minds of +children while it conveyed pap to their mouths.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Without being aware of the origin of the custom, +says Hone in his entertaining miscellany, many persons +in Europe continue to present spoons at christenings, +though no longer adorned with imagery.</p> + +<p class='c006'>One remark more ere Apostle spoons are dismissed: +It was a custom of remote antiquity to get up +convivial feasts at the common expense of the guests, +each individual contributing his proportion either in +money or victuals. There is an allusion to it in the +first book of the Odyssey:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>* * * * * Behold I here</div> + <div class='line'>A banquet or a nuptial? For these</div> + <div class='line'>Meet not <i>by contribution</i> to regale.—<i>Cowper.</i></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>The custom may be traced down to present times. +There is a direct reference to it in the Spanish proverb: +<i>Huésped tardio no viene manivacio</i>—‘a late +guest comes not sluggishly nor empty handed;’ the +presents he brings will account for his delay. In +the middle ages donations were invariably sent by +friends to feasts, whether social or religious. Another +pleasing trait of primitive manners was the exchange +of tokens of friendship between a host and +an esteemed guest at parting. Sometimes a piece +of money or other small article was broken in two, +one piece being retained by each individual as a +symbol and pledge of mutual hospitality. From +wealthy houses a stranger of rank was seldom allowed +to depart without a valuable gift, such as his +condition or the disposition and ability of the donor +might suggest; as a faulchion, a walking stick, vest, +or tunic, &c. but more generally a golden or silver +vase or cup. Instances abound in Homer.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It was also a practice for princes to present to each +guest the goblet he drank from at table. Of the +nine thousand individuals who feasted with Alexander +at Susa, every one received a golden cup. The +Roman emperors and patricians occasionally complimented +their friends in the same way. Suetonius +informs us that Claudius having suspected a visitor +of stealing a golden cup, caused him to be served +at another time with an earthenware one. Sometimes +the plate used by visitors at a feast was sent +home to them on the following day—one of the most +acceptable tokens of the host’s regard.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>In later times guests did not wait to be presented +with, but actually helped themselves to articles of +plate! At entertainments given on the installations +of civil or ecclesiastical dignitaries, scrambles for silver +cups, dishes, salt cellars and spoons occurred +just as they have in recent times at coronations. +The practice became so common that it was at last +claimed by the robbers as a right, and was positively +recognized as such by law! It became interwoven +with the tenures by which lands and privileges were +held! We have an example at page <a href='#Page_80'>80</a> of a lord of +the manor being entitled to carry off four dishes, two +salt-cellars, a cup, a wine pot, a spoon, and two +wash bowls (all of silver) from a bishop’s table; to +which may be added a much later one: When Dudly +North was elected Sheriff of London (in the last +century) and knighted, he gave the usual official +banquet, and selected for the purpose one of the +largest halls in the city. Several public bodies contributed +to the expense. The Middle Templars presented +one hundred guineas. In North’s life it is +said, “he had diverse very considerable presents +from friends and relations, besides the compliments +of the several companies, inviting themselves and +wives to dinner—dropping their guineas, and <i>taking +Apostle spoons</i> in the room of them; which, with +what they ate and drank, and such as came in the +shape of wives, made but an indifferent bargain.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>Another application of the spoon will hardly be +anticipated by every reader—its employment in the +administration of the sacrament. The introduction +<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>of the implement for this purpose is ascribed by old +ecclesiastical writers to St. Chrysostom; who, it is +said, designed it to prevent effusion of the chalice. +The Greek Church does not allow of <i>pouring</i> wine +into the cup; it is therefore transferred in <i>spoons</i>. +The practice is different at Rome, but as the pope +claims to be the head of both Greek and Latin +churches, he combines in his person the peculiar customs +of both.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 11</i>, <i>Plate IV.</i> represents the golden spoon +used when he celebrates high mass ‘in both languages,’ +and with the ceremonies common to both +churches. It is from the first volume of Motraye’s +Travels, where it is figured of full size. The bowl +is 2¼ inches wide and 3 long; the length of handle +and bowl 11½ inches. With this spoon the deacon +and sub-deacon, who are generally cardinal priests, +sup what remains in the chalice after the pope has +communicated.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There can be no harm in stating here how the +pope conveys the wine to his own mouth, since he +neither puts the spoon nor the cup to his lips. As +the wine is believed to be transubstantiated into real +blood, it is deemed more seemly to suck than drink +it; and hence the ‘sanguisuchello or blood-sucker,’ a +small golden and highly ornamented tube, 13 inches +long, through which his holiness imbibes the consecrated +fluid. [See its figure and description in Ewbank’s +Hydraulics.] At the celebration of high mass +in the cathedral church of Paris, a similar instrument +is used. [<i>Dict. de Trevoux, Art. Chalumeau.</i>] But +<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>the honor of using it is deemed so great that permission +to do so is scarcely ever obtained. Motraye +tells us the king of Portugal was exceedingly zealous +in promoting the splendor of the church, but it +was not till after many solicitations that Clement XI. +consented that the Archbishop of Lisbon should celebrate +mass pontifically with papal paraphernalia, +but the spoon and sanguisuchello were expressly excepted!</p> + +<p class='c006'>This curious instrument is not of modern date. +The Queen of Oviedo and Asturia, A. D. 777, presented +to one of the churches in Spain, dedicated to +St. Thyrsus, ‘a silver chalice and paten, a wash +hand basin and a <i>pipe</i>;’ which last, says Butler, in +his lives of the Saints, was ‘a silver pipe or quill to +suck up the blood of Christ at the communion, such +as the pope sometimes uses; it sucks it up as a +nose draws up air.’ The use of the instrument was +not formerly confined to priests; <i>i. e.</i> not until the +council of Constance took away the wine altogether +from the laity and gave it exclusively to the clergy. +Peter Martyr, complaining of the wealth and pride +of the Roman clergy, quotes Beatus Rhenanus respecting +‘certaine silver pypes, by the which prophane +men, whom they call the laitie, sucked out of +the challice in the holy supper, as though, forsooth, +out of the challice itself the faithful might not drink.’ +The device was probably designed as a check—and +an ingenious one it was—to rude and ignorant converts +in the dark ages, to prevent them from taking +too freely of the cup.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing176.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 6</i> <i>Middle Ages & Modern</i><br> <br> <i>Lith of E. Jones 128 Fulton S<sup>t</sup>. N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>We have seen the spoon treasured up among the +regalia of kings, and here we find it with crosiers, +tiaras, sacred slippers, pastoral staffs, the sword of +St. Peter, keys of heaven, and other holy matters +belonging to the head of the church.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The next spoon was for a different purpose than +any yet described; and so far from being a religious +application of the implement, many persons consider +it a wicked one; but sinful or not, it is our duty +to notice it. Perhaps the reader’s attention in arriving +thus far in this long chapter begins to flag, +and he mentally exclaims ‘would it were ended.’ +Well, there is little to add, and if he will but imitate +some drowsy people at church, by taking a sternutatory, +he will arrive at the close without feeling fatigue +or ascribing his heaviness to the writer. There +are persons whose physical constitutions are so delicate +that mere thoughts of taking snuff, (and medicines +generally,) produce the same effect as inhaling +the powder itself: now, if the imagination of the +reader has a similar influence over his system, he +can have no disposition to oscitate while finishing +the chapter; on the contrary, the greatest obstacle to +his progress will arise from a disposition to sneeze.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Spoons were formerly much in vogue for taking +<i>snuff</i>! Gentlemen carried the powder in a small +bottle, the neck of which was closed by a cork or +stopper, through which passed the shank of a small +spoon. Sometimes the handle of the spoon formed +the head of the stopper. See <i>Figs. 8</i> and <i>9</i>, <i>Plate IV.</i> +for a specimen of these precursors of the snuff-box. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>In those days the expression was, ‘take a <i>spoonful</i>,’ +instead of ‘a <i>pinch</i>.’ Old people yet living remember +this use of the spoon. The stopper in the cut +was screwed into the neck.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The practice was most probably derived from +China, for snuff is there generally carried in vials or +cruets by the wealthy, and drawn out with a spoon. +In Mr. Dunn’s celebrated Chinese collection, recently +in Philadelphia, but now in London, there is +a porcelain snuff bottle of great beauty, with a stopper +of red cornelian, and a spoon of tortoise shell. +[<i>Descriptive Catalogue, Phila.</i> 1839, p. 68.] ‘A +mandarin,’ says Staunton, ‘is seldom without a small +ornamented vial to hold his snuff, of which he occasionally +pours a quantity equal to a pinch upon the +back of his left hand, between the thumb and index, +and carrying to his nose, he snuffs up several times +a day.’ Powdered cinnabar is often employed for the +same purpose, as opium and odorous ingredients are +for smoking. The emperor of China distributed +among other presents to the members of the Dutch +embassy (of 1799) ‘little bags for tobacco, and little +glass bottles to hold snuff.’ One of these would be +taken by an American or European as a smelling +bottle. With the spoon, says Dunn, they take out +the pungent dust and place it on the back of the left +hand, near the lower thumb joint, whence it is snuffed +up by the olfactories to perform its titillating office.—[<i>Catalogue</i>, +p. 11.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>With the bottle, snuff-taking was a more cleanly +practice than the present one of thrusting the finger +<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>and thumb into a box, and besmearing the person +and pockets with the contents. Laws had not then +been thought of, by which, as was subsequently enacted +in some parts of Europe, those were to lose +their noses who ‘fed them with the prohibited food.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Howell mentions in his letters that rustic laborers +and even maid-servants in his time were accustomed +to snuff, taking out their boxes of ‘smutchin’ and +conveying it to their nostrils by a <i>quill</i>. The Scotch +highlanders take great pride in the ‘mull’ or spiral +horn, which is supported as a personal ornament +from the neck or belt, and from which they take the +snuff either with a pen, quill, or <i>spoon</i> of tin, brass +or silver, suspended by a small chain from the mull.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Pocket handkerchiefs were never very common +with the Gael, and yet something of the kind seems +indispensable to inveterate snuff takers; but men in +every clime, when destitute of artificial conveniences, +are soon furnished by nature with appropriate substitutes. +It is so with the people of North Britain. +Along with the spoon there dangles at their breast a +<i>hare’s foot</i>, with which they brush off superfluous +particles from the regions of the nostrils and lips. +The sensations produced by the use of this natural +duster, it is said, are far more delicate and pleasing +than the application of a bandana.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The people of Madagascar use snuff, but in a manner +very different from inhabitants of the western +world. These take it at the nose, but the Malagasy +prefers the mouth. Putting a spoonful between the +under lip and the teeth, he sucks it at leisure, affirming +<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>that a more lasting and exquisite pleasure is +derived from it <i>there</i> than from momentary sniffs. +Snuff was used by the ancient Mexicans.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Nose powder</i> or snuff is mentioned in an ancient +burlesque poem, on the laying of a ghost, inserted +by Walter Scott, in the appendix to his introduction +to the minstrelsy of the Scottish border. The ingredients +required by the exorcist were as numerous +and select as those used by the witches in Macbeth. +Besides plants and holy water, there were fox-tails, +teeth of an old horse, crabs’ claws, a dog’s ear, blue +wool, a pig’s tooth, the tail of a sow, &c. and “<span lang="sco">of +<i>neis powder</i> ane grit loik.</span>”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Old Pocket Spoons—Costume—Cutlers and Tailors. Pockets—their +Origin, History and Influence—Derived from the +Poke. Pocketing Sleeves. Valets. Ladies’ Pockets—Reticules—Capacity +and Strange Contents of Old Pockets—Material and +Manufacture. Curious Old Folding Spoon—Conjectures respecting +its owner. Forks—Of Uncertain Origin and Date—Ancient +Egyptians at Dinner—Boarding Schools—Washing +before and after Meals, and why—Anglo Saxons at Dinner—Forks +denounced by the Clergy—Combined with the Spoon—Historical +Notices of them.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='sc'>Plate V.</span> <i>Figs. 1</i> and <i>2</i> are French spoons of the +sixteenth century. The style of <i>Fig. 2</i> (a shell and +wreathed handle) is occasionally adopted in modern +<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>specimens. <i>Fig. 1</i>—of silver gilt, and designed for +the pocket. It consists of three distinct pieces, +which joined together, form a spoon as in the figure, +but when separated each serves a different purpose. +The lower part of the handle forms a <i>fork</i>, the prongs +of which fit into loops soldered on the back of the +bowl; the upper extremity unscrews, and when taken +off, presents a toothpick. A little above the +bowl there is a joint by which, on removing a small +ring that covers it, the whole may be folded up so as +to occupy a very small space.</p> + +<p class='c006'>‘Folding spoons,’ as they were named, were not +rare in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Progresses +of Elizabeth we read of a golden one, and +numerous specimens are still extant. They were, +we believe, like clasp or folding knives, one of the +results of a change in costume. Does the reader +smile at this, and ask what they could have to do with +dress? At the first glance we admit the connection +is not obvious; nevertheless they really were, and +are, as much allied to <span class='fss'>POCKETS</span>, as ever were long-handled +ones to ruffs. In other words, if pockets +had never been known, folding spoons like folding +knives had never been made.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When knives had no joint at the junction of the handle +and blade, they were worn pendant in sheaths +at the side, as cooks, stevedores and sailors still wear +them. Rich men and scholars sometimes attached +them to silver or gilt chains that went round the +neck. Chaucer thus carried his penknife, as seen +in some of his portraits. Ladies now wear watches +<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>much in the same way, and so do gentlemen reading +glasses. But when the tunic and toga gave place to +the coat, and the modern vest superseded the doublet, +multitudes of portable implements were expressly +designed for and named after the novel receptacles +which the new garments brought into +vogue—as pocket-books, pocket-glasses, pocket-knives, +pocket-combs, &c. &c. Then came in also +snuff-boxes in place of the old bottle, with hundreds +of other pocket devices, which a dealer alone can +enumerate—devices that never were thought of before. +Where pockets have been made for one thing, +a thousand things have been contrived for pockets. +To the <i>tailor</i>, therefore, manufacturers of small articles +in hardware, tortoise shell, ivory and pearl, are +more indebted than they probably imagine. As for +spoons, it is clear the same artist had a hand in +bringing jointed ones into fashion, just as mantuamakers +once caused the handles of ordinary ones to +be lengthened.</p> + +<p class='c006'>One might almost suspect collusion between +knights of the file and those of the scissors! Did ancient +Sheffield workmen furnish contemporary shapers +of apparel with bodkins, needles and thimbles, +with shears and smoothing irons <i>gratis</i>, on condition +of bringing pockets into fashion, and multiplying +their variety? The offer of such a bribe would have +been a proof of far-seeing sagacity, since every species +of pocket, from those of an overcoat to the latent +watch-fob, has made fortunes for fancy cutlers, +for ages, and will make them for ages to come.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span><span class='sc'>Pockets.</span>—In noticing pocket-spoons, perhaps we +are expected to say something on pockets. Of all +tasks, such an one would be to our taste; but it +would be digressing too far to enter on so diverting, +instructive and copious a subject; or even give a +sketch of these curious contrivances, of which it is +supposed the classical ancients knew nothing. Still +it is scarcely proper to pass them wholly without notice, +since their connection with spoons is already +apparent, and must as we proceed become more so. +Shades of Demosthenes and Cicero, of Quintilian +and Burke! what a subject for eloquence and sublimity +is here! One fraught with materials for the +richest paper ever read before a society of Chiffonniers—one +charged, like pockets themselves, with +entertaining miscellanies with gems and gimcracks, +treasures and trifles, antiques and uniques! A dish +flavored with spices, one over which the eyes of literary +gourmands would glisten and their pulse throb +quicker as they seated themselves to enjoy it!</p> + +<p class='c006'>We know not how sufficiently to admire the ingenuity +displayed in the origin and disposition on the +person of these flexible little cupboards, for hiding +what we wish to conceal, securing what we are anxious +to preserve and for having always at hand what +may every moment be wanted. To deduce their +descent from the primitive girdle, oriental sash, philosopher’s +red scrip, pilgrim’s wallet, and beggar’s +unctuous pouch—to trace them through every shape +and disguise, and enumerate the diverse uses to +which they have been put, would indeed be a feast +<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>of good things and of queer things. But, alas! no +literary cuisinier can now procure the necessary ingredients. +Such has been the inconsistency of historians +that the annals of pockets have never been +written, while memorials of old pocket-makers have +been suffered to perish. Some valuable matter may +of course yet be collected, and among other sources +from Newgate calendars—from the lives and exploits +of scientific analyzers of pockets—a class of +men profoundly versed in their capacities, secret locations, +approaches and uses. This branch of biography, +we opine, must be studied ere a standard +and luminous treatise on the subject can be written.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The history of a pocket would be a journal of the +owner’s thoughts—a record of his motives; for in +this adjunct to his dress lies coiled up the spring of +his actions—the secret power that moves him. ‘The +pocket’ is every thing to man—from it comfort and +consequence proceed. He who hunting the dark +recesses of one finds nothing, is nobody; but to the +pocket of the rich annuitant all do reverence. +Strange that this little sack should be the fount of +men’s hopes and despair, the source of their sorrows +and pleasures, the subject of their thoughts by +day and dreams by night—they flourish with it and +sicken as it dries up. When it expands so does +their joy; when it shrinks their pleasures are fled. +The highest enjoyment is to fill it—the deepest distress +to feel it void.</p> + +<p class='c006'>All the excitement in the world is about pockets! +One party putting their hands in, and the other striving +<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>to keep them out—some going deeper than the +owners think right, and others appealing to the law +to make them submit. Yonder fat publishers laugh +at the profit they make, and here sits a lean author, +shedding tears over the pittance they give him. The +former are at peace with themselves and the world; +the latter is at war with his tailor and dreads the +sight of his butcher and baker. A history of pockets +would make startling disclosures and correct many +errors. Some would be found empty which rumor +crams full, while in others supposed not to contain +a maravedi a plum lies concealed.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Abolish pockets and the world will stand still, for +every man lives by putting his hand into his neighbor’s. +It is his business—the only one by which he +gets breads. To facilitate this reciprocal attention +to each other’s purses, merchants meet on ’Change, +shops are furnished, stores erected, markets established +and ships put afloat. For this, worshippers +of Mercury adore him, and disciples of St. Nicholas +pray. All the inequalities in human condition arise +from the various modes of performing the operation: +to do it adroitly is the science and apparently the +sole purpose of life. Few minds can comprehend +the multiplicity of devices by which pockets are exhausted, +replenished and made to run over; nor is +the genius yet born who can unravel them all:—but +a truce to such thoughts and let us glance for a moment +at pockets themselves.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Their name, as every body knows, is derived from +the <i>poke</i>—a sack for carrying grain to feed cattle, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>and sometimes small animals to market—hence the +expression “to buy a pig in a poke.” Reduced in +dimensions, it was adopted for holding victuals for +men, and subsequently implements to eat with. It +soon assumed a great variety of shapes, sizes and +names. As a wallet both ends were closed, with an +entrance through a slit in the middle, so that when +slung over the shoulder, one moiety of the contents +was suspended before and another behind—a species +of biped saddle-bags. As a simple purse it was +still more reduced and carried in the hand like a +satchel or hung over the wrist. The next form +was by far the most common, and we may safely +infer the most useful—that of the <i>pouch</i>. This ancient +and most favored of all forerunners of pockets +was located at a different part of the person. Suspended +from the girdle by strings or over the shoulders +by a strap, it hung at the hips, either on the +right side or left, (though sometimes in front,) so +that the hand could enter, remain in, or be withdrawn, +without inconvenience and with little effort. +It is to the pouch we are indebted for outside coat +pockets and ‘poches des culottes.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>As a bag or purse, the material was commonly +linen or silk, and the mouth drawn close with strings; +but as a pouch it was leather, sometimes prepared +with the fur on, and the entrance left <i>open</i>—a serious +inconvenience, since the opening became wider +as the contents increased—inviting the notice of inquisitive +people, and leading the patriarchs of pickpockets +into constant temptation; moreover, in wet +<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>weather rain dripped in from upper parts of the dress, +as into a gutter from the eaves of a house. These +evils were removed by the invention of covers or +<i>flaps</i>—an ingenious device for turning off water and +shutting out from public gaze the treasures within.