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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 *** |