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The epoch of flaps is not well ascertained, but +their antiquity is beyond cavil. In old cuts they are +not always distinguishable, because artists were ignorant +of the importance of delineating them distinctly. +Clovis, who flourished in the fifth century, +is represented with a purse or pouch at his girdle, +very like a modern lady’s work bag. In 1285 we +find a French gentleman with one shaped like the +curved blade of an axe or a leather-cutter’s knife. +Another specimen of the same century is plain, six +or seven inches deep and nearly as many broad. A +Parisian of A. D. 1400, sports one of a hemispherical +shape, handsomely fluted or crimped; but these, +belonging to fashionable people, deviated from flapped +pouches of the commonalty. [See <i>Art du Tailleur, +par Gausault</i>, published by the Academy in +Arts et Metières, and numerous examples of the +Anglo-Saxon pouch in Strutt.] Leather pouches +were staple articles of the shoemaker or cordwainer’s +art. In the ‘Orbis Pictus’ of Commenius, the +professor of those mysteries is at work, making them +with pointed and other fashionable formed flaps and +bodies. They were universally worn by people in +the middle ranks of life, down to the seventeenth +century, and by the poor in the eighteenth. We +believe they are not yet wholly laid aside.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>The next improvement was to secure the flaps. +This was sometimes accomplished by a simple button: +careful people had often two, and at one time +three were quite common, just as outside coat pockets +were fitted fifty years ago. These were indeed +literal pouches fastened near that part of the person +where they formerly hung, and with covers larger +than those of a cartridge-box. Flaps were often +edged with wrought borders and adorned with a row +of gilt buttons. The pouch was sometimes provided +with a minute padlock, like those used with valises, +a precaution for keeping strangers’ hands out, which +we do not remember having seen adopted by tailors.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As coats, vests, and culottes rose into favor, wallets +and pouches died off; but they left ere they +vanished a prolific brood of hybrids behind. These +are now classified under the generic names of the +garments to which they belong; as cloak, coat, +waistcoat and overcoat pockets, pockets for jackets, +pantaloons, &c. Some are named from their location; +as outside, inside, right and left handed pockets; +and others again after the articles they are intended +to hold. One is devoted to the handkerchief, +a second to the gloves, a third to an eye or ogling +glass, a fourth to a tooth pick, pencil case and knife. +Some are for money and memoranda, watches, snuff +boxes, small change, and indescribable sundries. +Professional men have professional pockets; as surgeons, +mechanics, and sportsmen; the first for their +instruments, the second for rules and measuring +tapes, the third for ammunition and game. Pockets +<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>for the last article are as capacious as knapsacks, +and when full often weigh down the owner, like Issachar’s +ass under a couple of panniers. Ere pockets +were invented, sportsmen were content with less +elaborate arrangements. Strutt has engraved the +figure of an Anglo-Saxon gentleman, scouring the +fields without a hat or any covering to his head; +his arms are a quiver and bow, while his game +(which he shot flying) are strung round his belt, +forming a picturesque fringe composed of brant, +snipe and quail.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Instead of the solitary pouch of our forefathers, +pockets have become so very numerous that it is +difficult to tell how many some gentlemen carry; +always a pair, but often from three to five in the coat, +two to four in the vest, as many in the pants, while +in stormy weather an equal number in the great +coat or surtout—and yet these are not enough, since +we often see people stow away in their hats what +they cannot find room for any where else—imitating +prudent skippers who pile freight on deck for want +of room in the hold. A person is now enveloped in +pockets; they are suspended so thickly about him, +that he would formerly have been taken for an itinerant +‘pochetier,’ or a merchant of new-fashioned +‘escarcelles.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>As fashion is governed by whim, some whimsical +pockets have come into fashion—as the ‘pocketing +sleeves’ of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. +These did not resemble the modern ‘bishop sleeve,’ +but were long pendant pokes, which hung from +<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>men’s arms like orioles’ nests, and from ladies’ wrists +like carpet bags. Modifications of them are yet +worn by Spanish and Portuguese monks. Head, in +his notes on the Pampas, mentions supping at an +apology for an inn with a travelling priest. After +finishing the meal, the reverend gentleman thrust +his hand “into the large sleeve of his white serge +gown and pulled out some cigars.” Old writers +state that these pockets were usually searched before +their wearers could be admitted into kings’ +houses, and in some cases before retiring; the conveniences +which they presented for concealing things +surreptitiously acquired, gave rise to some strange +petty larcenies.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Richard Brathwait, in his ‘Rules for the government +of the house of an Earle,’ charges the usher of +the dining hall to give a sharp look out, lest those +who wait at table pocket the victuals; ‘and I very +well like the order I have seene in some noble houses, +that neither yeoman, groome, nor gentleman’s man, +must be suffered to wait in a cloake, but in their +livery coates, [garments fitted close to the body,] for +so were they easier to be seene if they carried forthe +any meat that they ought not to doe.’ Hence there +was after all nothing very extraordinary in Hudibras +securing bread, black-puddings and cheese in his +trunk hose, or Sancho stowing away in similar cavities +boiled capons and sausage. Those who kept +porters’ lodges, [entrances to castles,] Brathwait +observes, “should be men tall and stronge; they +are to looke diligently that none filch and carry out +<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>at the gates meate or any thing else.” For the +same reason Roman slaves who served at table were +clothed only in tunics and girt with a towel. Visitors +used their own napkins which a servant carried +to the feast and took back, and in it generally part +of the victuals—sometimes they were detected carrying +off articles of plate.</p> + +<p class='c006'>So much for men’s pockets: those of the ladies +are more interesting affairs; but having been admonished +to let them alone, at least to refrain from +all remarks on modern ‘poches des dames,’ we shall +only take a peep at such as our grandmothers wore. +Indeed it would require a more inquisitive disposition +than ours to detect, and more assurance to describe +the devices by which young ladies avoid carrying the +enormous pouches in fashion a century ago. We +have neither the requisite knowledge nor nerve. To +be sure, we have occasionally seen belles, when preparing +for shopping, thrust their money between the +glove and palm of the hand, and others use cuffs of +the pelisse for the purpose; while in cold weather +they carry small parcels in muffs. Billets-doux and +souvenirs are concealed in the bosom—a favorite +place for favorite things—a convenient one too for +papers of thread, and other things of that sort, in +the absence of a work-bag—as Grecian and Roman +ladies well knew.</p> + +<p class='c006'>But there never was half the subtlety employed +in concealing the pockets of females as those of the +ruder sex. The French lady’s apron is provided +with two pockets in front, as if inviting inspection. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>Originally devised by ‘une marchande’ as a substitute +for the till, it was found so convenient for other +things besides change as to become adopted by +those who had nothing to sell. The famed reticule +is carried in the hand, in every one’s sight, and even +laid like the bonnet aside when its owner is not disposed +to walk out. Its materials and decorations +are surprisingly varied; sometimes formed of net +work (hence its name) of links of silver or steel, like +flexible armor of old; now made of shells, of seeds +and glass beads, of rich colored velvets and silks, +and enriched with lace. In public promenades, +swinging to and fro from the arms, these beautiful +things reflect rays tinctured with azure, crimson and +gold, reminding one of the plumage of tropical birds +in the sun.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In articles of taste ladies take the lead—reticules +are examples; for in them pockets have got back +to the old pendant pouch. Having run through the +entire circle of fashion, they have reached the point +where they began, and are ready to run it again. +This is an advance which the male sex has not attained; +as in other circles, the beaux are here doomed +to follow the belles.</p> + +<p class='c006'>But we are forgetting our promise to let pockets +of living ladies alone, and notice simply such as belonged +to frugal housewives in days gone by. Of +a truth, theirs <i>were</i> pockets!—receptacles, redolent +of other perfumes than camphor or musk, and replete +with other things than ladies now carry. Characteristic +of rude times, they were doomed to hard +<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>service. At first they were made of the most durable +of woven fabrics, but so great was the wear and +tear that eventually well tanned leather superseded +every other material. In shape many of them resembled +an inverted heart, but more were like a violin +and in size a violoncello. Into one of these capacious +<i>cul de sacs</i> a dozen reticules might have +been put, a muff thrown in, and room be left. Let +those who doubt this, if any such there be, enquire +of an ancient farmer’s wife, and they will doubt no +more.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Besides doing duty as a purse or money drawer, +we have known one hold a clasp-knife for paring +apples and ripping up seams, half a dozen silver +spoons, supposed to be safe no where else; a bunch +of keys, bits of ginger, cinnamon, and straggling +cloves, metallic tractors, a box of salve, a pincushion, +thimble, scissors, a leather case well stocked with +bodkins, needles, tape and hanks of thread. The +marbles of the owner’s favorite boy were thus secured +each day, till he returned from school. A set +of knitting needles with their sheath found lodgings +there, and often folded in a half formed stocking, +with the ball of yarn to finish it. There were other +matters, but we forbear to specify them. It would +be difficult to do so, because into this <i>omnium gatherum</i> +all things were placed for which no other place +was found—a kind of moving closet, into which, in +sweeping round a house, the odds and ends were +swept—things so various and select as would suffice +to stock a curiosity shop.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>It will at once be understood that pockets such as +these were not suspended to any part of the attire: +no gingham gown, nor silk, nor cotton stuff could +long support the load without being rent to tatters. +No! they were strapped round the person independently +of the dress—a necessary precaution! They +were worn at the right side, except the fair owner +was an ambidexter, when they took the left. In +large households a lady preferred <i>two</i>, thus dividing +the load and making one half balance the other; at +the same time preventing the wearer from the risk of +being dragged down on one side and becoming deformed +in the spine. It was at one time common to +wear them on the outside of the gown, when they +were generally ornamented with stars, rings and +lovers’ knots, in various colored leather. Sometimes +the owner or the donor’s name was wrought +in ‘chain stitch,’ and like samplers with a motto underneath.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Justice to a class of scientific artists, now no more, +requires us to state that these pockets were not the +work of women. The severe labor to which they +were subjected when in use, required a corresponding +amount to be expended on their fabrication: this, +as in the case of shoes, saddlery, and other departments +of the leather trade, was deemed too great for +females; hence housewives were indebted for their +pockets, as well as corsets, to old ‘stay makers.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>A marked relationship in the dress of the sexes +is ever observable. If the costume of one sex be +neat, elegant, or bizarre, so is that of the other. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>They partake of each other’s character, and are assimulated, +though in a way not easily described; but +look at works of costume from Roman times to our +own, and this curious fact will be apparent. It is +so to some extent even with pockets. When those +of our grandmothers were all but fathomless, our +grandfathers had theirs made of equal dimensions. +When ladies wore high caps and copious gowns +tucked out behind, gentlemen had their hair worked +up in crests like cockatoos, and clad themselves in +coats whose skirts were not like ours, “swallowtailed,” +but broad and projecting, <i>a la</i> fan-tailed pigeons.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Let us now return to spoons: <i>Fig. 3</i>, <i>Plate V.</i> +is another old pocket or folding one. The original, +lying before us, is of silver. Like the one already +described, its handle forms a fork. Having been +purchased by a silversmith with other worn out plate, +its history is unknown. From the style of the workmanship +and other more obvious marks of antiquity, +it would seem to date from a much earlier period +than <i>Fig. 1</i>. The bowl is 2¾ inches long and 1¾ wide, +and of a moderate depth; the length of bowl and handle +when united, 6½ inches. Folded, the whole is +comprised in less room than an ordinary snuff box. +The jointed handle is shown separately at <i>Fig. 4</i>. +The lower part, where united to the fork, is plain and +square—a portion of which is removed on one side, +leaving a recess into which the small shank of the +fork is received; so that when the little sliding and +ornamented tube is slipped over both, a perfect fork +<span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>is made. <i>Fig. 5</i>—the back of the bowl, showing +five oblong loops, through which the prongs were +pushed when the owner wished to transfer liquid +food to his lips.</p> + +<p class='c006'>An interesting feature, and one indicative of considerable +antiquity, is the <i>death’s head</i>, and round it +the well known admonition, ‘<i>memento mori</i>,’ engraved +on the bowl—the initials of the melancholy +owner standing on each side like armorial supporters +to this graveyard emblazonry. The letters and +writing are rudely executed, much more so than appears +in the cut.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Possibly the implement belonged to some pious +recluse who doomed himself to self-torture, and took +this mode of mortifying his flesh—causing an image +of the grim monster to stare him in the face with +every mouthful he swallowed—a device by which the +horrors of the charnel house were associated with +the dining table! Quite a refinement on the practice +of the ancient Egyptians—a people naturally lively +and jocose, and whom the priests, as guardians of +their morality, had considerable difficulty to keep +within bounds. At convivial parties, Herodotus informs +us (ii. 78) a coffin containing a perfect image +of a dead person was carried round to every guest, +the bearer requesting him to look on, and remember +he would soon resemble it—an ingenious contrivance +to keep people sober—but the owner of the +spoon went further; he actually put into his mouth +a grinning death’s head when he tasted his food, and +repeated the operation with every morsel he ate. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>Custom is all powerful, or such a mode of taking +dinner would stay some people’s stomachs ere dinner +began.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Numerous were the inventions in past ages for +conquering rebellious appetites. Most of them had +relation to abstinence; as with the Yogees and other +sects of India, of which some individuals, though +watched closely, were never seen to eat, and were +therefore esteemed most holy. There is certainly +nothing like fasting for subduing the passions, and it +is really astonishing how far it has been carried. +Red lettered eremites, in whose constitutions a craving +for food predominated, heroically endured the +constant pangs of hunger and thirst, with the view of +fairly starving the wicked ones out. Some limited +themselves to two or three spoonfuls of thin pottage +a day, and with it actually ‘mixed dirt’ to punish +the palate, or sprinkled in ‘grit’ to set the teeth on +an edge! They sorrowed because they could not +exist without eating. From some accounts it would +seem as if each spoonful was accompanied to the +mouth with a groan, while streams of tears often +made it run over! No wonder that such men checked +indulgence in themselves and other people by +engraving emblems of death on table utensils.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Perhaps it will be said, severe disciplinarians used +simple spoons of wood or horn, while the one under +consideration, being of silver, was not suited to +a sorrowful penitent. True; hence if it really belonged +to a monastery, it perhaps had a place in the +abbot’s buffet. These men, we know, ‘lived well,’ +<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>bodily as well as spiritually; they were no strangers +to creature comforts. ‘Table d’Abbe’ was a proverbial +expression for a splendidly furnished board. +They were served in plate, and with considerable +state too; so were lady abbesses also; but we cannot +think this spoon was ever owned by a nun—no +female could of choice love to contemplate (in the +ornament on the back) the figure her face was destined +to make, nor did any one ever wish her beauty +to fade. The lady of the cloister no more than her +sister of the ball room was ever insensible to personal +charms or indifferent about her appearance in the +eyes of mankind.</p> + +<p class='c006'>With the implement, then, we may suppose some +superior of a convent moderately cherished his body, +especially on meagre days; and as an exterior sign of +interior grace had a symbol of mortification cut on +the outside of the bowl. Perhaps many a lesson on +fasting was given to his attendants with this spoon +in his hand—serious homilies on the evils of good +cheer, and the blessings heaven bestows on the abstemious—blessings, +we may presume, evinced in the +shining face, the <i>en bon point</i> and comely appearance +of his reverence. But other thoughts were indulged +and other scenes enacted when his table was +cleared, and the spoon, with the dishes, found their +way to the kitchen or refectory, where the lay brethren +dined, out of his sight and out of his hearing! +Verily, all the stories extant about monasteries and +monks would be well nigh eclipsed by a week’s table-talk +held in the presence of an old abbot’s spoon.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>Possibly some reader exclaims, ‘this is all well +enough, if the implement ever had a place in a convent—it +more likely was owned by a layman; the +initials imply as much, while the female bust on the +handle was not by any means appropriate for a +priest either to handle or look on.’ There is some +force in these remarks. Well, let us see to whom +it could have belonged—not to an Englishman certainly, +since neither the maker’s nor the government +stamp is impressed on it. It is from continental +Europe, and if made to order was designed for a +gentleman acquainted with mythology and versed in +the classics. The handle, representing a nymph and +twisted serpents, indicates this. Now who could he +be? The initials are A. L.—perhaps Alphonso Ledesma, +the Spanish poet, who died in 1623; or Andrea Lanzano, +the Italian painter; but poets and +painters are generally poor, and many, like Cervantes +and Morland, never owned any plate; we shall +therefore conclude that Andrew Laguna, the rich +and favorite physician of Charles V. once owned it. +If such <i>was</i> the fact, this spoon was, probably often +in the company of the most famous men of the age. +It may have been even handled by Columbus himself, +after returning from his immortal adventure.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Other readers may think the implement was originally +made for the <i>special</i> use of an individual: +very possible, and on second thoughts we may be +sure none but a niggard, afraid of his victuals, or a +miser like Elwes could have made a practice of putting +such an one into guests’ hands.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>After all it is no great matter who the owner was. +It has obviously existed through two, possibly three +or even four centuries, and has seen much service. +Many are the mouths it has opened, the palates it +has tickled, the stomachs it has comforted, the +tongues it has silenced, and peradventure blistered +by hastily leaving scalding pottage in the mouth. But +alas! where now are the eyes that once glistened over +it, the wits seated at tables it has graced? Having +outlived them all, it appears in a land of strangers; +a wanderer in another hemisphere. Could this venerable +relic give an account of its former proprietors, +tell us who and what they were, how they lived and +where they died, how it came among and why parted +from them—could it describe their persons, tempers, +and conditions, the friends they entertained and the +families they visited—few novels would surpass, perhaps +none equal the story in interest.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Forks.</span>—As the handles of some old spoons were +separable from the bowls, so as to be used as <i>forks</i>, +we may as well devote the concluding pages of this +chapter to the latter. The transition from pocket-spoons +to pocket-forks is easy enough, but when +both implements are joined together, their descriptions +should not be apart.</p> + +<p class='c006'>There is something singular in the history of forks. +Though of modern date, as little is known of their +origin as that of spoons. The author of one is as +much lost to fame as the inventor of the other. It +is certain that people of the ancient world took dinner +without forks. All raised victuals to their mouths +<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>as orientals do now; hot and thin liquids with spoons, +and butcher’s meat with the fingers. Even in the advanced +state of society and manners under the Pharaohs, +Egyptians held cooked joints and roasted fowls +in one hand while shaving off slices with a knife in +the other. In one of the paintings copied by Rossilini +representing a feasting party, a gentleman flourishes +a joint of venison or lamb, two are eating fish which +they retain in their fingers, while a fourth is actually +separating the wing of a goose with the same instruments. +This may have been an exception to the +general practice, though if so, why it should have +been selected for record on eternal tablets of stone, +it is not easy to divine. These tablets present the +most ancient pictures in existence of feasts. It is +not till some four thousand years later we meet +with table forks. These are not found portrayed in +sculptures, nor paintings or engravings till the 17th +century, yet pictorial delineations of Roman, Asiatic, +Norman, and Anglo-Saxon domestic life abound.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The absence of forks at Jewish tables is sufficiently +evident from the affecting declaration of the +Savior: ‘He that dippeth his hand with me in the +dish, the same shall betray me’—the identical mode +of eating still followed in Palestine. We know from +Roman writers, that to take food from a dish without +unnecessarily immersing the fingers, was a part of +the education of youth of both sexes. Ovid has versified +the lesson:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Your meat genteelly with your fingers raise;</div> + <div class='line'>And, as in eating there’s a certain grace,</div> + <div class='line'>Beware, with greasy hands, lest you besmear your face.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>The same advice was imparted to boys and girls +of ancient Greece. It is now impressed upon their +offspring by the polite Persian, Turk and Hindoo. +Boarding schools are of extreme antiquity, (ii. Kings, +iv. 38.) and Pharaonic as well as Jewish proprietors +taught young masters and misses to behave not unseemly +at table. Chaucer mentions a school at Bow, +where girls were initiated in the arts of fashionable +life; among other acquirements they were taught +how to avoid putting their hands too deep in the +dish. Somewhat similar advice was given to European +ladies in the seventeenth century, and Quixote +praises Sancho for his attainments in this branch of +politeness.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It was the want of forks which gave rise to the old +practice of washing before and after meals—one for +which the ceremonious Pharisees were so tenacious, +and with which they combined many ridiculous superstitions. +The custom was demanded by decency, +when plates were not in use and each person at dinner +thrust his hand into one common dish. What +could be more offensive to natural propriety than an +individual fishing up from that dish gobbets of flesh +with fingers only washed with the soup! To the +decent as well as the delicate, the sight must ever +be abhorrent. A subsequent ablution was as necessary +to personal comfort as the first was to the company’s +enjoyment of their food. When pocket handkerchiefs +were not in vogue, what else could a lady +or gentleman do while their fingers were streaming +with the fluid material of a ragout, or coated with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>the glutinous remains of a bowl of rich cuscous? +They must either have wiped them dry on the hair +of their heads, or rubbed off what they could on their +garments. The process of washing the hands, and +the utensils employed, are described at page <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, as +used in Europe in the sixteenth century. Later +still the custom was common. In Commenius’ Visible +World there is a cut representing a feast. The +guests being brought in, wash their hands by holding +them over a basin presented by a servant, who +pours out water from an ewer. The reader who is +desirous of beholding orientals dining on the favorite +ragout may consult the cuts in Lane’s Modern Egyptians, +and illustrated works on Eastern manners. If +he wishes to see how occidentals formerly managed +roasted joints let him cast his eyes on the cut below, +copied from Strutt:</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/image203.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>ANGLO-SAXON NOBLES OR PRINCES AT DINNER.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Three Anglo-Saxon nobles or princes at dinner! +Their rank is indicated by being served on the knee. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>The number was one most preferred in classical eras +for convivial parties. These, it was said, ought never +to consist of fewer persons than the Graces nor +more than the Muses. The round table is covered +by an ample cloth upon which are placed bowls or +deep dishes, but no plates. One of the party only +is supplied with a spoon; he seems in the act of calling +to his attendant, perhaps for soup. His associates +amuse themselves with solider things; one is +engaged in separating a slice from a joint presented +on the rod on which it was roasted. To facilitate +the operation, he grasps one end of the spit while the +waiter holds fast the other. The gentleman with a +beard appears indetermined whether to follow the +example or first finish the fish in his hand.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Here is ocular proof how indispensable was the +washing of hands <i>after</i> dinner, and this old painting +is in all essential points a mere fac-simile of others +which might be produced, of earlier and later dates. +The reader may find specimens in D’Agincourt’s +History of the Arts. Plate 71 shows a royal party +at a table furnished much in the same style as the +foregoing. To assist digestion and gratify two senses +at once, a fiddler stands by, playing a favorite air. +The date is about the 11th century. But so late as +the middle of the 17th century, it was common for +carvers to <i>handle</i> flesh meats at table. In 1641 a +festival was held at Paris by the <i>Savetiers</i>. One gentleman +grasps the shank of a leg of mutton while cutting +it up, to supply the plate of a lady beside him. +It is hence obvious that the unbecoming practice of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>‘licking the fingers,’ attributed as a crime to ancient +turnspits, was not unknown to their betters—that +kings as well as cobblers were guilty of it daily.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The attendants in the cut wear tunics, and apparently +are girt with towels. Each holds a trencher, +the essential requisite of an Anglo-Saxon page. He +was never allowed to wait at table without it; a good +reason for which is furnished by the illustration: +held under the smoking joint, it caught the dripping +gravy and such pieces of meat as a guest when carving +might let fall. [The rich subject of <i>spits</i> must +be left for future papers which the Society of Chiffonniers +intend to issue.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Perhaps some readers imagine the want of forks +was sensibly felt in old times, and that they were eagerly +adopted as soon as they appeared. No such +thing. We regret to say their introduction was violently +opposed, and a storm of abuse poured on the +heads of their users. Even the clergy, who ought +to have known better, preached against them as a +wicked innovation. Among others, the Benedictines +of St. Maur declared them inconsistent with +the scriptural mode of living, as exemplified by the +patriarchs, prophets, and especially by the great exemplar +and his apostles—an abominable violation of +primitive manners! But notwithstanding the denunciation +of table forks by friars and monks, the very +people among whom the pope had his seat were the +first to receive them. They were first domesticated +in Italy in the 16th century, but were certainly known +there before, either as luxuries or curiosities.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>As early as the 11th and 12th centuries they were +occasionally used by the wealthy. Peter Damiani, +who died A. D. 1073, mentions in one of his letters +a lady of Constantinople, married to a doge of Venice, +and who, among other strange fancies, required +rain water to wash in, and used a <i>golden</i> fork to eat +with. But this does not determine the date or place +of their invention. It does not appear that they were +quite novel things then—nay, a silver fork has been +found at Pompeii; so that they were not absolutely +unknown to some of the fashionables of antiquity.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Forks are mentioned in a charter of Ferdinand I. +of Spain, A. D. 1101. In the wardrobe account of +Edward I. king of England, ‘a pair of knives with +sheathes of silver enameled, and a forcke of chrystal’ +are specified. In 1595, Queen Elizabeth dined at +Kew, at the house of Sir John Pickering, who presented +her with a rich fan, the handle of which was +set with diamonds; an artificial nosegay composed +of jewels, “and to grace him the more, she, of herself, +took from him a salt, a spoone, and a forcke of +fair agatte.” At the same period they were looked +on as curiosities in France. Brathwait, who wrote +his ‘Rules’ in the early part of the reign of James I. +is silent on forks, though full on the minutest matters. +The groom of the pantry was “to keepe the +saltes, spoones, and knives very faire and cleane.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>It was owing to their being made portable that +eventually brought forks into vogue. Travellers, +gentlemen, delicate ladies, young beaux, and all who +disliked to feed out of dishes into which the fingers +<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>of a company were unceremoniously thrust, carried +their eating apparatus in a case or cadenas. The +eighty-second proposition of the Marquis of Worcester’s +famous Century of Inventions is a proof in +point;—“A knife, spoon, or fork, in an <i>usual</i> portable +case, may have the like conveyance in their handles;” +i.e. secret devices might be concealed in +them. Nichols mentions knives with ‘conceytes’ in +the handles—a toothpick for example, as in a spoon +already described. Great ingenuity was displayed +in things of this kind and not a little pride indulged +in them by the wearers—like the conceited fop in +Gil Blas who carried his gloves and handkerchief in +the hilt of his sword. The oldest forks were generally +of silver. Henry IV. of France had one of +steel. Heylin attributes their introduction into England +to young men of fashion, but errs, we think, in +ascribing them to the Chinese: “The use of silver +forks with us, by some of our spruce gallants taken +up <i>of late</i>, came from China to Italy, and from thence +to England.”—[<i>Cosmog.</i> p. 865.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the cut of a feast in Commenius, besides trenchers, +cups, glasses, knives, and other table furniture, +there are “<span class='blackletter'>little forks</span>,” not much unlike those figured +on Plate VI. which date from an earlier period. +In 1611, Coryatt, the eccentric English traveller was +ridiculed by writers and wits for using forks. Their +introduction into Britain has been erroneously ascribed +to him. They were previously known there +as we have seen, but the book of his travels made +the public more familiar with them:</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>“I observed,” he says “a custom in all those Italian +cities and townes through the which I passed, +that is not used in any other country that I saw in +my travels; neither do I think that any other nation +of Christendome doth use it, but only Italy. The +Italian and most strangers that are commorant [dwelling] +in Italy, do alwaies at their meales <i>use a little +forke</i>, when they cut their meate. For while with +their knife, which they hold in one hand, they cut +the meate out of the dish, they fasten their forke, +which they hold in the other hand, upon the same +dish. So that whatsoever he be, that sitting in the +company of any others at meale, should unadvisedly +touch the dish of meate with his fingers, from which +all at the table doe eat, he will give occasion of offense +unto the company, as having transgressed the +lawes of good manners; insomuch that for his error +he shall be at least brow-beaten, if not reprehended +in words. This forme of feeding, I understand, is +generally used in all places in Italy, their forkes being +for the most part made of yron or steele, and +some of silver; but these are used only by gentlemen. +The reason of this their curiosity is, because +the Italian cannot by any means have his dish touched +with fingers, seeing all men’s fingers are not alike +cleane—hereupon I myself thought good, to imitate +the Italian fashion, by this forked cutting of meate, +not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, +and oftentimes in England since I came home: being +once quipped for that frequent using of my forke, +by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>mine, one Master Laurence Whitaker, who in his +merry humour doubted not to call me <i>furcifer</i>, only +for using a forke at feeding.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the preceding extract, we have a view of Italian +gentlemen ‘feeding’ in the beginning of the 17th +century. In the following passage we obtain an insight +into British manners during the middle of it:—“A +gentlewoman being at table, abroad or at home, +must observe to keep her body straighte, and lean +not by any means upon her elbowes—nor by ravenous +gesture discover a voracious appetite. Talke not +when you have meate in your mouth; and do not +smacke like a pig—nor eat spoonemeat so hot that +the tears stand in your eyes. It is very uncourtly +to drink so large a draught that your breath is almost +gone, and you are forced to blow strongly to +recover yourselfe. Throwing down your liquor as, +into a funnel, is an action fitter for a juggler than a +gentlewoman. In carving at your own table, distribute +the best pieces first, and it will appear very +decent and comely to <i>use a forke</i>; so touch no piece +of meat without it.” This elegant extract is from +‘<i>The Accomplished Lady’s Rich Closet of Rarities</i>.’ +London, 1653.</p> + +<p class='c006'>To conclude: That forks were known in Spain +when Cervantes wrote, is obvious from the address +of Quixote to Don Antonio in praise of Squire Pansa: +‘In truth, Sancho’s temperance and cleanliness +in eating deserve to be engraved on plates of brass, +to remain an eternal memorial for ages to come. I +must confess when he is hungry, he seems to be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>somewhat of a glutton, for he eats fast and chews +on both sides of his mouth; but for cleanliness he +always strictly observes it. When he was a governor +he learned to eat so nicely that he took up grapes +and even the grains of pomegranates with the point +of a <span class='fss'>FORK</span>.’</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Oriental Manners—Semifluids and Fingers—Spoons of Gold +and Silver prohibited—Church Plate—Quibbling Evasion of +Mahomet’s Precept—Modern Oriental Spoons—Substitutes for +Tumblers—Arabs at Dinner—Revenge of Hasan—Persian +Spoons—A Vulgar Ambassador—Cakes used as Napkins—Frolic +of Tavernier and the King of Persia—Proverbs—Sherbert +Spoons—Curious Article in the Persian Creed—Repartee—Chinese +Spoons—Chopsticks—Sheathed Knives and Spoons—Worn +by Janizaries—‘Standard and Caldron’—Military Romances—Ancient +Beggars—Clack Dish and Spoon—Interesting +Family—Beggars and Lent—St. Giles.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>A cursory reader of travels might imagine spoons +unknown in the greater part of the earth, so frequently +are unguarded expressions to that effect met with. +We may therefore as well premise that the practice +of conveying <i>semifluid</i> food to the mouth without +them was formerly as universal as handling flesh, +meats at table without forks. With the exception +of Europe and European descendants, it is so still. +Boiled rice is the great pabulum of life to a majority +<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>of our species—with millions it is the only food. +Now, whether eaten by the scrupulous Hindoo, delicate +Persian, or fastidious Turk—people with whom +cleanliness is godliness, whose daily ablutions are religious +duties—or by the revolting Hottentot, the +wild Arab, or revengeful Malay, it is conveyed to +the mouth with the hand alone. So general is this +filthy custom among people on opposite parts of the +globe that it can hardly be looked on in any other light +than as a relic of times when mankind formed one +family—times when no forks were used but fingers, +no other knives than finger nails, and spoons had +not been thought of—when men and women clutched +their food as parrots do, and raised it to their lips +like squirrels.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Suppose we add a few examples of the custom—not +drawn from people ignorant of spoons, but such +as follow it from choice. The reflecting reader will +need no stronger proof of the still prevailing influence +of antediluvian usages, and of the humiliating +fact, that like other creatures, men are creatures of +habit—that tenacity to the rude practices of our forefathers +is not always to be overcome by refinements +or reason.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Hindoos use neither knives nor forks at table, +‘nor spoons except with soup.’ Rice is served on +banana leaves cut in the form of plates, and fresh +ones are had for every meal.</p> + +<p class='c006'>M. Loubere, ambassador to Siam in 1687, and +the author of two volumes on that country, says:—<span lang="fr">‘Ils +n’ont à table, ny nappe, ny serviette, ny cuillière, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>ny fourchette, ny couteau.’ [<i>Tome</i> i. 101.]</span> But that +spoons were known there, is clear from the oriental +jewelry and plate presented to the king of France +by his royal brother of Siam, in 1685. Among other +things was ‘une <span lang="fr"><i>cuillière d’or</i>, au plus bel ouvrage +du Japon.</span>’—[<i>His. Gen. Tome</i> xii.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>One traveller says the natives of Madagascar use +no spoons; another, that they find substitutes for +them and for dishes and ladles in the leaves of the +raven plant. According to a third, spoons are not +uncommon, while some of costly materials are occasionally +to be met with. Rice is considered the best +of all dishes; and beef, mutton, fowls and fish mere +adjuncts. These, when cooked, are cut into small +pieces, and invariably served up on boiled rice, into +which ‘horn spoons are stuck,’ and for it alone used. +The fore finger and thumb—a pair of natural forceps—pick +up the meat and deliver it into the mouth. +When Radama, king of the Island, died in 1828, +immense treasure was buried with him. His coffin +was silver. To make it, fourteen thousand dollars +were melted and beaten into plates, which were fastened +together with silver rivets. Besides other valuables +buried with him were a silver <i>ladle</i> and a <i>golden +spoon</i>, for his use in another world.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The people of Barbary make no use of knives +and forks, ‘and very rarely of spoons.’ Like other +orientals, they take up their food with the right hand, +and dexterously jerk it into the mouth. Caffres use +neither tables, knives nor plates, but sometimes call +in the aid of forks and spoons. Squatting round a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>boiling pot, each spears with a pointed stick a piece +of flesh, and leisurely eats it from the hand; When +a missionary arrived at Lattakoo, some colored ladies +sent his party a present of porridge in the pot +in which it was made, but unaccompanied with implements +to eat it with; they never thought of spoons +being used with semifluid food, but naturally supposed +that white as well as black men’s fingers tasted +every morsel swallowed. The Negroes of the +Gambia, says Moore, are not very proud in their furniture, +for the greater part have only a mat raised on +a few sticks to sleep on, a jar for water, a calabash for +drinking, two or three mortars to pound rice, and calabashes +out of which they eat rice with <i>their hands</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Sumatrans, says Marsden, use at table neither +knives nor spoons, nor any substitute for them. +They take up rice and other victuals with the thumb +and fingers, and dexterously throw it into the mouth. +Rice is boiled generally in a joint of bamboo, and by +the time it is cooked the vessel is nearly destroyed. +Their manner of boiling the grain is to let it simmer +over a slow fire, drawing off the water by degrees +‘with a flat ladle or spoon.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Bashee Islanders take meat from the pot in +which it is cooked with their fingers, as the Moors +do pillau, using no spoons. At Mindanao the common +food is sago and rice. When served up, each +person dips his fingers in water, to prevent the glutinous +food from sticking to them; then taking a +handful out of the platter, squeezes it into a lump, +and crams it into his mouth. [<i>Dampier.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>When Kotzebue was at Owhyhee, Tamaahmaah, +the king, who possessed European table utensils, including +spoons, used a gourd for a basin at dinner, +and fed himself like an Asiatic, dipping his fingers +into the taro dough, and conveying it to his mouth +with the same implements. He observed to the +Russian navigator: ‘This is the custom in my country, +and I will not depart from it.’ The same slovenly +way of eating was observed from the king to +the lowest menial. Mr. Farnham, in his ‘Scenes in +the Pacific,’ is more particular: “The mode of conveying +<i>poi</i> to their mouths was quite primitive. The +fore and middle fingers served instead of a spoon. +These they inserted to the depth of the knuckles, and +having raised as much as would lie upon them, and +by a very dexterous whirl brought it into a globular +shape upon the tips, they thrust it into their mouths +and licked the fingers clean for another essay.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>When Captain John Smith, the hero and historian +of Virginia was a slave among the Turks, his +stomach was sorely tried. In his chapter on Turkish +diet, he says pillau was served out to his captors +in great bowls; they sat ‘round it on the ground, +and after they have raked it thorow so oft as they +please with their foule fists, the remainder was for +the christian slaves.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Nearly 200 years have elapsed since Van Sleb +visited Egypt. He was once entertained at an extraordinary +banquet given by a rich Arab; but ‘wine +was wanting, and spoons, knives and forks.’ ‘The +modern Egyptians;’ says Lane, ‘seldom use at table +<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>either knives or forks; the thumb and two fingers +of the right hand serve for every thing not fluid. +Spoons are used for soup and thin rice, or other +things not easily conveyed to the mouth without +them.’ The same writer, speaking ‘on meals and +the manner of eating,’ in a note to his translation of +the ‘Thousand and One Tales,’ remarks: ‘The table +is usually placed upon a round cloth spread in +the middle of the floor, or in a corner next two of +the deewáns or low seats, which generally extend +along three sides of the room: it is composed of a +large round tray of silver, or tinned copper or brass, +supported by a stool commonly about 15 or 16 inches +high, made of wood and generally inlaid with +mother of pearl, tortoise shell, &c. The dishes are +of silver, of tinned copper or china; several are placed +upon the tray, and around them are dispersed +some round flat cakes of bread, with <i>spoons</i> of <i>box-wood</i>, +<i>ebony</i>, or other material.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>The leading customs through all the East, with +regard to eating, are in fact similar. When people +sit at table their legs are crossed under them. They +perform topical ablutions before and after meals, at +which knives and spoons are seldom seen. When +the master of the family is present, he first puts his +hand in the dish, and the rest in order after him. +There is another particular with which the reader +should be acquainted, in order to understand why +<i>wooden</i> spoons chiefly are used by wealthy orientals. +The poorer classes have spoons of horn, wood, brass, +and iron; and a few silver and golden ones may occasionally +<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>be found on the tables of princes and rich +men; but such are not common, and for this reason: +<i>they were prohibited</i> by Mahomet. “Verily, [said +he,] the fire of hell will roar like the bellowings of +a camel in the bellies of those who eat and drink +from vessels of gold and silver.” No articles of +plate are allowed in mosques, and formerly they +were excluded from christian churches. “Exuperius, +Bishop of Tholose, ministered the holie supper +with a glasse cup and a wicker basket. The +Triburien Council disputed whether golden or woodden +vessels should be used. Boniface, the martyr, +said when they were golden priests, they had woodden +cups, but now being woodden priests, they will +have golden challices.” [<i>P. Martyr, on ‘Ornaments +of Churches.’</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Some rich Mahommedans, however, like other +rich people, contrive, while obeying literally a precept +they do not like, to depart widely from its spirit. +Indeed no law, divine or human, can repress the +love of distinction. Hunger breaks through stone +walls, but pride bursts through brass ones. Believers +in the Koran are forbid to eat of drink out of +gold or silver utensils. ‘True,’ quoth a worldly-minded +mufti; ‘<i>that</i> applies only to things put to +the lips, not to trays, dishes, wash-basins, knives, +nor yet to the <i>handles</i> of spoons, for none of these +things come in contact with the mouth.’ Awful +would be the fury of the prophet, could he hear his +doctrines thus explained away; and how would his +indignation boil could he read the following extract +<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>from a travelling giaour’s remarks on the manners of +his people: ‘As for pillau, and other soft and liquid +meats, the Turks have spoons, though not of gold and +silver, which they are forbidden by the law to put +into their mouths. Those at the tables of persons +of distinction are generally of <i>agate</i>, <i>amber</i>, or other +scarce material, with <i>handles</i> of gold or silver gilt, +and set with <i>jewels</i>; for the parts which enter not +the mouth <i>may be</i> of those metals!’ [<i>Motraye.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the ‘Grande Description,’ tome ii, E. M. are +two Egyptian spoons of the kind, being richly ornamented. +They are shown in <i>Figs. 6, 7, Plate V.</i> +‘<span lang="fr">Cuillers en ecaille, ornées d’ambre, de corail et de +nacre.</span>’ [<i>Fig. 8</i> is enlarged from a cut in Jacob Cat’s +works.] <i>Fig. 9</i>—another Turkish spoon, elaborately +enriched in both bowl and handle.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The Turks and other orientals seldom drink at +meals, but when they do it is out of spoons; hence +if they do not employ them always as we do, they +put them in requisition where we do not. The wealthy +have a variety of pleasant drinks, consisting of +diluted peach, cherry, and raspberry syrups. Each +person has by him a <i>wooden spoon</i>, with which he +lades the syrup out of bowls, taking ever and anon +spoonfuls of it, and so suspends his thirst. [<i>Tavernier.</i>] +A sweet drink, composed of raisins boiled in +sugar and scented with rose water, is drunk by ladies +out of ladles, or spoons of tortoise shell, and +sometimes of cocoa nut. [<i>Lane.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Near the custom house, says Commodore Porter, +is the most famous eating place in all Constantinople. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>Persons who like what is good go there to regale +themselves with kibobs, a dish in great favor +with the Turks. It consists of pieces of mutton or +lamb cut into small mouthfuls and seasoned; then +strung on an iron skewer and exposed to the heat +of an oven of peculiar construction. They are, when +done, served up in their own gravy, or in kaymar, +which is cream. There is also served with them a +soft flat kind of bread or pancake, which, as no knives +or forks are made use of, suits admirably as a means +of conveying the kibobs and kaymar to the mouth, +whence they soon find their way into the stomach. +The bread is called Firna Pidésé. With this mess +they give you a large vessel filled with sherbet, or +a drink prepared from dried grapes, and to each person +is given a <i>large spoon</i> to sip it.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The manners of Arabs at table are repulsive. +‘They use neither knives nor forks, nor even spoons, +unless for food wholly liquid.’ They have been observed +to plunge their filthy hands into milk placed +before them, and thus raise the liquid to the lips. +Before sitting down they repeat a short prayer beginning +thus:—“In the name of the most merciful +God.” The instant it is finished all hands are in +the food—and lo, it has vanished! “In the middle +of all was a large wooden bowl, in which were the +camel’s bones and a thin broth in which they were +boiled. Knives, forks, and spoons are silly, impertinent +things in the esteem of Arabs; however, being +known to use such things, we had large wooden +spoons laid before us.” [<i>Jour. to Tadmor</i>, 1691.]</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>Having no arabesque spoon, plain or jewelled, to +lay before the reader, we present him with a gem of +another kind—one first brought to light as an Ishmaelite +sat down to dinner. It is an old remark that +hunger induces ill humor—that men are more disposed +to anger when waiting for a meal, than when +rising from the table. As Hasan, the son and successor +of Ali was one day about to dine, a slave let +a dish of hot pillau drop on him! An unprecedented +insult to the dread leader of the faithful! Now, how +did the startled caliph, as his eyes glistened and his +face assumed the color of fire, act—he at whose nod +the heads of a dozen men would have flown for a +less offence from their owners’ shoulders? We have +seen a servant of the pope’s slain for spilling hot +broth on a scholar, and an ambassador of his holiness +flying for his life on that occasion to a steeple; +we know too how a pagan Roman acted when one +of his servants let a porcelain dish fall, at a supper +given to Augustus—viz: ordered the offender to be +sunk in a fish-pond wherein the monster fattened +lampreys on human flesh! an order which thrilled +Octavius with horror.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The revenge of Hasan exceeded them both; and +it was based on a verse of the Koran! In the third +chapter of that book is the following passage:—“Paradise +is prepared for those who give alms in +prosperity and adversity; who bridle their anger and +forgive men, for God loveth the beneficent.” Dreading +the caliph’s resentment, the poor slave dropped +on his knees, and in an agony exclaimed, “Paradise +<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>is for those who bridle their anger—” “I—I am, not +angry,” was the unexpected reply. The trembling +supplicant proceeded—“and for those who forgive +men—” “I forgive you,” was the life-sparing answer—thus +emboldened, the youth meekly added, +“for God loveth the beneficent.” “Since it is so,” +said Hasan, whose brow the angel of forgiveness had +now smoothed, and lit up his face with virtue’s own +smile—“I give you your liberty and four hundred +pieces of silver”!</p> + +<p class='c006'>If there is a more beautiful episode in human annals, +we have not met with it. Who would compare +Alexander to Hasan—who is not enraptured at the +intelligence and ready wit of the young Arab slave; +at the inspiration which led him to quote and beautifully +invert the order of a passage so suited to the +exigencies of the moment—and who does not envy +Hasan the heavenly feast he enjoyed in the place of +the dish he had lost?</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Persian Spoons.</span>—The Persians, says Tavernier, +eat their broths with wooden spoons. Their rice, +which is made thick, they take up with their fingers, +and wipe their hands upon handkerchiefs. Invited +with the Venetian ambassador to sup with a Persian +grandee, the representative of the doge, he remarks, +‘committed an absurdity, for there are no [few] silver +or gold spoons in Persia, but only long wooden +ladles that reach a great way. Now, the ambassador, +reaching his ladle to a porcelain dish, full of +scalding hot pottage, clapped it presently into his +mouth, but finding it so hot that he could not endure +<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>it, after several scurvy faces threw it out of his mouth +into his hand, in presence of all the company.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>John Bell says an entertainment given to the Russian +ambassador at Ispahan consisted of sweetmeats, +ice water in golden basins, rice boiled with butter, +fowls, mutton, lambs, &c. The whole was served in +gold and china dishes. ‘But according to the custom +of the country, we had neither napkins, spoons, +knives nor forks. The shah himself eat with his +fingers, and every one followed his example. Thin +cakes made of wheat flour were used to <i>wipe our +fingers</i>.’—a practice of the Romans, whose slaves +afterwards ate the cakes. Fryer visited Persia 170 +years ago, and observed the wealthy drink wine out +of ‘long thin wooden spoons,’ but he was in error in +saying ‘spoons are not in use, unless to drink sherbet +with.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Tavernier is one of the most interesting of old +travellers. His details of oriental life are vivid and +fresh as if drawn yesterday. He had, from his profession +as a merchant-jeweller and goldsmith, access +to every court. Haying spent forty years in his +travels, he was personally known to most Asiatic +princes, and his arrival was often hailed by them with +joy. On his sixth and last visit to Ispahan, he was +warmly greeted by the king, who seems to have been +a real toper. Two days after reaching the city, the +traveller was waited on early in the morning, by a +chief officer of state, accompanied by a jesuit and +two Dutchmen, (favorites of the monarch,) and requested +to attend them to the palace. Upon entering, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>they found his majesty seated upon a low-pallet; +before him were fruits, sweetmeats, two bottles +of Schiras wine and a golden cup. There was also +a small wooden vat or cistern full of wine, and a golden +spoon or ladle which held nearly a pint. The +bottles and cup were for the king; the vat and spoon +for his guests.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It would be disagreeable to many readers, were +we to recite the particulars of the succeeding debauch—one +in which the spoon acted so prominent +a part, despite of every precept of the Koran. +Suffice to say, ‘the entertainment’ was kept up for +seventeen hours! being diversified with feasting, +music and dancing. At short intervals ‘the great +ladle went about smartly,’ the king insisting that ‘no +man should leave a drop.’ Tavernier thus winds up +the account:—“We had droll’d together till eleven +o’clock at night, when the king started another question—whether +any one present could sing? It happened +that there was one Monsieur Daulier there, +who played on the virginals, and pretended to sing +a court air. His voice being high-pitched, the king +did not like it, as the Persians prefer the base. Perceiving +this, and being in a merry vein, though I +knew not a note, yet having a deep and clear voice, +I sung an old air, beginning thus:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>‘Fill all the bowls, then—fill ’em high!</div> + <div class='line'>Fill all the glasses there—for why</div> + <div class='line'>Should every creature drink but I?’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The king was ravished, crying out, ‘Baricala! +Baricala!’ an exclamation equivalent to ‘Oh! the +works of God!’</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>Wine, as well as ‘plate,’ is prohibited, but rich +Persians make no scruple about either. They excuse +themselves when overtaken by liquor, by quoting +a proverb which certainly was not designed to +encourage drunkenness:—‘Equal sin in a spoonful +as in a potful.’ Hence, after tasting a small quantity, +they have no compunction about swallowing the +largest. But such reasoning is not confined to oriental +sinners; we have too many who exclaim, ‘In +for a penny, in for a pound’—‘As well be hanged +for a sheep as a lamb.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Morier, describing a dinner given to the British +embassy, says, there was placed before each guest +a tray, on which stood three china bowls, filled with +sherbets; two made of sweet liquors, and one an exquisite +species of lemonade. There were besides, +fruits ready cut, plates with elegant little arrangements +of sweetmeats and confectionery, and smaller +cups of sweet sherbet; the whole of which were +placed most symmetrically, and were quite inviting +even by their appearance. In the vases of sherbet +were <i>spoons made of the pear tree</i>, with very deep +bowls, and worked so delicately that the long handles +just slightly <i>bent</i> when carried to the mouth.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the reader has any curiosity to behold a Persian +sherbet spoon, let him turn to <i>Plate V. Figs. 10, +11</i>, represent one, preserved with others of a similar +form and different sizes in the Philadelphia Museum. +It is fifteen inches long, and made of box-wood or +pear tree. The handle is thin and ornamented with +designs formed by openings cut entirely through. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>The junction of the handle with the bowl is strengthened +by a pierced semicircular piece, shown in <i>Fig. +10</i>, and exhibiting a very novel feature.</p> + +<p class='c006'>From what has been said, the reader will be no +longer surprised at Mahommedans associating the +spoon with the pleasures of heaven; yet unless he +had been informed of its employment in drinking +wine upon earth, he could scarcely comprehend that +part of the Persian creed which states that Rusuen, +the porter of paradise, opens to faithful Mahommedans +the gates of heaven; and when seated on the +banks of the fountain Kauser, the great camel driver +himself hands round to each <i>the water of life in a</i> +<span class='fss'>LADLE</span>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As a specimen of Persian repartee, we may here +introduce an anecdote, which, if not associated with +the spoon, is at least connected with one of the ingredients +of soup. An Ispahan dealer in pot-herbs, +remonstrating against the imposition of an exorbitant +tax, was ordered by the governor to pay it or +leave the city. “I cannot pay it, and whither can I +go,” ejaculated the poor man—knowing no place +where he could live, out of the reach of the oppressor, +or his equally rapacious relatives. “You may +proceed to Schiras or Kashan, if you like those cities +better than this.” “Yes; but your brother is in power +in one, and your nephew in the other; what relief +can I expect in either?” “Proceed, then; to +court, and complain to the king,” replied the extortioner. +“Alas! your brother, the Hajee, is prime +minister.” “Well then,” said the irritated minister, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>“go to the <i>devil</i>, and trouble me no more!” “Ah! +but the holy man your deceased father is with <i>him</i>”! +said the persevering dealer in esculents. The spectators +laughed, the governor followed their example, +and promised to examine and redress the bold +green-grocer’s wrongs.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Chinese Spoons.</span>—In China and neighboring +countries, spoons are often of earthenware. At an +entertainment given to the British embassy in Cochin +China, the table was loaded with every imaginable +delicacy. The number of dishes piled in three +rows, one above the other, exceeded a hundred. Before +each person was placed boiled rice in place of +bread, and two porcupine quills by way of knife and +fork. ‘The spoons were of <i>porcelain</i>, and somewhat +in the form of small shovels.’ [<i>Staunton.</i>] ‘We +were in want of every accommodation, even of forks +and spoons, for the former are not used in China, +and the latter are made of porcelain, with very short +handles.’ [<i>Van Braam.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Chopsticks.</span>—But of Chinese peculiarities, few +things have excited more interest than chopsticks—two +small rods or wires, which at table perform the +same duties as our forks and spoons. Enclosed in +a sheath along with a knife, they are suspended from +the sash of every gentleman. See <i>Fig. 12</i>, <i>Plate V.</i> +for the sheath. The original is before us. It is 7 +inches long, and half an inch wide, made of bamboo, +and neatly covered with tortoise shell, in which no +joint can be detected. A minute brass band goes +round the middle and each end. A ring is attached +<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>to the upper one, and on a strip of metal is a proverb +or moral sentence. An ivory handled knife, (left +out in the cut) with a strong blade, and rough as the +grindstone left it, occupies one half of the sheath. +As both sticks are alike, one only is figured. They +are square rods of ivory, eight inches long, one-fifth +of an inch thick at the smaller ends, and rather thicker +at the other, which are held in the hand. The +thick parts, like the handle of the knife, project out +of the case. Sometimes they are round and have +their ends pointed with silver. When used, they are +held in the right hand, between the forefinger and +thumb. A toothpick occasionally finds a place in +the sheath.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The dexterity with which chopsticks are used, +and the celerity with which food disappears before +them, show how appropriate is their name—<i>kwae +tsze</i>, ‘nimble lads.’ A native readily picks up objects +small as pin heads, while fruitless attempts of foreigners +to convey with them a piece of edible bird’snest +to the mouth, often afford amusement to Chinese +hosts. The eating apparatus of the poorer +classes consists of chopsticks and bowls. If they +possess no table or bench, the large pot of rice is +placed on the floor, and they squat round, with their +feet inwards, just the contrary way from the Jews +and Romans. A portion of rice is transferred by +a ladle to each member’s bowl. This he holds in +one hand close to the chin, and with the ‘nimble +lads’ pushes the food into his mouth till the latter is +crammed; then wiping the sticks across the edge of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>the bowl, he takes up with them, as with forceps, a +piece of fish, meat, or whatever else is on the table, +and thrusts it in edgewise as a relish. After a while +the mouth is ready for more, and the nimble lads are +again set to work. [<i>See Chinese Rep. Vol.</i> iii.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Chopsticks are interesting relics of antediluvian +days; for their origin is to be traced to the twigs by +which barbarians scrape semifluid food from natural +cups into the mouth; such as travellers use when +dining on cuscous, while far distant from dwellings +and destitute of artificial spatulæ. South Sea islanders +thus gather taro dough out of cocoa shells, and +American Indians scrape samp out of baskets.</p> + +<p class='c006'>A sheathed eating-knife was worn at the belt by +the Celts, Gauls, Germans, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons, +and by their descendants down to recent times. +It was an essential part of the personal equipment of +gentlemen, laborers and artisans. Even ladies wore +them as they wear scissors now. An old saying +arose from the practice, intimating that appearances +are often deceptive:—“In a sheath of gold may be +a knife of lead.” ‘Among the Celts,’ says Macpherson, +‘as at this day in France, guests carried their +own knives and <i>forks</i> [?] enclosed in the same sheath +with the dagger.’ Highlanders carry the <i>skene dhu</i> +or knife, and a fork, in a horn or other sheath—the +handle of the knife being sometimes hollowed out +for the reception of snuff. <i>Spoons</i> also were worn in +like manner. Every Janizary had one, and there is no +reason to suppose the custom originated with them.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 13</i>, <i>Plate V.</i> represents a brass sheath holding +<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>three knives and a spoon, such as the warlike +infantry of the Turks formerly were furnished with, +and which they wore pendent from, or stuck in, the +girdle. At the time Motraye wrote, the spoon had +been removed, being then worn in a perpendicular +sheath in <i>front of the cap</i>, occupying the place of the +head dress of modern troops, where we may suppose +it sometimes warded off a blow aimed at the head +of its owner, as well as refreshing him when a battle +was over. This prominent disposition of the spoon +by the Janizaries was appropriate enough, since each +regiment had its own <i>soup kettle</i>, which in process +of time acquired a sort of prescriptive sanctity, and +formed as it were the <i>chief standard</i> of the regiment; +while the officers and other military functionaries +derived <i>their titles</i> from their various supposed employments +as cooks, waiters, or scullions! The Spaniards +have a proverb which reflects light on this +strange custom:—‘Pendon y caldera’—the standard +and caldron. In the Moorish wars, a Castilian +who undertook to raise a regiment, was privileged +by the king to carry a standard as the sign of his authority +to enlist troops; while a caldron figured on +it indicated that he fed them at his own cost.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Let not modern warriors laugh at this; for if posterity +judge them from ‘Tableux,’ ‘Military Adventures,’ +and other fashionable novels, descriptive of +the foraging and bivouacing of epauletted gourmands +and legal bucaniers, which constitute so large a portion +of the light literature of the day, the old Turkish +legions, God wot, will lose nothing in the comparison; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>for knives, forks, plates, spoons, the bottle +and the glass, are infinitely more conspicuous than +such things ever were with the Moslem. But it is a +new thing under the sun for the most horrible of all +crimes—that which includes every other, and surpasses +the power of devils to commit, to be treated in +books as a bagatelle, for the amusement of drawing-room +loungers and boarding-school misses. Would +that these literary warriors electrified the reading +world with equally vivid details of the blessings their +own countrymen have derived from their valor—how +every victory has lessened the laborer’s toil and increased +the artisan’s comforts, diminished the price +of bread, and poured abundance among a happy +population—how their liberties have increased with +their armies, and taxes been reduced with their conquests—how—but +we are digressing.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 14</i>, <i>Plate V.</i>—one of the numerous illustrations +of the ‘Romance of the Rose,’ a French poetical +satire, written by Guillaume de Lois, and translated +by Chaucer. As a portrait of a female mendicant +of the middle ages, it is not without interest, +independently of the spoon which ornaments the felt +hat. The distressed condition of the lady’s wardrobe +and her famishing looks are described in the poem:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“She was like thing for hanger dede,</div> + <div class='line'>That lad her life onely by brede,</div> + <div class='line'>Kneden with eisel stronge and egre,</div> + <div class='line'>And thereto she was leane and megre;</div> + <div class='line'>And she was clad ful poorely,</div> + <div class='line'>All in an olde torne courtpy,</div> + <div class='line'>As she were all with dogges torne</div> + <div class='line'>And botn behind and eke beforne.</div> + <div class='line'>Clouted was she beggerly.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>The poet is speaking of avarice, which the ancient +illustrator depicts in the aspect and costume of a +beggar. The alms-dish, suspended from the wrist, +was the professional badge of mendicants in the remotest +ages, and has continued to be one to the present +day. It dates back to the fountain-head of +Hindoo mythology. ‘Gunga was produced by the +sweat of Vishnu’s foot, which Brahma caught in his +<i>alms dish</i>.’ The Pandaroons and other beggars of +India eat from it the rice given them. Fryer, describing +the Fakirs, says, ‘they beg up and down +like our bedlams with an horn and a bowl.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>The spoon is also carried by Asiatic as well as +old European beggars. ‘Persian Durweeshes in +Egypt have oblong bowls of cocoa-nut or metal, in +which they receive alms and put their food. They +carry also a wooden <i>spoon</i>.’ [<i>Lane.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'>It was a daily custom to distribute victuals at the +gates of monasteries and rich houses. Of such, we +often read, ‘Pottage was given to every poor person +who begged.’ ‘All dinners being ended, the Vsher +and Groome of the Hall are to see the broken meate +and drincke safely put into the almes tubbes.’ +[<i>Brathwait.</i>] Every recipient was required to provide +his own bowl and spoon—a prudent precaution, +since lepers or other diseased persons were +commonly among the applicants. It does not seem +possible that more appropriate symbols of want could +have been adopted, than those carried by ancient +children of sorrow. What more touching devices +for moving the bowels of the compassionate than an +<span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>empty bowl and an unemployed spoon? There was +even something expressive in the way they were +carried—the spoon as near the mouth as could be, +and the vacant dish in front of the empty stomach.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As the lady figured on <i>Plate V.</i> represents a class +of old artists allied to modern chiffonniers, we trust +no reader will take offence at her presence. Having +described spoons belonging to kings, why should +we not mention those owned by people, who, like +kings, are fed at the public expense? Every part of +her gabardine seems ready to bid ‘good bye’ to its +neighbors, while many have already gone off, as certain +rents and gaps too plainly declare. Still, there +is philosophy in the disposal of the dress. If her organs +of motion are wofully exposed, the more noble +parts of her person are carefully guarded from the +weather—perhaps on the principle of keeping ‘the +head warm and feet cold;’ an aphorism which +Boerhaave acquired, praise for inverting, though +against the experience of swarms of young urchins, +who scamper about summer and winter with bare +legs and feet; and contrary to the advice of Locke, +to bore holes in the soles of new shoes, that wind +and water might always have free ingress and egress! +There was policy if not humor in exhibiting the +parts which the figure represents as denuded: in approaching +a mansion for alms, the wretched toes enforced +the appeal, and where their owner received +nothing but curses, she quickly showed the churls +‘a clean pair of heels.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>Beggars were not allowed to enter a house when +<span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>they sought alms—a circumstance from which a proverbial +expression of ‘poor Richard’ is derived:—‘Hunger +looks in at the working-man’s door, but +dares not enter.’ Various devices were in vogue for +giving notice of their presence; sometimes a horn +was blown, or other rude instrument played on; but +the usual music was produced by striking the dish +with the spoon or a cup. From this clattering the +principal utensil became known as the ‘clap-dish,’ +or ‘clack-dish.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>The useful arts arose in Asia; and poetry, painting, +and music were born there. Thence came the +trumpet, harp, drum, cymbals, and what is older than +all, the musical clack-dish. The begging friars of +Fo enforce their demands by beating two pieces of +bamboo, ‘or hammering a hollow piece of wood with +a stick.’ With similar instruments Chinese mendicants +get up such powerful solos and duets in +front of shop doors, that the inmates, whose organs +of harmony sympathize not with the sounds, relieve +the musicians to get rid of the music. Lepers, when +they attended markets to beg corn, carried a rattle +to warn people from touching them.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing232.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><br> <i>Plate 7</i> <i>Modern</i><br> </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>There is an Italian female mendicant in one of the +illustrations of Ackerman’s ‘Forget me Not’ for +1843, which shows how little the accoutrements and +costume of this class have changed. With the exception +of a crutch, she of Italy might be taken for +the ancient French damsel on <i>Plate V.</i> An equal +lack of covering is equally obvious about the regions +of the toes, and opposite extremities of her feet. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>The mantle and skirts of an inner garment are ornamented +with the same picturesque fringe; a species +of muffler or band holds up the chin, and kept +the miserable mouth shut when there was no occasion +to open it; a tapered hat covers the head; a +<i>spoon</i>, stuck through the band, sets off the hat, and +an alms-dish hangs from the waist.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In a volume of ancient engravings now before us, +one dated A. D. 1470 represents an itinerant charlatan, +with his family and stock in trade. He is +playing on bagpipes, and bears two children in a +basket strapped to his back. His wife carries a +young cherub and leads an ass laden with panniers, +out of which peep a couple of boys who have not +learned to walk. The eldest son, accompanied by +the dog, goes before with an owl on his shoulder. +In the man’s hat are stuck a couple of <i>spoons</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the days of ecclesiastical rule, when monks +were monarchs and lay people could neither eat nor +drink but as the Church pleased, a merciful clause +was at length introduced into the canons respecting +lent, with the view of removing a very serious obstacle +to the salvation of those who lived upon alms—a +pleasing proof of the anxiety of ghostly fathers to +save (though only at the last extremity) the ghastly +sheep in their flocks. It was to this effect:—“Beggars, +<i>when ready to affamish</i> for want, <i>may</i> eat in +lent time what they can get.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Pewter or Tin—Vulcan a Pewterer—Tin Armor—Ezekiel—Roman +Pewterers and Vitellius—Tin Idols—Singular Imposture +of Durand, a French Carpenter—Louis XI—English +Pewter Ware—St. Peter’s Chalice—Mexican Pewterers—English +Laws respecting Pewter—Cheats, time of Richard II—Pewter +Articles, under Henry VIII—Pewter Money and James +II—European Manufactures, A. D. 1483—Pewter Spoons described—Anecdote +of one—Charles XII—Singular Property of +Pewter Mugs—Extension of the Principle suggested—Authors +likened to Cabmen—Brass Spoons—Tinned iron ones—Tinning—Tin +Plate—Andrew Yarranton—Wooden Spoons—Forks—Cutty +Spoons—Relish of Food—Spoons at Work—Dance +of Death—End of the World—The Last Spoon.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'>Of metallic spoons, those made of tin or its alloys +were perhaps the first; but it is not to be supposed +that proofs of this can be found in the material or +mental relics of a former world. Such things were +too easily defaced and too insignificant to be noticed +or preserved, where others infinitely more durable +and valuable have perished. Before describing +<i>pewter</i> spoons, a few references to the employment +of this factitious metal in early times may gratify +some readers. Its base is <i>tin</i>, a white and bright +metal, lighter than iron and soft almost as lead. It +is generally hardened by the addition of a little antimony, +as silver is with copper; and there was no +more reason to give a new name to the mixture in +one case than in the other. The name of tin is not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>only withheld from articles formed of it, but given +to others only washed with it. That fine material +known in commerce as ‘tin plate’ is sheet iron coated +with tin. The French distinguish it from untinned +plate by the appropriate term ‘<i>fer blanc</i>,’ or +white iron. Old English writers made a similar distinction.</p> + +<p class='c006'>From the facility of working tin, the low temperature +at which it fuses, its ductility, brilliancy, and +unquestionable employment in remote ages, we may +safely infer that articles were made of it long before +the refractory ores were reduced. That implements +of iron preceded those of bronze is the uniform declaration +of history; but bronze was itself an alloy +of copper and tin. The latter is the natural solder +of lead, for which it has probably been used ever +since the heavier metal was wrought. Tin was +among the spoils taken from the Midianites. Articles +formed of it were to be melted down and recast; +hence the antiquity of the pewterer’s art.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Whoever Vulcan was, or however remote the +times in which he lived, he was a pewterer as well +as a blacksmith and brass founder. Bucklers, +greaves, and other defensive armor were in his time +made of and adorned with <i>tin</i>. The herd of cattle +and other raised work on the shield of Achilles were +executed in this metal. The corslet of Agamemnon +was composed of alternate bars or scales of +gold, steel and tin. The central stud of his shield +was encircled</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>‘With twice ten bosses of resplendent tin.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>In the form of wire tin was also used for binding +different parts together; as the lining of Sarpedon’s +shield was stitched with wires of gold. Defensive +armor of so soft a material may excite the smile of +modern soldiers, and induce incredulity in Homer’s +statements, or an impression that he is misunderstood; +but independent of the remarkable fact of +the word used by him to designate tin being the +same by which the metal is still known in the East, +the material is still used for the very same purpose +at this day. The Calmucks, we are told, when +equipped for war often protect their persons ‘with +armor made of scales of tin.’ Lapland women +make ornaments of it to decorate their own and +their husbands’ dresses. They produce beautiful +wire for embroidery, &c., by drawing the metal +through holes drilled in horns or bones of rein-deer; +a practice probably dating from the age of Homer. +The ‘shining canisters,’ in which bread was served +to guests, often mentioned by the father of poets, +were very likely the work of the pewterer. Frontlets, +anklets, bracelets, and other personal ornaments +of tin, still worn in the East, are of extreme antiquity. +Pausanias mentions an antique tablet of tin +connected with the Messenians.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When Ezekiel wrote, tin was a staple article of +import at Tyre, and we have sufficient evidence that +its consumption anciently must have been as great +as at present. Whether the slabs piled on the docks +and in the stores of Phenician merchants in the prophet’s +days were drawn from India, Spain or Britain, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>is uncertain, but within two, if not one century of +his death, the greatest navigators of old drew part +of their supplies from Cornwall. It is pretty evident +that English mines were wrought before iron +was known on the island, for pickaxes of stag’s +horns, hard wood, and flint, have been found embedded +in ore, as well as wooden shovels and buckets; +the latter without any kind of hoops. A plate of +tin was disinterred in the time of Henry VIII. inscribed +with unknown characters, supposed to have +been Druidical precepts. In 1635, tablets with +strange inscriptions were found, which Stukely ascribed +to Britons of a remote age. Posidonius says +the ancient Celtæ had pewter platters.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The pewterer’s art was extensively carried on in +old Rome, and most articles current a century +ago were made there. It would seem from Pliny, +(xxx. 7.) that what he calls an ‘instrument of tin’ +was the common pewter syringe. From Suetonius +we infer that goblets, dishes, pitchers, cups, urns, +and other utensils of gold and silver, dedicated to +the gods, were imitated in pewter, as such things are +now. Vitellius, he remarks, rifled the temples of +their treasures, substituting articles of pewter and +copper for those of silver and gold. The successor +of Otho imitated in this respect another military ethnic, +who, wanting money, took a golden robe from +the statue of Jupiter, and replaced it with a woollen +one, philosophically observing that the latter would +keep the deity warmer in winter, and press lighter +on his shoulders in summer.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>In the dark ages the worship of heathen deities +was transferred unaltered to christian saints. The +Virgin received the same compliments that her half-pagan +adorers previously paid to Diana; whose +shrines, numerous as they were, never equaled those +of her successor. As the precious metals were not +so abundant after the fall of the Romans, tin offered +a good and cheap substitute for one of them; and +pewterers in Germany, Britain and Gaul, drove a +brisker business in making portable idols than ever +did Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen of Asia +Minor.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The feudal contests of the old barons were a +scourge to Europe for many ages. Declaring war +against each other at will, arson, rapine and murder, +stalked unchecked through the land. The Church +launched her thunders in vain; she was unable to +correct an evil which kings could not cure. At +length a cunning carpenter, named <i>Durand</i>, conceived +a plan (if indeed it was his own) which succeeded +in France, and made the inventor’s fortune. +He solemnly gave out that God appeared to him in +Auvergne, and commanded him to proclaim an instant +peace between all contending parties. For +proof of his mission, he exhibited an image of the +Virgin, which he had the impudence to say was left +with him for that purpose by the Almighty. The +astonished nobles accordingly assembled in the City +Du Puy, and after listening to opinions of churchmen, +hearing the asseverations of the bold artisan, and examining +his celestial image, agreed to lay aside their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>animosities and swear on the holy evangelists to entertain +love and peace for each other! As a proof +of sincerity and faith in the revelation, they wore +“an image of our lady in <i>pewter</i>” on their breasts—copies +of the one in Durand’s possession, and most +likely cast in the same mould—with capuches of +white linen on their heads, which articles <i>the carpenter +sold them</i>!</p> + +<p class='c006'>That son of Apollyon, Louis XI. constantly wore +a madonna of lead or pewter in his hat, which he +would take off and invoke when about to commit +some horrible crime, so as to be sure of pardon beforehand. +It is pleasant, says Mazeray, to notice +his pranks when his own death drew near—sending +all over Europe for relics of saints, to Rheims for +the holy ampoule and oil, ordering processions and +masses in his behalf, and not forgetting prayers that +God would prevent certain winds, which incommoded +him, from blowing! But there are people now-a-days +who send up official requests to the Virgin for +rain or fair weather.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In the Northumberland Household Book are allusions +to pewter ware: “Item—to be payd to the +saide Richard Gowge, and Thomas Percy for the +bying of vj dossen rugh pewter vessels for servynge +of my house for oone hole yere, after vj shillings the +dossen.” ‘The groom of the squillery is to be careful +after every meal to gather into his office the silver +and pewter vessels, and before they goe to the scowring +or washing certainly to number them.’ [<i>Brathwait.</i>] +In the United States the communion service +<span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>plate is as often the work of the pewterer as of +the silversmith. It was so in the primitive church. +Among the relics preserved in St. Lateran’s at Rome, +are a wooden altar and a pewter chalice—both said +to have been used by St. Peter. Coffins were formerly +made of pewter: see accounts of several in +Nugent’s travels. Block tin or pewter worms for +distilling are ancient. Alchymists used them and +denounced leaden ones. Van Sleb mentions pewter +mortars in Egypt. Mexican pewterers, like +other mechanics, exhibited their goods for sale in the +great market. Cortez who mentions this fact in a +letter to Charles V. does not particularize the articles. +Anklets, bracelets, and other ornaments of +tin, have been worn by Negroes, Arabs and others, +from time immemorial.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The process of making pewter goods differs from +that of working most metals. Articles are formed +complete, or nearly so, by running the fused material +into clay, brass or other moulds. A spoon, for +example, is cast in a moment, whereas a gold or silver +one has to be forged into shape. The importance +in which pewter was anciently held in England +appears from the laws made to preserve its purity, +and reputation abroad. As spoons are enumerated +we shall notice some of the enactments. Previous +to the reign of Henry VII. all articles were to be +compared with standard metal and stamped; but the +law had been disregarded, since he issued a fresh +edict, forbidding under certain penalties any pewter +or brass article to be sold without the maker’s name +<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>and the assay officer’s mark. In the time of Richard +II. the pewterers complained of their business +being injured by pedlars and tinkers going round +the country and recasting worn out articles, but +which they mixed with lead, “so as to be not worth +the fourth part sold for.” These pedestrian gentlemen +were charged with stealing and encouraging +others to steal old brass and pewter, and selling them +to go out of the country; thus letting foreigners into +the secrets of the trades. They also robbed the people +whom they dealt with by using false weights and +beams. One of the latter, says the statute, “will +stand even with twelve pounds weight at one end, +against a quarter of a pound at the other end, to the +singular advantage of themselves.” (!) This equals +the morality of our old Dutch traders, who, in buying +furs by weight from their Indian brethren, are +said to have put their left hand into the scale for one +pound, and their right foot for two.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The act of Richard was renewed by Henry VIII. +with severer penalties, and new sections added. +<i>Spoons</i>, as well as more important articles, were required +to be of standard workmanship and assay—all +below them were forfeited. No foreigner was +to be taken as an apprentice, or in any way to learn +the trade, lest going abroad the art should go also.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Section 7, cap. 8, of the first act of Henry VIII. +enumerates the following articles; if any were found +below the standard, they were to be seized:—“Platters, +chargers, dishes, saucers, porringers, trenchers, +basons, flaggons, pottles, pots, saltsels, goblets, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span><i>spoons</i>, cruets or candlesticks, or any such wares of +tin or pewter.” Twenty-one years afterwards pewterers +again petitioned the king. They said the +trade was ruined by foreign manufactures, which +they prayed might be prohibited. It was therefore +enacted that foreign tin or pewter “platters, dishes, +saucers, pots, basons, ewers, flaggons, goblets, salts, +saltsellers, <i>spoons</i>, or any thing made of tin or pewter, +might be seized, in whose hands soever it may +be found.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>A dinner set of pewter plate comprised three dozen +dishes and plates, one dozen saucers, a tankard +or flagon, salts, mustard pot, pepper box, half a dozen +mugs, and one or two dozen spoons. The +whole was arranged on a kind of sideboard or dresser +with shelves, called the pewter rack. Women +prided themselves in keeping the whole brilliant as +silver. In some parts of Europe they are yet to be +seen, but are rapidly disappearing.</p> + +<p class='c006'>London pewterers were incorporated in 1474. +The company was designated as ‘The master, wardens, +and commonalty of the art and mystery of pewterers.’ +Their motto, “In God is all my trust;” their +crest, two hands holding a pewter dish. The best +pewter was for plates and dishes, and known as +‘plate pewter;’ it was composed of tin and from 8 +to 17 per cent of antimony, and a little copper. ‘Ley +pewter,’ often denounced in old statutes, consisted +of tin with a large proportion of lead, one-fifth, and +sometimes one third! But English did not equal +Roman cheats. Pliny speaks of culinary utensils +<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>made from equal quantities of tin and lead! Desire +for wealth is a universal passion, and to get it by the +shortest methods a universal temptation. Lead costs +three, and tin sixteen cents per pound. We have +heard a wealthy pewterer boast of supplying plantations +in the West Indies with worms for distilling, +made from an alloy of 100 lbs of tin to a ton of +lead! ‘Pewter, (he would remark) is tin and lead, +and so were the articles I made.’ He sold them by +weight.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Making base money out of pewter has always been +in vogue, but not always by men that wore aprons. +It has been practiced by some who wore crowns. +James II. of England, ‘cast all the brass guns and +all the brass and copper vessels of [Irish] protestants +that he could seize, into half-crowns, shillings and +sixpences,’ and ordered them to pass current at the +value of the same denominations in silver. Continuing +to want cash, and unable to get copper, he +seized the people’s pewter dishes, plates and spoons, +and converted them into <i>silver</i> crowns. Roman +counterfeiters carried on a heavy business. Numbers +of their molds have been dug up in England. +Some are of clay and so arranged that a number of +pewter coins could be cast at one operation. [<i>Phil. +Trans.</i> vols. 44 and 24.] According to Tavernier, +the king of Cheda and Pera coins no other than tin +money. In Sumatra such was and probably is still +in circulation.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In 1483 we have, in a list of foreign goods, the +importation of which into England was prohibited, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>a better account of the state of the mechanic arts at that time in Europe than is any where else to be +found. In consequence of a moving appeal from +the parties interested it was “ordained that no merchant-stranger, +after the feast of Easter next coming, +shall bring into this realm of England, to be +sold, any manner of girdles, nor harneys wrought +for girdles, points, leather laces, purses, pouches, +pins, gloves, knives, hangers, tailors’ sheers, sysors, +andyrons, cobbards, tongs, fire-forks, gredyrons, +stocklocks, keys, hinges and garnets, spurrs, painted +glasses, painted papers, [paper hangings?] painted +forcers, painted images, painted clothes, beaten gold, +or beaten silver wrought in papers for painters, +saddles, saddle trees, horse harness, boots, bits, +stirrups, buckles, chains, latten nails with iron +shanks, turnets, hanging candlesticks, holy water +stopps, chaffing dishes, hanging lavers, curtain rings, +cards for wool, roan cards, sheers, buckles for shoes, +broches or spits, bells, hawks bells, <i>tinn</i> and <i>leaden +spoons</i>, wyre of latten and iron, iron candlesticks, +grates, horns for lanthorns, or any of the said wares.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 1, 2</i>, <i>Plate VI.</i> represent the oldest fashioned +pewter spoon we have met with. It is cast +from a brass mold before us, and dates from the +time of Elizabeth, whose head and crown are figured +on the handle. Raised scroll work covers the entire +back and front, except the interior of the bowl, which +was burnished. Such spoons were all but finished +when cast, so that a pedlar or tinker possessing the +mold, could renew the spoons of a family in a trice. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>The dimensions are those of a tea spoon, but it must +not thence be concluded that such diminutive implements +were not in use before tea was introduced. +They were employed for various purposes as now, +for eating eggs, taking up preserves and such like +dainties, for pickles, salt, &c. The vinegar cruet, +we know, had a place in Roman buffets, and occasionally +on the tables of Anglo-Saxons; but so late +as the 16th century, that pungent fluid was often +placed on the table in pewter saucers, whence it was +transferred by small spoons.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Pewter spoons of this style were more or less common +in the middle ages. In the 17th and 18th century +a less profusion of ornament prevailed, being +confined chiefly to the front part of the handle. +Fifty years ago, a row of beads round the edge, as +in <i>Fig. 3</i>, and a single or double row of engraved +work (as in <i>2</i>, <i>Plate VII.</i>) were common. An open +space at the top for the initials in the form of an armorial +shield or other device was also left, in imitation +of silver spoons of that day. A dozen different +patterns might here be added, but the variations are +too slight to interest general readers. <i>Figs. 4</i> and +<i>5</i>—modern pewter or Britannia metal spoons, as +they are called, from the superior hardness and color +of the metal. Being <i>buffed</i>, (that is, polished on the +wheel) they are better finished than ancient spoons +burnished by hand. The handle of <i>Fig. 4</i> resembles +old patterns—that of <i>5</i> is of more recent date.</p> + +<p class='c006'>With an anecdote and reflection or two we will +dismiss pewter spoons. A pleasing incident is mentioned +<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>in the journal of Capt. King, the companion +of Cook, and the continuator of that great navigator’s +last voyage:—“Whilst we were at dinner in +this miserable hut, on the banks of the river Awatska, +the guests of a people with whose existence we +had before been scarcely acquainted, and at the extremity +of the globe, a solitary half-worn <i>pewter +spoon</i>, whose shape was familiar to us, attracted our +attention, and on examination, we found it stamped +on the back with the word ‘London.’ I cannot pass +over this circumstance in silence, out of gratitude for +the many pleasant thoughts, anxious hopes and tender +remembrances it excited in us.” Captain King, +like Captain Cook, did not live to see England again, +and this poor spoon probably furnished him with the +last vivid recollections of home.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Charles XII. of Sweden banished silver from his +table, and replaced it with pewter! The circumstance +that led to the determination occurred on this +wise:—Returning from his long captivity among the +Turks, he passed through Lund, where the workmen +of a tin mine in the vicinity waited on him to +offer their congratulations and present him specimens +of various articles formed of the metal. Charles +treated them to wine, and made them carry home +the silver goblets out of which they drank it. To encourage +the new manufacture, he forbade the use of +silver in future at his own table, and ordered “all +his cups, dishes, plates, <i>spoons</i>, salt cellars and candlesticks +to be made of <i>tin</i>”—an act more honorable +to his memory than any battle he won.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>It is known to the learned in porterhouse lore that +pewter pots impart a peculiar flavor to ale, beer, and +cider. The phenomenon is due to an electro-galvanic +influence, excited by contact of the metallic +alloy with the liquids; but the same curious savans +are not known to give an equal preference to pewter +spoons, although the same principle must be equally +developed in them while delivering liquids with +which they are charged. The subject is an interesting +one, and has, we presume, been accidentally +neglected. When cultivated it may lead to incredible +results, for it points to sources of human enjoyments +which the most enthusiastic could hardly hope +for ere the millenium set in.</p> + +<p class='c006'>That the sense of taste depends chiefly on electricity +there is little doubt; though the modes by +which this most subtle of fluids acts, and the means +of diversifying its effects on the palate, are yet +among the arcana of nature. Its fearful activity at +the breakfast and dinner table is shown by a calculation +based on ascertained data:—“The largest +charge of a Leyden battery does not equal in quantity +the electricity which passes between the tongue +and a silver spoon, during the simple act of eating +an egg. Indeed, if the quantity developed in the +latter case were free to assume the form of that obtained +by friction, the result would be a lightning +flash of no small power.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>If then, a mug composed of tin, antimony and +lead, can impart an etherial flavor to fluids brewed +from apples and malt, why may not spoons (by varying, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>multiplying, and properly proportioning the elements +of their composition) be made to give the +taste of roast beef to rice pudding, and of fashionable +soups to onion broth or water gruel? The idea +is not so visionary as those who never laugh may +suppose. Bread from boards, sugar from starch and +old shirts, the most intense sweet from the union of +two disgusting bitters, (nitrate of silver and hypersulphate +of soda) show with what magic effect the +modern chemist plays with our palates, and how he +challenges imagination itself to limit his powers over +the organs of taste.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/facing248.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p><i>Plate 8</i> <i>Modern</i><br> <br> <i>Lith of E Jones 128 Fulton S<sup>t</sup>. N.Y.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Will the reader wait one moment, while we catch +another glimpse of a subject, perhaps destined to occupy +a large space in future annals of science and +patents, and which, when fully explored, may go a great way towards driving hunger and alm-houses +out of the world? When people constantly dine on +one food they long for a change; unless seasoned +with St. Bernard’s sauce, [hunger] both chicken and +cheese, pudding and pie, will pall on the sense. +Now, by extending the electrical principle to all +kinds of eating apparatus, the time may come when +a family sitting down to the plainest food, shall derive +from it the flavor of the richest the markets afford—turkey +this day, venison the next, and on the +following one canvas-back ducks, or any thing else, +indigenous or exotic, the stomach may crave. A +few dozen of electro-galvanic plates, knives, forks, +spoons, bottles and cups, &c. would only be wanted; +for if properly made, each would be equivalent to a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>distinct dish, and should be marked with the name +of the aliment whose taste it imparted. But a more +surprising and economical feature of the system is +this: when a company cloys on one food, by simply +interchanging their spoons and plates, ladies and +gentlemen might multiply, as in the permutation of +figures, their gustable dainties nearly <i>ad infinitum</i>!</p> + +<p class='c006'>Early fruits and asparagus could be had from dried +apples and clover. Poor people would sip tea when +they had none in the house, and enrich it with +cream that never came from a cow. Fresh steaks +could be sliced from jerked beef or salt pork—thus +enabling old sailors to laugh at the scurvy. To +wash down a dinner, any kind of wine might be got +from lemonade or root beer, by imbibing those fluids +from electrical goblets; the—but serious readers +frown at what they miscall our levity, and others are +perhaps restless as stage passengers, who, anxious +to get to the end of their journey, find fault with the +driver at every little delay; hence we must forego +the pleasures of a ramble in this Hesperidian field of +research, until our engagements to those who have +patronized us on the present excursion be fulfilled: +for, authors are cabmen, and books are their cabs: +title pages are advertisements soliciting the public +to take trips with the Jehus whose names they display. +Some of these gentlemen furnish accommodations +so elastic and pleasant that travellers at the +end of a journey leave with regret—the vehicles of +others are so rudely put together that in lumbering +along, those embarked become jolted till they are +<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>glad to get out and give up their fare. Nor are drivers +alike. Some urge their nags only over regular +routes, hurrying at a uniform speed over grass, gravel +or mud, not allowing their patrons a moment to +look but till they come to the <span class='fss'>FINIS</span>. But some gentle +spirits there are who willingly strike into new +paths, to give their customers a sight of every thing +interesting or rare; sweeping down this avenue, +now wheeling over yon lawn, and anon trotting into +the turnpike again, with perfect good humor. These +are the men we try to imitate, well knowing our accommodations +are poor and the road we are traveling +so rugged that, unless determined to please, we +might crack our whip for customers till doomsday +and never succeed.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If the first metallic spoons were pewter or tin, the +second were copper or brass. Copper was the precursor +of iron, and bronze of steel. The world has +never been, and perhaps never will be uniformly advanced +in metallurgy. The age of iron had not +dawned on these continents four centuries ago. +Brass or bronze spoons are relics of the brazen age. +Several ancient ones have been described, and some +of recent days alluded to under the name of <i>latten</i> +spoons. [Laton, leton, and laiton are French terms +for brass.] <i>Fig. 6</i>, <i>Plate VI.</i> is an old English +brass spoon, with a round handle, resembling those +worn in their caps by janizaries. These implements +were no doubt tinned or silvered by the ancients. +Most of their cooking utensils were. Having detected +the injurious effects of food cooked in plain +<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>brass pots, they of course knew it was not improved +when taken into the mouth from untinned brass +spoons—verdigris being equally generated by both.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 7, 8, 9</i>—<i>Iron</i> spoons; the most durable of +all, and of immense antiquity. The specimens are +more clumsy in appearance than those now made, +which resemble <i>Fig. 4</i>. Tinned iron spoons certainly +formed part of the invoices of ancient hardware +men. They have had a place in English manufactures +ever since ‘Sheffield whittles’ were forged. +Some ancient iron spoons had pointed handles, as +shown on the second plate. The art of tinning pots +and pans, as well as plating buckles and other articles +of harness and carriage furniture, Pliny ascribes +to the Gauls, and he mentions the workmen of +Bourges as excelling in the art. [xxxiv. 17.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Iron spoons were at first forged, next cut out of +thick sheets, pressed into shape by dies, and then +tinned. They have also been stamped out of <i>tin +plate</i>—one of the finest of metallurgical productions, +and of whose origin so little is known. A word or +two (our limits will not allow more) on an invention +which has so greatly contributed to domestic comfort: +It can be traced only three or four centuries +back to Germany and Bohemia; how much older it +may be is uncertain. There is nothing improbable +in supposing it to date from Roman or even earlier +times. A passage in Chaucer has escaped the notice +of writers on the subject which seems to refer +to tin plate—if so, the article was then common:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Tho saw I stand on a pillere</div> + <div class='line'>That was of <i>tinned iron clere</i>.—[<i>House of Fame.</i>]</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>England now supplies a great part of the world +with tin plate; yet 130 years have not elapsed since +the first sheet was made there, nor is the name of +the man who introduced it known to one in a hundred +of her citizens. This was Andrew Yarranton, +an individual of a singular genius and great enterprise. +Little of him is known, except what he tells +us in a remarkable book entitled ‘England’s Improvement +by sea and land, to out-do the Dutch +without fighting, to pay debts without moneys,’ &c. +Lon. 1677. He was put apprentice to a linen draper, +staid some years, then ran away and became a +soldier in the civil wars. In 1652 he ‘entered upon +iron works and plied them several years.’ He practiced +as a surveyor and civil engineer. ‘Being employed +by twelve gentlemen of England to bring a +manufacture out of Saxony and Bohemia, made of +iron and tin, there I did see what I here set down,’ +&c. When Van Tromp defeated the English fleet, +Yarranton was in Saxony collecting information relative +to the manufacturing of ‘linen, thread, tape, and +<i>tin plates</i>,’ which, once introduced into England, +with other improvements derived from Holland, +would enable his countrymen “to beat the Dutch +without fighting them;” viz. ‘by securing the mistress +called <i>Trade</i>’—the greatest prophet of his age.</p> + +<p class='c006'>About 1720 the manufacture was begun in England, +but the importation of tin-plate continued for +some years after. Dr. Rutty, in the 35th volume +Phil. Trans. quoting the Memoirs of the Academy +of Sciences for 1725, observes:—“The making of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>tin plates, or latten as it is called, being not commonly +practiced in England though there is so great +a consumption for it ... whereby we are obliged +to export our tin to Germany, and receive it back +again manufactured.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 10, 11, 12</i>—modern wooden spoons, as now +sold in furnishing stores. The one with a turned +handle is the common French spoon. <i>Fig. 13</i>—the +old spoon and ladle rack of rustic dwellings and +kitchens. The ‘little forks’ are from a cut of the latter +part of the 16th century, showing the form of +these implements when first brought into fashion. +Ladies at table held them between the finger and +thumb, and knives were not used—meat on the plates +being previously cut into small pieces. The first +direct allusion to table forks we have met with is +given by Diogenes Laertius in the proem to his +‘Lives.’ The Magi, he says, used reeds at meals, +‘with the sharp ends of which they took up their +cheese, and put it to their mouths.’ Shetland islanders +used sticks as forks when eating the flesh of +seals. The old horn or wooden spoon was short, +as figured on the wall. The Gaelic word <i>cutag</i>, +scottice <i>cutty</i>, was a short hafted spoon. One of +these was devoted to scraping out the ‘<i>kail-pot</i>,’ +and then distinguished by the euphonius title of <i>kail-gullie</i>. +Such are the things employed,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>‘When rural life o’ ev’ry station</div> + <div class='line'>Unite in common recreation.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Scottish drovers carried a wallet of oatmeal and +a wooden bowl. When arrived at a brook and hungry, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>they mixed a little meal and water, stirring the +mixture with one end of a cutty spoon; and, when +duly compounded, eating it out of the other. The +relish of food is from heaven, and does not depend +upon knives and spoons. In this respect, and in ten +thousand others, life is redolent of blessings. Had +not the Creator consulted man’s felicity, he might +have made the taking of food and every essential +act of life disagreeable instead of a pleasure. Wooden +spoons no more spoil the appetite of the poor +than golden ones improve that of the rich. Forster, +after living on the luxuries of Asia, returning home +by the Caspian sea, enjoyed the sweetest regale of +his life, when sitting down with the crew of a small +Russian vessel—each helping himself out of one +common dish of fish broth with a wooden platter and +spoon. Servants in lord’s houses as well as rural +laborers made their own spoons and plates. None, +says Brathwait, were permitted to use trenchers but +such as they made for themselves.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Simple as the spoon is, no talisman ever equaled +the miracles it works. It transforms infants into +youth and youth into manhood; infuses strength +into the limbs and marrow through the bones; expanding +the person, imparting symmetry to the frame, +health to the body and intelligence to the soul. A +child cannot arrive at maturity without it. See the +usual process by which it works these wonders at +the foot of <i>Plate VI.</i> There half a dozen are in +active operation, and as nature is always the same, +we see how boys and girls have eaten porridge, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>since porridge was made. With the exception of +costume the scene represented belongs to all times. +The children of Leah, Rachel, and Niobe fed themselves +like the group of Dutch youngsters the reader +beholds. They handled their spoons in the same +way, blew on the food when it was hot, made wry +faces, and shed tears when they swallowed it too +soon.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The design is no fancy sketch; there is no poetry +in the composition—no got-up attitudes. Dame Nature +herself arranged the figures for the painter to +copy. To be sure, the girls do not rival the graces +nor the boys Belvidere Apollos. No lady at court +would imitate the posture of either of the girls to +the right. The gentleman at the back, with his +spoon in the dish, seems indetermined whether to +raise it while the eye of the reader is on him. His +sister at the extreme left looks as if ashamed to eat +before strangers, and in the act of requesting the beholder +to turn his attention elsewhere—but it is unnecessary +to dilate on each figure; the rest are acting +in accordance with the injunction of Solomon:—‘Whatsoever +thy hand findeth to do, do it with +thy might.’ The good dame points with pride to +her thriving cherubs, and rejoices in seeing them so +agreeably amused with their spoons. To anticipate +their thirst she has placed a pitcher of water beside +them.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The most touching design in Holbein’s Dance of +Death is ‘The Infant.’ A poor widow prepares a +meal for her two orphans; before it is ready Death +<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>steps in and leads out the youngest. While passing +the threshold, the romping little innocent looks +back towards its mother and its spoon, (the latter +lying on the floor,) and seems to long for something +to eat before going off with the stranger.</p> + +<p class='c006'>In a curious account of Death’s doings, published +in the 16th century, the grim monster under various +disguises takes away all sorts of people, and at the +most inconvenient seasons. Misers, merchants, friars, +nuns, cardinals, bishops, soldiers, beggars and +belles are interrupted in the midst of agreeable occupations, +and while accompanied with things they +most valued. A <i>bon vivant</i> carries a spit laden with +trussed fowls in one hand, and grasps in the other +a jug and a spoon. The monarch of Hades approaches +and solicits his acquaintance—this is refused—a +struggle ensues; and soon, stripped of his +goods, the portly sinner is led an unwilling guest to +the mansions below.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The end of the world has been symbolized by +Death breaking an hour glass; the moral would be +quite as striking were he represented destroying +the last spoon. The last spoon! Bless us, what +thoughts does that call up—thoughts of its maker, +state of the arts and of the world at the time—of its +owner, his profession and place of abode, his feelings +when his contemporaries drop off, and finally +leave him the last of living men—the universal heir +of his species. Where, and of what will he prepare +his last meal; and what will be his reflections when +he swallows the last spoonful!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Plate VII—Silver Spoons—Chocolate, Coffee and Tea—Japanese +Spoon—Old Dessert Spoons—A mark of meanness to +be without Plate—Northmen—Prizes at Races—Necklaces of +Spoons—Plated and German Silver Spoons—The World full +of Plated Characters—Cheating—Swearers and the Devil—Laws +prohibiting Plating and Transmutation—English Assay +and Stamp—Proverb—Perpetual renewal of Forms—Brazen +Girdles—Shackles—Spoons bewitched—Salad Spoon—Knife, +Fork, and Spoon—Swiss—French—Shanks of Hams decorated—Carving—Boarding +School Usages—Presents—Whittling—Mat +weaving Legislators.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='sc'>Plate VII.</span>—The first eight figures are silver +spoons, such as were in fashion 300 years ago. +<i>Figs. 1</i>, <i>2</i>, are English, and <i>3</i> French. The style +of ornament on <i>2</i>, <i>3</i>, continued in vogue to the present +century. Armorial shields, as in <i>3</i>, and other +ensigns were anciently engraved on spoons. The +Greeks and Romans had their initials cut on them, +as we have. In the middle ages quaint devices, +and with churchmen an Agnus Dei, or similar emblems +were adopted. [Hogarth, it will be remembered, +began his career with engraving arms and +cyphers on spoons and plate.] The shape of <i>Fig. +4</i> is quite modern—the fiddle head, molding of the +handle, reversed bend of its tip, are now in fashion, +but the figure is copied from an engraving a century +<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>old. A plain silver spoon of a like form is portrayed +on Planche 8, of the ‘Distillateur and Liquoriste,’ +in Arts et Metières, of the French Academy. +<i>Fig. 5</i>—the ordinary spoon of the present day, +and almost identical with <i>4</i>. <i>Fig. 6</i>—a recent pattern; +the handle more ornamented and the point of +the bowl rounded off. <i>Fig. 7</i>—modern French, +from the pattern book of a Paris manufacturer. +<i>Fig. 8</i>—a fancy tea spoon, from a set belonging to +an antiquarian collector, and of English manufacture +of the last century. [As table, dessert, and tea +spoons differ only in size, each kind is sufficiently +represented by the figures on the plate.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>Speaking of tea spoons—what a revolution in +manners and customs have three beverages wrought +in three centuries—chocolate, coffee, and tea! The +first, an ordinary drink of Astec princes, (see page +<a href='#Page_113'>113</a>) was derived from Mexico in 1520. The second +was unknown in western Europe till the close +of the 16th century. Its early history is involved in +fable. Employed by Arab monks to drive off +sleep, and enable those insensates to spend their +nights in watchings, it at length was universally +adopted by Mussulmen for its refreshing properties. +It was carried from Turkey to England in 1641, and +the first coffee house opened by a Jew of Oxford, in +1650. A Greek set up another in London in 1652. +Henry Blount, describing the diet of the Turks in +1634, observes, ‘They have another drinke, not good +at meat, called <i>cauphe</i>, made of a berry as big as a +small beane, dryed in a furnace and beat to powder, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>of a soote colour, in taste a little bitterish: they +seethe and drinke it hote as may be endured ... it +is thought to be the old <i>blacke broth</i> used so much +by the Lacedemonians.’ [<i>Voyage to the Levant</i>, +p. 105.] The consumption of coffee throughout the +world during the past year has been estimated at +453 millions of pounds.</p> + +<p class='c006'>But an infusion of leaves of the tea plant has +eclipsed all other potations. Imparting tone to the +stomach, soothing the irritated system, removing +languor and slightly exhilarating, it has become a +favorite beverage of civilized nations. Tea was +first imported from China by the Dutch, and in the +middle of the 17th century sold in England at sixty +shillings per pound—a price equivalent to twenty +dollars now. Notwithstanding the denunciations of +dietists, the moral influence of tea has been manifestly +beneficial. It has introduced elegance at +meals and politeness at table, diminished gross feeding +and abolished the grosser manners of former +times. What barbarian would rob ladies of tea—what +substitute could he propose—does he wish the +fair sex to live as in times ere an infusion of the +tea plant was known—to breakfast on beef, pork, +and beer, and sup on pork, beer, and beef? The +meal known as ‘tea’ is the most intellectual of repasts; +no excess attends it; it rather invigorates the +spirits than pampers the appetite. Coarse feeders +eschew it, for the fluid is but slightly nutritive. No +drunkard loves it, for it is the soberest of potations. +To refined minds it is nectar which drives away +<span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>gloom and makes the soul sparkle with joy—a divine +cordial, the reverse of beastly malt liquors which +the sensual guzzle. Doubtless Circe kept a porter +house, and Hygeia drank hyson and bohea.</p> + +<p class='c006'>A fig for those philosophers who denounce tea +and modestly ask us to take to cold water—requiring +us to renounce that which has done so much towards +polishing our manners, and rendering home +attractive—pseudo-reformers, who start at a tea-pot +and groan at the sight of a saucer. The tea spoon +is justly caressed by old ladies, and more fondled by +young ones than any thing else. It is to these the +bearer of sweets and the medium of taste. Without +coyness they reach out their mouths to meet it +half way and pout with their lips till they give it a +kiss. As they laugh and play with it, the vermillion +of their lips is deepened in tone, and vivacity darts +from their eyes.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Tea table equipages, and adjuncts in the form of +cabinet, china, silver, iron, japanned and copper and +other wares, give employment to millions and wealth +to thousands. The original tea spoon came from +Asia, where its shape often deviates considerably +from ours. In the appendix to Kempfer’s Japan is +figured a portable case about a foot square, containing +every requisite for making tea, including a kettle, +canister, cup, and a singular looking tea spoon. +It may be compared to a curved and tapered marrow +spoon, the small end being the handle. A tea +apparatus is carried by the Japanese ‘on their journeyings, +and wherever they go.’</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>It has already been stated that implements small +as tea spoons were used in Europe long before tea: +besides other duties, they performed those of modern +desserts; were used in eating honey, sugar, +and fruits preserved in sugar; sweetmeats were favorite +dainties in former days. Paul Hentzer, who +travelled in England in 1598, gives some interesting +particulars relating to the English court and manners. +Visiting the palace at Greenwich, he found +the presence chamber hung with tapestry and +strewed with hay or rushes. He noticed the servants +carrying dishes into the queen’s dining room, +and prostrating themselves before her empty chair. +Of Elizabeth herself he observes, “Next came the +queen, in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were +told, very majestick; her face oblong, fair but wrinkled; +her eyes small, yet black and pleasant; a nose +a little hooked, her lips narrow, and her <i>teeth black</i>; +a defect the English seem subject to from their too +<i>great use of sugar</i>.” In Nichols’ progresses of Elizabeth +mention is made of comfit or preserve boxes, +with “a litill spone of gold.” Aaron Hill, in his +‘Ottoman Empire,’ says the Turks take up sweetmeats +‘with little spoons like those we use for tea.’</p> + +<p class='c006'>With the ancients it was an indication of poverty +or meanness not to possess spoons or some articles +of plate. Suetonius observes of Domitian that he +was born in Pomegranate street, and so reduced in +his younger days as not to own a single utensil of +gold or silver. Vespasian drank on solemn occasions +out of a silver mug which belonged to his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>grandmother. She was probably poor, for the family +was an obscure one, having no ancestral statues. +The emperor himself once let out horses and mules +for hire, and hence nicknamed <i>the muleteer</i>.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Silver, remarks Olaus Magnus, was anciently in +great plenty with the Northmen. Household utensils +and even cradles were made of it. Ladies wore +chains, bracelets, and round their heads bands of +silver four fingers broad. The men had girdles and +buttons of the same metal. This display, the reverend +historian rather uncanonically observes, did +honor to the prince who thus ruled over a gallant +people, and not over “poor indigent fellows that +are but scabs and pilfering knaves.” [B. vi. cap. 12.] +Gold and silver smiths, he says, exhibited their +goods at the great annual fairs, held on the ice by +the Goths, time out of mind. They furnished the +prize cups and spoons distributed at the horse and +foot races held yearly on the ice. The footmen +wore skates made of the shank bones of the rein +deer, and ran over a distance of from eight to twelve +miles. The successful competitors were presented +with “silver spoons, brass vessels, swords, new garments, +and young horses.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>In northern Europe, young females on festival +days adorn themselves with rows of silver spoons +strung together and worn as a necklace or girdle—a +singular proof of imperfect civilization.</p> + +<p class='c006'>To accommodate all tastes and purses, iron, brass +and copper spoons are plated with silver, and silver +ones with a coat of gold, fine as those ancient ladies’ +<span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>dresses which were compared to woven wind. Plating +and gilding are of unknown antiquity. In modern +times a new and cheap factitious substance has +been introduced, named <i>argentane</i> or <i>German silver</i>. +It is composed of copper, zinc and nickel, to which +some add a dose of arsenic or antimony. It constitutes +a tolerable imitation of real silver. Though +slowly oxidized in air, the alloy rapidly corrodes in +acids, and injurious effects have resulted from its +employment in the kitchen and at the dining table. +Recently its color and exterior qualities have been +much improved. German silver and plated wares +enable poor and economical people to imitate their +betters in display, but the cost laid out in sterling +goods is the true economy. ‘A poor squire,’ +said a Spanish Æsop, ‘should have his cup of silver +and his kettle of copper.’ Though they cost more +than others, they last longer, and when worn out +will buy fresh ones.</p> + +<p class='c006'>It is with men as with their jewels; all is not gold +that glitters. Some put so thick a coat of virtue +on that few detect the base material underneath—others +wear so thin a film that the slightest friction +rubs it through. The world is full of plated wares; +streets are crowded as well as tradesmen’s shelves. +With spoons and with their owners, iron, brass, lead +and copper gilt, ape sterling metal. A like variety +in both prevails—from tinseled things to catch the +vulgar eye, to tasteful forms and ornaments that captivate +politer circles. At the best, men are only like +their buttons, <i>i. e.</i> single, double or treble gilt. Artists +<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>have a rule to distinguish between the true and +false, and it applies to moral as well as to material +merchandize. Plated goods, it is said, exhibit a +darker hue, a stronger glare than native gold and +silver; hence where there is excessive gloss, be sure +there’s brass below. The art of plating human +character preceded that of gilding metals. It soon +reached perfection. Recent ages have added nothing, +nor will future ages find aught to add.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Tricks of old roguish pewterers were noticed in +the last chapter; the reader will be grieved to see +in this that the morals of their contemporaries who +wrought in finer metals were no better. That ancient +Scottish poem, ‘<i>The Sweirers and the Devill</i>,’ +gives a graphic account of the manner and wiles +of tradesmen to sell their goods. The fiend is described +perambulating a town <i>incog.</i> on a market +day, and chuckling at the oaths and imprecations of +dealers with a view to deceive purchasers. One +wished “the devill mot stik him with a knyfe,” if +what he said respecting his goods was not true. +The malster renounced God, and hoped the ‘devill +of hell might taik him, gif ony bettir malt may be.’ +The tailor gave himself ‘to the feynd’ if bettir cloaks +were ever made.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">Ane merchand, his geir as he did sell,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">Renuncit his part of hevin and hell.</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">The fleshour [butcher] swoir be the sacrament,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">And be Chryst’s bluid maist innocent,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">Nevir fatter flesch saw man with ee.</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">Ane <i>goldsmith</i> said the gold’s sa fyne,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">That all the warkmanschip I tyne, [lose]</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">The feynd ressaif me gif I lie.</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="sco">... Quoth the devill, thow art mine.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>Since the discovery of the electrotype process of +coating one metal with another, spoons of German +silver are made to appear so much like those of +sterling silver as to be sold by cheats for such. +Similar frauds were formerly practiced with plated +goods. An English statute of 1403 is to this effect: +“Whereas many fraudulent artificers, imagining to +deceive common people, do daily make locks, [lockets] +rings, beads, candlesticks, harneis for girdles, +hilts, chalices and sword pomels, powder [pouncet] +boxes, and covers for cups, of copper and of latin, +and the same over gilt and silver, like to gold and +silver, and the same sell and put in gage to many +men not having full knowledge thereof, <i>for whole +gold and whole silver</i>, to the great deceit, loss, and +hindrance of the common people, and the <i>wasting</i> of +gold and silver; it is ordained and established that +no artificer, nor other man whatsoever he be, from +henceforth shall gilt nor silver any such, &c. upon +pain to forfeit to the king one hundred shillings, and +to make satisfaction to the party grieved for his damages.” +Chalices and ornaments for the church were +excepted—they might be gilt or plated with silver, +but at the foot or underside the real material was to +be exposed, “to the intent that a man may see +whereof the thing is made, for to eschew the deceit +aforesaid.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>By an act of the same year it was made felony to +transmute lead, iron, copper, &c. into gold and silver! +“It is ordained and established that none from +henceforth shall use to multiply gold and silver, nor +<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>use the craft of multiplication; and if any the same +do, that he incur the pain of felony in this case.” +The 5th of Hen. V. allowed gilding but only on sterling +silver; no inferior metal was to be covered with +silver except “knight’s spurs and all the apparel +that pertaineth to a baron.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>A. D. 1300, an act required all articles to be ‘of +good and true alloy—of no worse gold than the +touch of Paris,’ and silver to equal the current coin; +no article to leave the workmen ‘untill it be essaied +by the wardens of the craft, and marked with the +leopard’s head.’ Under Edward III. every master +was to stamp his own mark on the articles before +submitting them for assay to the king’s officers. In +1423, another act required gold and silver vessels +‘to be essaied and touched by the keeper of the +touch,’ then marked, if found good, ‘with the leopard’s +head.’ No more ‘sowder’ was to be used than +necessary—an intimation that it was not spared +when every article was sold by weight. In 1294, +Phillippe le Bel published regulations and renewed +others, for the guidance of Paris gold and silver +smiths.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The goldsmith’s profession furnishes a cutting rebuke +to simpletons and impudent boasters:—“A +fool of 24 carats” is one whose folly is without alloy: +“a philosopher of 25 carats”—nature has exceeded +herself in producing him.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Silver spoons are emblematical of that renewal of +forms which organized matter perpetually undergoes. +Vegetables, animals and men are composed of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>same ingredients—alternately nourishing and imbibing +nourishment from each other. Their figures and +condition, not their substance, change. A portion +of the reader’s person may have nerved the right arm +of David, swelled the stature of Goliah, blushed in +the cheek of Lucretia, handled the Crayons of Zeuxis, +hunted with Meleager, or even been part of the wild +boar he slew! Start not, gentle reader, for that +which was a calf or pig, an ox or sheep, yesterday, +is veal or pork, beef or mutton to-day, and to-morrow +becomes assimilated to its human consumer; +bone of thy bone, and flesh of thy flesh. It is humiliating +to human glory that the proudest individuals +are composed of such vile materials;—a courtier’s +body may have toiled at Babel, and may again +be a bricklayer’s clerk. The skull of a king may +once have been a calabash, his nose a pullet’s gizzard; +his blood may through a goose have trilled, +his heart have panted in a deer; his lips may once +have jabbered on a baboon’s face, and ages hence +may do the like again: he yet may serve to grease +a carriage axle, manure a cabbage or a radish bed, +and be served up to clowns in salad. Princes, when +sick, are fed sometimes on asses’ milk, or draw their +nourishment from dugs of goats, and thus incorporate +these animals with themselves.</p> + +<p class='c006'>If there never was a transmigration of souls, there +has always been one of human bodies and of—silver +spoons! As the elements of our ancestors exist in +us, so do tons of ancient plate in our buffets. Human +beings are dissolved in the grave, and the precious +<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>metals in the crucible; but the operation in +both cases is preliminary to the reäppearance of the +substances in new forms. The gold coin in the reader’s +pocket may have constituted a part of the chain +which Pharaoh put round Joseph’s neck, or of the +bodkin which Fulvia thrust through Cicero’s tongue. +Spoons used at our tables may once have been shekels +of the sanctuary, or paid by Abraham for his +field at Hebron. They may have entered the lips of +Cleopatra, and been employed by Andromache or +Artaxerxes at dinner. The ingenuity of antediluvian +artists was perhaps expended on the substance +of that goblet. Noah may have handled it, and Judas +bore it in his scrip. A monarch’s table fork +may once have picked the teeth of rebels, or in a +surgeon’s hands punctured boils and sores. As with +the past so with the future: Reader! ages hence thy +silver plate may form the spoons of an individual, +a portion of whose body may be identical with thine, +and who, like thee, may sit speculating on the metamorphoses +terrestrial beings undergo.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Before leaving this very curious subject we may +be permitted to suggest, that the often quoted contest +between two individuals of the feline race, at +Kilkenny, which ended by each party eating up the +other, <i>may</i> be less akin to an Irish bull and more +allied to a philosophical truth than is generally surmised.</p> + +<p class='c006'>As devices for diminishing a craving for food have +been mentioned, some moral prescriptions for moderating +a longing for rich furniture might here be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>quoted, but they would be of little avail. Neither +one appetite nor the other can be tamed by medical +or sacerdotal doctors. Few persons now prefer eating +sand to filling the stomach with good things; yet +except to such, table equipages, if emblazoned with +fiends, snakes and toads, would exert no lasting influence. +Though table cloths were winding sheets, +knife hafts dead men’s bones, and spoons, cups and +butter boats made of human skulls, the generality +of mankind would soon eat and drink as heartily as +if the service were of silver, and no arguments had +been adduced against intemperance.</p> + +<p class='c006'>One device to make people stop when they had +sufficient has not been noticed; it was the last mechanical +resource, viz: a broad brass or iron band +fitted to and worn around the abdomen; so that +when the wearer could not stop putting food into his +mouth there was not room for it below—the stomach +no longer resembling an elastic sack, capable of extension, +but a non-elastic barrel which could not be +surcharged. An abbot in the 11th century, inordinately +given to creature comforts, had his trunk thus +cased with a brazen band. With these girdles, neither +penitents nor those who loved short masses and +long dinners could eat</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>‘Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve</div> + <div class='line in20'>Were bent like drums.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>It often happened that those who indulged an inordinate +taste for gold and silver plate wore shackles +of another kind—according to the saying, ‘men of +small means who eat from silver, fast and die in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>iron.’ Living beyond their income, they end their +days in jail. A fondness for display, whether in +the house or out of it, has caused no small share of +human misery. Many a female has ruined her husband +by longing for plate. The Italians say, the +smiles of a woman are the tears of the purse—a rich +sideboard and a fat kitchen make a lean will.</p> + +<p class='c006'>When those capricious goblins yclept ‘fairies’ +used to assist their rustic friends, by kindling kitchen +fires at early dawn, sweeping floors, milking cows, +and churning butter, they played less pleasant pranks +to those who slighted them. Puck scared dairy +maids, skimmed their milk, and would not let their +cheeses curdle nor the butter ‘come,’ “if a bowle of +curds and creame” had not been offered him. Often +he slipped boys’ stools away as they sat down:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe.</div> + <div class='line'>Sometimes he lurk’d in a gossip’s bowl,</div> + <div class='line'>In very likeness of a roasted crab, [apple]</div> + <div class='line'>And when she drank, against her lips he bobb’d,</div> + <div class='line'>And on her wither’d dew-lap pour’d the ale.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Worse things mischievous genii did to those obnoxious +to their wrath. Spoons at supper time denied +their aid, and either vanished in the steaming +porridge or refused to leave the bowl or dish—more +appalling still, they have, on entering a hungry boor’s +mouth, stuck fast, and defied all human power to +draw them thence, until the offended spirit was appeased, +and ceased to press the rustic’s upper and +under jaw against the implement! Legends such as +these were often based on facts, and demons more +tangible than ‘Pucks’ or ‘Robin Goodfellows’ were +<span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>the authors. Fusible spoons are not of recent date, +nor are metallic bowls with spoons cast to them and +made to resemble earthenware. Moreover, spoons +were as easily made to enter the mouth and remain +a certain time as those “untoothsome pears,” cherries +and plums, mentioned by old writers, “which +being put into a body’s mouth, shall presently shoot +forth such and so many bolts on every side, that +without the owner’s key cannot be got out again.” +The Cathayans had magical cups and we presume +spoons too, which filled themselves and then +went of their own accord “ten paces through the +ayre into the hands of the Great Khan, and when +he hath drunke, in like sort they return to their +place”! [<i>Ewbank’s Hydraulics.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 9</i>—a French device, resembling a large pair +of scissors; one blade being a fork, the other a +spoon—a singular union. The screw or pivot is +made to take out, that each implement may, when +desirable, be separately handled. The whole is of +ivory or buffalo’s horn and designed to transfer salads +at table. The usual dressings, as vinegar, +salt, oil, mustard, &c. corrode metallic substances. +When used, the spoon or fork is held downwards, +accordingly as a part of the fluid is required to be +raised or not. That Warwickshire wizard who +ranged through all nature and every art to cull flowers +and collect ingredients for those spells by which +he has bewitched the world, did not pass by salads:</p> + +<p class='c013'>’Twas a good lady; we may pick a thousand salads ere we light on such +another herb.</p> + +<p class='c013'>Indeed, sir, she was the sweet marjoram of the salad, or rather the herb of +grace.—[<i>All’s well that ends well.</i>]</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span><i>Fig. 10</i>—a pocket knife, fork and spoon united +in one handle. Implements of this kind were formerly +much in fashion; at present they are occasionally +carried by travellers and by individuals on +gunning or fishing excursions. Captain Head used +one when traversing the Pampas and Andes. Supping +at a wretched post, where table furniture was +scarcely known, a black girl held the light in one +hand and furnished salt with the other—artificial +candlesticks and salt-cellars forming no part of the +establishment. He drew from his pocket, ‘a clasp +knife and fork,’ and picked up with the latter chopped +pieces of beef from a pewter dish to the no +small delight of the living candelabrum.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Peasants in Switzerland and other parts of the +European continent, commonly carry a device like +<i>Fig. 10</i>, or a sheath containing the separate implements. +Before the revolution in France, it was customary +when a gentleman was invited to dinner, to +send a servant with his knife, fork and spoon; if he +had no attendant, he took them in his breeches +pocket, as a carpenter carries a rule. “A few of the +ancient regime still follow the good old custom, because +it is old.” Has not the reader noticed at public +dinners, or when making ‘New-Year’s calls,’ the +shank of a ham or leg of mutton tastefully decorated +with gilt or cut paper and ribbons? This was a custom +somewhat general before forks were introduced, +and still is common in Germany and Italy. The +carver grasped that part of the joint in his left hand +while he shaved off slices with a pointed knife in his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>right. That he might hold it firmly and perform +his duty more expeditiously and seemly, a piece of +paper was neatly tied round the shank, and on great +occasions set off with ribbons. Each slice as cut +off was raised on the point of the knife and laid on +a thin piece of bread, a pile of which was placed +near the carver, who thus served the guests in rotation. +Ovid has observed there was grace in using +the fingers at table; so there is in handling a fork. +In old engravings we see ladies holding it between +the finger and thumb, as if afraid to touch it, or as +people take snuff; others retain it in the hand in the +manner of a pen, and some grasp the handle with a +clenched fist, as a boy clutches an apple or a gentlemen +the head of his walking cane.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Portable cases of morocco containing a separate +knife, fork and spoon are for sale in our silver +smiths’ shops. It is said gentlemen of the <i>ton</i> would +as soon go a journey without their dressing cases +as some of them would take their seats at a <i>table d’hote</i> +without their own spoons and forks. In public +gardens visitors sometimes take ice cream and other +refreshments with their own apparatus; but a certain +class prefer the proprietor’s spoons, which, when +of silver, they have forgotten to return. We have +heard of knives and forks being chained to plates, +and spoons to bowls, in London chop and soup +houses—imitating a practice introduced by Edwyn +in the 7th century, of fastening by the same means +iron cups to wells and springs, for the use of honest +and dishonest travellers. As the ‘Transactions’ of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>the Society of Literary and Scientific Chiffonniers +will no doubt be consulted in future times, the following +extract from the circular of a fashionable +female boarding school may interest young ladies +and teachers a century hence:—“Parents to furnish +each pupil with bed and bedding, six towels, napkins +and a knife; a silver fork, <i>spoon</i> and mug; a +thimble and a pair of scissors; all to be marked in +full: washing seven dollars a quarter.”</p> + +<p class='c006'>A portable knife has always been an acceptable +present to boys. The first one is examined with rapture, +and its possession sometimes forms an epoch +in the life of its owner, as was the case with young +Achilles. When disguised as a girl, and placed +among the daughters of Lycomedes, the wily pedlar +of Ithaca took an effectual mode to discover him. +The pretended merchant unslinging his pack, displayed +before the family of Lycomedes thread, tapes, +ribbons, scissors and needles, with an assortment of +neat daggers and knives; the females confined their +purchases to articles appropriate to them, but the +youth, forgetting the part his concealment required, +eagerly pounced on the knives, &c. thus revealing +the secret of his sex, and to the man above all others +interested in finding him out. The Germans +make annual presents to their godsons, till the lads +reach the age of fourteen, when the last gift, invariably +a pocket knife, is made. The instrument is considered +symbolical of a youth cut loose from leading +strings, and thenceforward accountable for his acts. +Girls, we suppose, are treated with a pair of scissors.</p> + +<p class='c006'><span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>Not a few modern devices are ancient inventions. +There is one universally ascribed to Yankees, but +which, so far from being of republican origin, is descended +from royalty. An ancient writer, describing +the manners and magnificence of the Persian +king, says, when he rode in a chariot, instead of +occupying his thoughts in reading or conversation, +he spent the time “in whittling with a knife.” [<i>Purchas.</i>] +Major Harris, in his ‘Highlands of Ethiopia,’ +mentions Arabian legislators platting date leaves into +mats while sitting in council—the most useful, in +his opinion, of their acts.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c012'><i>Plate VIII—Tea Caddy, Salt Spoons, and Salt—Salt-Cellar—Monks +of La Trappe—Egg Spoon—Paschal Eggs—Poultry +raised by Steam—Mustard Spoons—French Prayer—Celestial +House Movers—Beef and Mustard—Punch Spoon and Ladle—Wassail +Bowl—Burns—‘Arts et Metières’—Sugar Tongs—Sifter +and Snuff Spoons—Cream, Marrow, and Physic +Spoons—Human Life—History and Influence of the Spoon—Author’s +Request—His Parting Bow.</i></p> + +<p class='c005'><span class='sc'>Plate VIII.</span>—a miscellaneous collection. <i>Figs. 1, +2</i>—tea caddy spoons, for transferring the dried herb +from small canisters to tea-pots. They are of the last +century; but being imitations of nature, will be more +or less in fashion while refined taste prevails. <i>Figs. +3, 4, 5</i>—salt spoons of silver, pearl and ivory, but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>sometimes made of tortoise shell, horn and bone, and +of diverse patterns. As salt has been used at table +from primitive times minute implements for taking it +up are of undoubted antiquity, though particular descriptions +of them have not reached us.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Of all condiments salt is the chief, both for animals +and men. Quadrupeds relish it as well as +bipeds. One of nature’s own preparing, it is furnished +in profuse abundance. Millions of tons are +annually consumed by horses, sheep and oxen in +Europe and the United States. Ancient farmers +gave it to their stock, for which Plutarch (in <i>Nat. +Ques.</i>) assigns the same reasons as modern agriculturists. +What philosophical husbandman is not +gratified as his cattle crowd around him for it? The +mild eyes of his oxen looking grateful for a relish +and watching his movements in hopes of another. +The timid ewe takes the treat from his hand, and +licks up every stray atom, while the colt, more familiar, +smells his pockets and whinnies for more.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Salt not only seasons unsavory meat but preserves +it from putrefaction. In view of these admirable qualities, +Homer calls it ‘divine.’ It was a symbol of +incorruptibility and fidelity—a pledge of friendship +and hospitality which nothing but death was allowed +to cancel. No social feast was perfect without it, +and oblations were seldom offered unless it was an +ingredient. ‘No sacrifice,’ says Pliny, ‘was presented +to the gods without salt.’ ‘Every oblation of thy +meat offering shalt thou season with salt.’ [<i>Levit.</i>] +At the ceremony of circumcision the Turks place, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>or used to place, a few grains in the boy’s mouth, saying, +‘Heaven make thy name savory as salt among +men, and mayest thou live to enjoy the fruits of the +earth.’ Can that which is unsavory, exclaims Job, +be eaten without salt? Even bread, says one of the +ancients, is unpalatable without it. Its enormous consumption +was a fruitful source of revenue to ancient +as well as modern governments. On one occasion +Demetrius rewarded the fidelity of the Jews to him +by remitting the gabel.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The salt-cellar was held in great veneration of +old, and from superstitious motives, kept remarkably +bright and clean. Placed on the table near the images +of the presiding deities (as already observed) its +presence consecrated the food. In the middle ages +it was generally of silver and elaborately wrought. +A gilt one is extant modelled after the white tower +of London.</p> + +<p class='c006'>To be placed at table above the salt was a mark +of honor—to desire a guest to seat himself below it +an indication of inferior rank, or of disesteem. In +the latter case the mortification was not altogether +imaginary, as the following account of an old English +hall, the scene of feasting and hospitality, will +show:—“At the upper end was placed the orsille, +or high table, a little elevated above the floor, and +here the master of the mansion presided with an authority, +if not a state, which almost equalled that of +the potent baron. The table was divided into upper +and lower messes <i>by a huge salt-cellar</i>, and the +rank and consequence of the visitors were marked +<span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>by the situation of their seats above and below it—a +custom which not only distinguished the relative dignity +of the guests, but extended to the nature of the +provision—the wine frequently circulating only above +the salt-cellar, and the dishes below it being of a +coarser kind than those near the head of the table.” +From the correspondence of the younger Pliny, it appears +that a similar practice prevailed among the +Romans. [See Letter vi. Book 2.]</p> + +<p class='c006'>The fabrication of carved spoons was an employment +of religious recluses; they brought higher prices +than when made by worldly minded workmen. The +monks of La Trappe were prohibited from using +their tongues—all communications being made by +signs. They were forbidden to read, write, or raise +their eyes above the ground unless to direct their +steps. Their teeth too might as well have been +drawn, for neither fish, flesh nor any thing like solid +food was given them to grind;—but absorbed as +these men were with celestial matters, and having +no need themselves of eating apparatus, they thought +it no sin to provide them for other people. Such of +the brethren as could not endure the fatigue of the +mattock (observes Motraye) were employed in turning, +carving, &c. The traveller was presented +“with an ivory spoon and fork wrought as well as +possible.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 6</i>—an egg spoon, rather larger than a ‘tea,’ +and having the handle joined to the small end of +the bowl. Such kind of implements have been in +use since hens laid eggs and women boiled them. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>The Romans were great consumers of eggs; hence +the saying ‘<i>ab ovo usque ad mala</i>,’ from eggs to apples—an +elliptical expression for a feast—eggs being +the first, and apples the last dish served up. Eggs +played important parts in monastic feasts and farces. +The tenth of all produce of land, fowls and cattle +kept monks’ larders well supplied, and woe to him +who robbed the church of tythes, or ‘stole eggs from +a cloister.’ “If a peeter penny or an housle egg +were behind, or a patch of tythe unpaid, then beware +of spirits.” At Easter, eggs were boiled hard and +stained of various colors with onion peeling or broom +flowers, and sometimes gilded. They were consecrated +according to a ritual of Pope Paul V. and +presented to children and friends, under the name +of <i>pace</i> or <i>paschal</i> eggs. The practice of boys striking eggs +against each other, the shattered becoming +the property of the owners of the sound ones, is descended +from mediæval times.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The egg was an ancient emblem of the universe, +and has been symbolized in a thousand things. An +envious man thinks his neighbor’s fowls lay more +than his. Eggs are now hatched by steam, and +chickens reared without the aid of clucking hens. +Released from anxious care about their young and +from the debilitating work of incubation, matronly +fowls have now nought to do but quietly lay their +eggs and pass their time in pleasure. Cooks with +poultry can be supplied without tearing screaming +pullets from their parent’s side—sundering the finest +fibres of affection. Then the ‘<i>Eccaleobion</i>,’ it is said, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>will shortly place within the poor’s reach luxuries +hitherto denied them. The destitute are not long +to remain ignorant of the taste of chicken broth and +plovers fricasseed, of broiled partridge, quail and +meadow hens; of roasted geese, and ducks and turkeys.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 7</i> a silver and <i>8</i> an ebony mustard spoon. +Forms of the ancient implements have not reached +us, but some sayings to which the condiment gave +rise are still in use:—‘’Tis mustard after dinner,’ +indicating that the time for using a thing has passed, +or that the thing itself is of no consequence; ‘a man +amused with mustard;’ one that makes great things +of trifles. It has ever been deemed essential to beef, +especially salt beef; hence an old French prayer:—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span lang="fr">De trois choses Dieu nous garde,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="fr"><i>Du bœuf salé sans moutarde</i>,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="fr">D’un valet qui se regarde,</span></div> + <div class='line'><span lang="fr">D’une femme qui se farde.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>‘Dijon mustard’ was renowned in the time of +Philip the Fair, during whose reign the reader will +recollect two important transactions took place—the +introduction of the mariner’s compass into modern +Europe, and [in 1291] the transportation by angels +of the Virgin Mary’s dwelling at Nazareth into Dalmatia; +whence it was conveyed three years afterwards +(by the same celestial house movers) to the +opposite coast of the Adriatic, and located on land +belonging to a widow named Loretta. There it has +remained for the edification of pious pilgrims, and +the maturing of grace in the hearts of its reverend +proprietors.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span><i>Grumio.</i> What say you to a piece of beef and mustard?</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Kath.</i> A dish that I do love to feed upon.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Grumio.</i> Aye, but the mustard is too hot a little.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Kath.</i> Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Grumio.</i> Nay, then I will not; you shall have the mustard,</div> + <div class='line in10'>Or else you get no beef from Grumio.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Kath.</i> Then both, or one, or any thing thou wilt.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><i>Grumio.</i> Why then, the mustard without the beef.</div> + </div> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line in38'>[<i>Taming of the Shrew.</i>]</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 9</i>—a punch spoon, and <i>13</i> a punch ladle—two +of the least beneficial applications of a valuable +thing.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Many estates have been spent in the getting,</div> + <div class='line'>Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,</div> + <div class='line'>And men for <i>punch</i> left off hewing and splitting.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Few things have better exemplified the truth of +another saying of ‘Poor Richard’ than punch and +punch spoons:—‘What maintains one vice would +bring up two children.’ The old ‘wassail bowl’ and +its accompanying spoon were not such promoters of +dissipation as their modern descendants, nor did +they accommodate such pernicious liquids. Families +took wassail at home on festivals, when innocent hilarity +reigned; but to indulge in punch, men meet +at taverns, where they ply the ladle till they perform +antics rude and grotesque as those for which that +hero is known whose name is the same as the liquor. +After supper at Christmas “the wassail bowl was +brought in, of which every one partook, by taking +with a spoon a roasted apple out of the ale and eating +it, then drinking the healths of the company out +of the bowl, wishing them a merry christmas and a +happy new year.” With the Greeks and Romans +wine was carried to the dining room in large vases, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>and poured into bowls, whence it was drawn by ladles +into cups and tumblers. See figures on the +second plate.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>O whiskey! saul o’ plays an’ pranks!</div> + <div class='line'>Accept a bardie’s humble thanks!</div> + <div class='line'>When wanting thee, what tuneless cranks</div> + <div class='line in26'>Are my poor verses!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Unfortunately for Burns he did not confine himself +to invocations of the spirit, or even to moderate +draughts at her fountain. His punch bowl of Inverary +marble and its attending ladle were too often +put in requisition. Under their influence he produced +his poem called ‘Scotch Drink,’ in which he +thus humorously blesses every total abstinence man:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>May gravels round his blather wrench,</div> + <div class='line'>An’ gouts torment him inch by inch,</div> + <div class='line'>Wha twists his gruntle wi’ a glunch</div> + <div class='line in26'>O’ sour disdain,</div> + <div class='line'>Out owre a glass o’ <i>whiskey punch</i></div> + <div class='line in26'>W’ honest men.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>How opinions change! With the laudable view +of preserving a knowledge of the arts and of innocent +comforts, and to guard, as far as human power +can, against a second deluge of barbarism, the old +French Academy published descriptions, in great +detail, of the most valuable manufactures and professions. +In ‘L’Art du Distillateur Liquoriste’ is +figured and described a Paris coffee room with its +appendages, including a “grande jatte de porcelaine +<i>pleine de punch</i>, un cuiller de buis pour puiser cette +liqueur, et la verser dans les verres.”</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Figs. 10</i>—sugar tongs; a singular application of +the spoon, which, instead of scooping up fluids or +semi-fluids is here designed to take up solids. When +<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>loaf sugar was introduced, (the period of which +is uncertain, for it was made several ages before +its alleged discovery by Venetians in the 16th century,) +the ordinary spoon could not readily plunge +among the lumps nor be secure of catching one, or +of retaining it when caught; hence <i>two</i> spoons were +joined in the chase, and as one heads the game +while the other closes up the rear, they seldom lose +their destined prey. Two spoons inseparably linked +in a pair of sugar tongs are like those married couples, +who none but mutual pleasures know, and +whose time is spent among the sweets of life.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 11</i>—another curious transformation. We +have seen the spoon resemble a pair of shears, then +a pair of tongs—here it is a <i>sifter</i>. Copiously perforated, +the bowl is used to sprinkle refined sugar +over the crust of pies, custards and other delicious +dainties. Strange, how one thing glides into another! +What primeval artist ever thought that spoons would +be converted into riddles—made as useless for lifting +liquids as the buckets of the Danaides! The +bowl is also sometimes flattened and pierced for a +fish slice, and, when half covered, is made into a +basting ladle! By the way, we forgot to mention at +page <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>, that snuff spoons were also punctured, because +they could not properly discharge their contents +otherwise. When held laden to the nostrils, the +sudden withdrawal of the superincumbent air by the +snifter draws up the spoon itself if the bowl be not +perforated, just as a piece of paper held near the +mouth is sucked in by an inspiration. But when +<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>two or three minute holes are made in the bowl, no +sooner does the owner set his nasal pump at work +than the atmospheric air, ascending through the +openings, drives up the powder in a trice, and scatters +none in lateral directions.</p> + +<p class='c006'><i>Fig. 12</i>—a cream spoon, invented on the labor +saving principle. It supersedes the necessity of lifting +the pitcher with its contents every time a modicum +only of the fluid is wanted—exhibiting the +advantages of economizing force, though in a less +degree than the tea or coffee urn. Fifty cups can +be filled from one of these by simply opening a tap +which the little finger can effect; whereas no lady +could charge half that number from a tea-pot without +her arms and shoulders complaining of the labor. +<i>Fig. 14</i> is the well known marrow spoon, of the history +of which we are uninformed. It is however an +emblem of many good things. O! for the salt of wit, +cream of pleasantry, and marrow of rich stories!</p> + +<p class='c006'>The last spoon figured on the plate is not the least +appropriate to finish with. The others are for taking +food, this for taking physic; they to comfort +people when in health, this to cure them when sick. +Having furnished so many devices by which the stomach +is often overloaded, it may be expected that +one at least will be given to assist in recovering its +natural tone. Every person knows that pills were +formerly <i>gilded</i> with the view of preventing their +substance from annoying the sense while passing +the gullet. Roman apothecaries supplied squeamish +patients with such; as a box half full with the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>gold leaf remaining has been found at Pompeii. The +spoon <i>Fig. 15</i> is designed for much the like purpose, +viz: to send fluids down the same passage +with as little delay and annoyance as possible. To +patients in a recumbent position, and to such as are +disposed to resist, it is a capital thing. The handle +is hollow and communicates with the bowl. When +the latter is charged (through the lid which is shown +open) the thumb of the nurse or attendant is placed +over the aperture of the handle and the lid closed. +The contents are then prevented, by the exclusion of +air, from escaping. The spoon is next properly +placed in the patient’s mouth, and the thumb removed, +when the liquid necessarily goes to its appointed +place, for air cannot pass to the lungs but +through the handle and bowl. This contrivance is +modern, but covered spoons for administering broths +to sick people, and medicines to children, are old.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Roman <i>bon vivants</i> took a vomit before dinner, as +well as one after, and even now there are persons +who prepare for the principal meal by exciting an +artificial craving with ‘dinner pills.’ There have +been, and perhaps always will be, men who live only +to digest, and many more with two stomachs to eat +and not one to work.</p> + +<p class='c006'>The different states of human life—infancy, adolescence, +manhood, senility and second childhood, +are represented by pap, dessert, table, tea and physic +spoons. The spoon is the first artificial thing an +infant studies, the earliest one he handles and knows. +As intelligence dawns it is recognized, and at its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>sight he flutters like a nestling impatient for aliment. +In time he leaves the nurse’s arms and tries to feed +himself; ambitious to manage his spoon alone, he +scatters half the food upon his bib, and smears his +hands, his face and throat with porridge. Next a +youth, he handles it with ease and plies it with dexterity; +a stranger to artificial appetite, he relishes +the food it bears, and grows in strength and beauty. +A strong man now, his breasts the implement has +filled with milk, and made his bones abound with +marrow. But quickly the noon of life is past; age +and infirmity with rapid strides approach, and take +his relish and his strength away. An octogenary +now, he feeds himself with pain. Next, helpless as +when born, he stares in idiot vacancy and recognizes +nothing—save a spoon. The nurse now feeds him +as at first, and tends this fitful being, till he goes +wailing out of life as he came crying in.</p> + +<p class='c006'>Lest the reader should feel symptoms of a surfeit, +we will now make an end, although many things are +left untouched, especially such as relate to the statistics +of spoons, their diversified materials, processes +of manufacture, their cost, numbers annually worn +out, hosts of artists employed in making them, +talents they have exercised and skill displayed; the +myriads incessantly engaged in using them, the daily +influx into our world of fresh beings that want them, +and a probably increasing demand to the end of +time for them—for though science supersedes many +things, and the progress of the arts renders old machines +useless, neither science nor arts, nor fashion +<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>to boot, can ever banish spoons from the earth, or +make much alteration in them. While men’s mouths +are not placed at the ends of flexible trunks, manufacturers +will find work; and the last spoons will +differ as little from ours as the persons of the present +and the latest spoonmakers. Nay, if people in +Venus and Mars eat like us, as they probably do, a +deputation from each at one of our public dinners +would be at no loss in applying these table utensils.</p> + +<p class='c006'>An extended account of the spoon; of its influence +on food, manners, and imagination; of its virtues, +the pleasures it imparts and sorrows it soothes, +would be a history of all times and people. Looking +at the excitement it produces, how seas are +crossed, lands ploughed, rivers dragged, fish ponds +made, cattle slain, birds ensnared, caldrons cast, +mines exhausted and forests burnt for fuel; mountains +of clay used up for pottery, kitchens built and +cooks employed, &c. to supply materials and prepare +them for it—one might suppose the spoon was +the spring that keeps all things in motion—the +source of genius and parent of the useful arts.</p> + +<p class='c006'>We trust the reader, now he has arrived at the +close, will admit that he is more familiar with the +subject than when he began it. Few persons would +refuse a modest author so slight a reward for his +toil, since he could hardly solicit a less one. But +there are envious critics, we fear, who, without perusing +our work, will condemn it; perhaps declaring +there is nothing novel in its spirit or its plan, and +that the best things in it were written years ago! If +<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>they do, and if, which heaven forefend, they should +prove it too, we shall, with the feelings of injured innocence, +fervently pray that those impertinent plagiarists +may perish who said <i>our</i> good things before us, +and that memory may fail all who remember them!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/image288.jpg' alt='An upside-down teacup sitting on a saucer with a spoon balanced horizontally across its base. The word "FINIS" is written across the side of the cup.' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<p class='c006'><span class='sc'>Respected Guest</span>:—Perceiving by the inverted position +of thy bowl and spoon that thou hast not despised the +plain food set before thee, but hast relished it so well as to +leave none, I, <span class='sc'>Hab’k O. Westman</span>, present myself in <i>propria +persona</i>, as in duty bound, to make my parting bow, +and acknowledge my sense of thy patronage. It is also my +wont, when an agreeable customer is about to leave me, to +request him, if the entertainments have been to his liking, +and the charges no more than they should be, to invite his +friends to take an opportunity of judging of my cookery, +and my conscience in making out bills. Adieu, kind patron! +Heaven send thee pleasant adventures and a speedy +return to “The Globe,” when I hope to have a better dish +awaiting thy reception—one preparing under the auspices +of our society, and the recipe of which was commended by +Dr. Swallow himself—who was, as thou art aware,</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c009'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Of palate exquisite, of labor free,</div> + <div class='line'>A kitchen doctor of the first degree.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c003'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c011'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c002'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79020 ***</div> +</body> +<!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-07-04 15:52:33 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/79020-h/images/cover.jpg b/79020-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b1166c --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing008.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1abb60 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing008.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing024.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing024.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f5b99 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing024.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing088.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing088.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c36388 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing088.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing104.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing104.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12b5672 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing104.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing160.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing160.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8813613 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing160.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing176.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing176.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a30344 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing176.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing232.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing232.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23a9480 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing232.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/facing248.jpg b/79020-h/images/facing248.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..caf0c49 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/facing248.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image126.jpg b/79020-h/images/image126.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4d50c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image126.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image130.jpg b/79020-h/images/image130.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff5e15b --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image130.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image132.jpg b/79020-h/images/image132.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c6198d --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image132.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image133.jpg b/79020-h/images/image133.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..306d692 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image133.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image135.jpg b/79020-h/images/image135.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12117c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image135.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image203.jpg b/79020-h/images/image203.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5415ffc --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image203.jpg diff --git a/79020-h/images/image288.jpg b/79020-h/images/image288.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..762f21c --- /dev/null +++ b/79020-h/images/image288.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41c7944 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +[Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook [#79020](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79020) |
